fukuoka

Just by the pictures, it appears to be post-war. Of course, swords and tsuba are quite popular even today.

I was asked to help with the set design on one scene of Tomorrowland, a big budget film set to release in 2015. The set was Gustave Eiffel's office, and he had received the Order of the Sacred Treasure. They wanted the actual document on the wall, but I told them I couldn't get that easily! Gave them a different ST doc, so Nick, you might get ruffled when you see that! Just go easy on me... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(film)

The current incarnation is this group: http://www.mrj.or.jp See this page for the current medals. The Special Merit Medal (similar to the one Mickey has shown) is given for donations of 200,000 yen or more. http://www.mrj.or.jp/commendation/index.html Check out some of the other medals on the latter page. Given for hefty donations, etc. I have yet to see these in the secondary market.

Powerful stuff!

. I do not know if the reverse has four extra horizontal lines of text or six vertical. (The top line, of course, is read horizontally.) I cannot understand the extra phrases at all. However, if read horizontally, the lowest line has the same kanji (kou 功 'merit') written twice, which seems unlikely.

Not a replica or a fake. An award badge from the Japan Elderly Association. As you may know, Japanese reward those who survive to an old age. Upon reaching 88, they are given the 8th Class Order of the Rising Sun by the government--just for living (or not dying)!! And the badges from this group were for those in the community who didn't die. (Full disclaimer--I am the present owner of these badges.) So Nick, although the attached China War ribbon was laughable and not original, the badges themselves were not intended to be replicas or fakes. They were actual awards (post-war).

I haven't found any similar design contests for the other medals, though I am sure there had to be discussions of some sort. I wonder if the euphoria of the win over Russia made them think that this medal was extremely important, not like the medals for the smaller Taiwan and Boxer conflicts, and of the larger 1st Sino-Japanese War, which was 'merely' a victory over a weak neighbor. (Hope I didn't offend anyone with that last sentence.)

4th contestant was (spoiler alert) the eventual winner. No need for pics of that. The basic design of the reverse of the 5th contestant was used for the winning medal design. The obverse was the same as the 2nd contestant, but check out the cool hawk/kite suspension! http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-58701800-1391334311.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-48522500-1391334332.jpg

3rd contestant. Obverse appears to show mythical figures, perhaps deities. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-93877400-1391334211.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-90643600-1391334227.jpg

2nd contestant. Military figures included on obverse. Horizontal script on reverse. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-75617300-1391334097.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-69362700-1391334122.jpg

I have a few extra minutes tonight to show you more interesting designs that were never implemented. This time the medal in question is the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War Dispatch Medal. The Decorations Bureau documents show that a few designs were discussed, the date of this document being February 3, 1906. Here were the nominees. 1st contestant. Elaborate mum design on obverse. Reverse similar to the 1894-5 War Medal. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-38245900-1391333769.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-52538300-1391333786.jpg

I am not sure how much value this information has, but I find it quite interesting.

And finally, from the same document, are the first Medals of Honor. These, too, would undergo a drastic revision before their unveiling. In this 1871 version, there are 3 classes. I think there may be a misprint with the sizes, as the 3rd Class is the largest. I think it would have been the opposite order, but I will just tell you what it says. 1st Class: 1 sun; 2nd Class: 1.5 sun; 3rd Class : 2 sun. The award now called houshou (褒章) was then titled houhai (褒牌). The design was the same for all three classes, so I will just post one set so as not to bog down the topic. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-42167800-1391238736.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-88298400-1391238754.jpg

Here is the photo of the planned war dispatch medal. You can see that the reverse will have the date, recipient's name, and the place name of the conflict. The obverse has the date of the conflict. So I suppose they had planned for each war medal to have the same design. Diameter: 0.8 sun http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-87637800-1391238297.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-61530100-1391238319.jpg

6th Class. Cherry blossom suspension. 1.5 sun diameter.

5th Class. Kiri leaves suspension. 1.5 sun diameter. Strange but this is exactly identical with the 3rd Class, even the dimensions. I guess this was a rough draft and a mistake was made in the numbers.

4th Class. Return of the mum. 1.5 sun diameter.

2nd Class. Same design as 1st, but smaller. 1.8 sun diameter. Here is the 3rd Class. Kiri leaves instead of mum. 1.5 sun diameter.

First Class. 2 sun diameterhttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-44921200-1391237624.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2014/post-11730-0-87263800-1391237652.jpg

Before the establishment of the orders and medals, there was some discussion about what the medals would look like, as you would imagine. Here are some line drawings from the official records of the Decorations Bureau, dated Meiji 4 [1871], fours years before the Order of the Rising Sun was established. The following medal probably became the RS. The measurements I include here are sun (寸), one sun being approx. 3.03 cm. The medal was labeled with a general name of 'award medal' (shouhai 賞牌). There are six classes listed. They are labeled about the same as the later medals, with first class being ittou (一等). The later medals had the kun (勲) prefix attached (e.g., 勲一等). Note that the reverse of the medal was to be inscribed with the date and the recipient's name.

Just got a cool photo from a generous collector in China. It shows the award document for the Manchukuo Census medal, a document I don't think I have ever seen before. I just have the one photo, but I think you can see it clearly.

Order of the Sacred Treasure: 瑞宝章 (zuihou-shou)GOLDEN?-TREASURE-AWARD zui is a bit hard to translate, not being in many compounds and rarely (never?) alone. You can see it in 瑞穂の国, a poetic nickname meaning 'Japan.' Or 瑞々しい (mizumizushii) meaning 'fresh' as in fresh veggies (or fresh/youthful skin). Interestingly, for those who enjoy kanji, it was also used in the old country names for Sweden (瑞典) and Switzerland (瑞西). Now these country names are written in the less difficult katakana. Order of the Sacred (Precious)Crown: 宝冠章 (houkan-shou)　TREASURE-CROWN-AWARD In common: the 2nd kanji in the ST is hou meaning 'treasure.' Same kanji is 1st in the SC (PC). We can discuss whether to call it SC if we wish, but the official English translation is indeed the Order of the Precious Crown, as decided upon by the Decorations Bureau of Japan. (http://www8.cao.go.jp/shokun/shurui-juyotaisho-kunsho/hokansho.html) Peterson probably just wanted it to correspond with the ST. I, too, have called it the SC up to now. Time to be PC, so to speak. Rich

Thanks for sharing such fine photos, David. And thanks to you too Nick for posting, etc. Beautiful medals!

Hate to throw cold water on your enthusiasm, but something seems off about this flag. First, the personal name of Tanaka is not followed by 'kun,' which would be rather rude. Second, why is the prefecture name so prominent? Of the hundreds of flags I have seen/handled, this is strange. More importantly, however, the Japanese script, though accurate, does not appear to be of a native writer. A few characters jump out as being unbalanced, most notably 'ken' (prefecture). Immediately following the war, a number of these flags were faked for and by American servicemen. Although interesting in their own way, they are not legitimate war flags. Tanaka Kazuo, by the way, is a common name. I may be wrong, of course. Try posting the pics and description at this forum and see what some experts have to say. http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59 Best, Rich

It is back at a lower price. I guess yet another non-paying bidder on ebay. There are so many of them these days… http://www.ebay.com/itm/WW2-Japanese-Antique-Golden-Kite-War-Badge-Medal-Rare-1st-2nd-class-Military-/231121461346?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35cfe9a062