Dieter3

Oh no! I just discovered BUGS among my medal collection!! I have always worried about this as I have acquired a few pieces that have "worm holes" in the cases. I always put a new acquisition in a zip-loc plastic baggie with a bug killer, small thingie that time releases chemical deterrent, these are the kind used in clothes drawers. The claim is that they are safe for clothing including silks, metals, plastics, etc. - SO hopefully this practice is acceptable. After treatment, the piece is added to the main collection - also kept in much larger zip-loc, but open so they can breathe a bit, then packed into a fireproof safe. Found two little bugs yesterday in one of the larger bags and sure enough - they managed to bore a small hole in each of two paste-board boxes, and a couple of holes in a wood case lid. Obviously I didn't treat one of the pieces, or these things don't actually kill bugs and can resist the chemicals for a few days. I examined all of the medals - nobody munched on ribbons, thankfully. I've placed all items into sealed bags again, with the bug deterrents. Am I doing the right thing?? What do you guys do, how might you address this problem?? :(

Got it. I know the Enthronement documents are watermarked, that's about all else from which I have to go! I've got a long path of document collecting ahead of me....

Yeah, I'm pretty clueless on these items. Hopefully somebody else can chime in on this. That article we've both seen is a bit tough to read - have you tried contacting the owner of that website??

Examining a Russo-Japanese War medal document today, noticed it actually has no watermarks, though a Golden Kite document I have from this war does have two watermarks. I have no other war medal documents for comparison. Can anybody break it down for me as to which documents can be expected to have watermarks and which do not? Thanks.

Cool! My only area of interest is actually Japanese medals and orders, I don't think I have time, space, or money to collect a wider variety of items like the one you have - but I definitely like seeing what other people have and enjoy collecting. I did find this on another website: http://cb1198f.web.infoseek.co.jp/bg.htm Scroll down towards the bottom and you'll see your item pictured and discussed there. The black and white picture seems to depict the two classes. The text below the color picture seems to depict a "copy" - whatever a copy might be - no clue as to the background or details of such copies or why they were made. The bottom picture of text is from the Asahi newspaper and does discuss the award but is beyond my capacity to otherwise read or explain. Looks like the award was created in Showa 19. Interested to see what others come up with or if somebody can translate the newspaper item.

Very cool find! That capture paper really makes it an extra cool one! You should post this to gunboards.com in the Japanese section.

Am I correct in assuming that award documents were also issued to women along with the award? These must be exceedingly rare, yes?

Can't wait. This will be fantastic!! I know color is expensive, but I'd sure be happy to put out more for a color edition if it is a consideration!

Excellent! Looking forward to that too. Can you give us a "preview" of what we might be able to expect? One thing I would LOVE to see is illustrations/pictures of medal cases, rosettes/lapel pins, documents, the WORKS!!! OMJAS is a great book but it does seem to be lacking of certain information that leaves newbies like me somewhat scratching our heads (hence, my appearance here with my ignorance and beginner quetions...... )

I only have two examples as such, both 7th class, one Meiji era and the other Showa era. I find the differences interesting. Note the absence of the date immediately to the left of the emperor's mark in the Meiji document, the use of round hanko below the approving authorities on the left side as opposed to square ones in the Showa document. Neither of these things may be significant of anything. Perhaps more interesting is the use of the word DAI-NIPPON (大日本 ) in the second line of text (from the right side) in the Showa document as compared to the use of just NIPPON ( 日本 ) in the Meiji document. I am ignorant as to the reason for the difference, though there surely is a reason. Any enlightenment appreciated! MEIJI SHOWA I would certainly love to see other examples of and comparisons to other 7th class awards from the various conflicts, and of course, awards for higher classes of this Order! Any indulgence appreciated! :)

Here is a Meiji period document. One difference I notice is that the date is absent immediately to the left of the emperor's mark. I'll leave any further commentary to the resident experts!

Excellent! Thank you for posting those! :cheers:

You DOG you!! That is wonderful! I sure wish I could claim one for my own, especially in a case. Nice one!! :jumping:

Hmm. An unusual and interesting "goof"! If I had a lots of extra spare cash ( ), I'd buy it just for the oddity of it!

So, this appears to be a 7th class award with a rosette - but that's the pattern for 8th class awards, is it not? Were these originally a 3-ray rosette, then changed to 4 later on???

You called that one. Sure enough, another has shown up, same seller! Maybe it's just me, but a lot of items that I would at least consider less common seem to pop up in "sales clusters"..... maybe it's just the way the cards fall, or some sort of sales strategy. Oh well, doesn't matter for me, I'm many moons away from having the funds it will take to acquire one! Patience, patience.....

AHHH! That explains it! - Are they being made through the national mint? I'm wondering, how does someone acquire so many? (referring to a seller that has lots of them.....) - I'd think one would need to demonstrate somehow that they were an award recipient to get one, maybe not?

Tim, PM Sent!!! But it doesn't appear in my "SENT" folder, let me know if you did not receive it......

I should probably just wait until I go home and have literature in front of me, but what the heck, I'll just put this post up anyway. With regards to women's awards, I've not seen them in person, but I've seen both Enthronement medals, the 2600th Anniversary medal, and a Sacred Treasure in the woman's version but would like to get a better idea of what other awards are found in a woman's version. I'm guessing other commemorative medals, though not all, exist in bow form? (not including Red Cross awards here.....) How about merit medals? Would love to see pictures of whatever you have if not too inconvenient!!! :)

Thanks for all those pics. and the info!! This is all very helpful for the likes of me. So if I can summarize correctly, it looks like Meiji (possibly early Taisho?) 8th and 7th class rosettes are of the lapel pin/bow style, then 6th class on up was the round button type. Then a change was made in Showa era (perhaps late Taisho as well, some crossover?) and everything changed to round/button style. The styling differences certainly are interesting. On the higher levels, how many folds/ruffles are appropriate for each one? Looks like the fourth class has 8 or 10 depending on how it is observed? Rather than start a new topic here, I'll just add since we are on the subject of rosettes: there seem to be an significant number of them (mostly higher classes, Rising Sun and Sacred Treasure) on Y!JA - but they seem to be listed as "new" - so is there somebody/company out there making knock-offs, and if so, how does one distinguish between those and authentic ones, has anybody seen these first hand?? :(

Tim, those are great! Very nice collection! I guess I'm too new to this, I haven't actually seen a 5th class for sale on eBay yet. Another question: two posts up, you have a pair of 5th classes, one on the right has a rosette - are the rosettes for 5th and 6th class the same? The 6th that I posted from the eBay auction has the same number of bars (3 bars/6 rays) - though I see the ones in the photo are quite a bit thinner - a sign of earlier production??

I sure would have been happy to have won this, but I didn't even try to bid as I just don't have the money right now : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=220407808428 It looks like a really nice piece, about twice the price+ of what 7th classes seem to be going for recently. Is this a typical price for a 6th class (around $400.00 U.S.)? I'm wondering what is more valuable, the order, or the award document for it? :unsure:

What he said! You really managed some wonderful items when you were there! I sure wish that when I was living in Japan I had been interested in Japanese militaria. :blush:

Those documents are very nice!! Paul, as he was awarded the Rising Sun 8th in 1896, could he have also received a medal for the 1st Sino-Japanese war?

Definitely! It sure is an added "bonus" (for lack of a better word) to really know the history behind a piece. This is fabulous!!