JapanX

Hi Pieter! Nice to hear from you again! It will be really nice to see the pictures of this beauty... If it is possible of course... Me neither... What class is it? Let me guess .... 4th or 3rd? Regards, Nick

That’s all for today folks! Cheers, Nick

What for? “Let make exotic, nice looking jewelry pieces out this phaleristic nonsense”. I think the probability of this scenario is about 90% or even more.

Who did it? These pieces were victimized after the WW II. Who were the vandals? I vote for jewelry business. Primary US and probably Japanese small private jewelry workshops. The reasons are quite obvious.

What is this? Obviously they are original orders. Some genius just decided to “redo them a little bit”. “Redo it” generally includes “get rid of ribbon and ribbon hoop + solder the pin” Only in case of rising suns we see signs of additional “work” – destroyed enamel and polished reverses of the paulownia leafs (this is done for pin soldering of course). This is quite usual “modernization” for rising suns in higher classes (I once saw rising sun 6th class from Meiji – same work – only no chain – just the badge).

Close-up of reverse.

Reverse

Obverse

Now this still beautiful 3rd class badge from Meiji epoch marked N.

Close-up of the pin fastener

Close-up of the pin mark

Reverse

Obverse of the 4th class badge

Now let’s take a look at these examples of mutilated sacred treasures.

Reverse

Blowups of the badge obverse

Paulownia leaf reverse

Paulownia leaf obverse

Reverse

Obverse

Now let’s take a look at this interesting chained couple of 4th class rising suns.

Reverse

Obverse

First – this mutilated golden kite 5th class (type 7).

From time to time you could see sacred treasure, rising sun and golden kite orders without ribbons and with strange looking pins on their reverses. What is this? Who did it? What for? We will begin our discussion with a little display of such converted specimens.