So How do you read a japanese award doc?

[Laurence Strong]

The question was asked of me and I dont know the answer;

Hi all,

I have a question that perhaps some one can answer. Do these Russo-Japanese documents mention the unit of the man who won the award ?

cheers

Bob

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=11152&hl=

I have merged 2 docs that I know were issued in the Meiji era. The Rising Sun 8th class was awarded to a 1st class Naval Mechanic, and the Sacred Treasure is for an Officer who was or became a Vice Admiral.

I also know the red sqiuare is the Emporer's signature, but that is all.

So what does it all mean, I have outlined in yellow all that is the same.

Thanks for your help and time

[Guest Rick Research]

All I can read are the numbers in dates. Not being sure if the characters used FOR numbers are NOT numbers in other compound words, no way to guess about that.

[attachmentid=55155]

In white: 3-10s-8 (38) Year, 10-1 (11) Month, 10-3 (13) Day.

In black: 2-10-5 (25) something 6-10-5 (65)-- Imissed including the character "Year" which is immediately below my highlight.

In red: 3-10-9 (39) Year, 4 Month, 1 Day

In blue: 2-10-5 (25) something 6-10-6 (66) Year

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Rick

Thanks for that, now all I need is a Japanese script book.

[Paul L Murphy]

I will do some more detailed threads on documents since they are one of my favourite aspects of collecting Japanese medals but for now I will give some of the basics about these specific certificates.

Let's take the left side of the certificate first since it is more boring and easier to explain. The three lines of text that end in dark black characters (on these two certs these are the first, second and fifth line of text starting from left to right) are the titles, names and signatures of the head of the Bureau of Medals and Awards and the secretaries of the same bureau. Obviously depending on the time period the individuals and their honorary titles change but these lines do not provide us with much useful information.

The other two lines of text on the left side of the certificate (the third and fourth line of text from the left) read "recorded in the order roll as award number xxxxxx". Basically this gives the number of the entry. There is a separate roll for each order, but not for the different classes within the order. They started at 1 and worked their way forward as one would expect. Apart from people like me who are interested in relative scarcity of different award periods this is not particularly useful.

I told you the left hand side of the certificates were boring !

Now we move the the right hand side. The big red box in the middle is the National Seal and appears on all certificates.

The text on the right hand side changes depending on the era of the award, there are about four main variations in the wording. It is basically to the effect that the emperor awards xxxxxx with the Meiji order of merit xxx class at xxx on this day of xxxx. There are lots of nice titles used for the emperor and I will go into them in more detail in other threads.

The key information for collectors is the recipient, who is mentioned in the second line of text from the right. On Meiji and Taisho period certificates the name include any military rank and honorific titles. On Showa period military ranks are missing.

The sixth line of text from the right shows the date of the award under the Imperial system starting with the reign of Jimmu (these are the numbers in the blue box). Basically 1940 was the 2,600th year of imperial reign.

The seventh line of text from the right (numbers here in yellow box) give the year in the present emperors reign. On these certs it is Meiji. There is a pinned thread from Ed showing the years of the different emperors. I will post the Japanese names into this thread later.

That is basically how a certificate is constructed. Now you all need to know what they actually say in detail ! I will start on that once I get home this evening. Hopefully by the time I am finished you will be as addicted to these as I am.

Regards,

Paul

Edited October 2, 2006 by Paul L Murphy

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Paul

Thanks and am looking forward to the rest.