More Japanese eye candy in paper !

[Paul L Murphy]

Here are some more interesting certificates for your enjoyment. As with so many Japanese groups, it is a broken group (I really wish japanese sellers would realise the value of groups and stop splitting them), however it still contains some nice items. It is to General Endo Sakuzo. I still need to fully research him but he was a divisional commander in the 1920s and retired in the late 20s.

First up is his certificate for the 1914-20 War Medal. On this he is a full Colonel and already the holder of a 3rd class order (Sacred Treasure or Rising Sun) and a 5th Class Golden Kite. The Golden Kite must have been for the Russo Japanese War since that is about the time when he would have been a junior officer.

[Paul L Murphy]

Next up we have his certificate for the Japanese version of the Victory Medal. His ranks and honours are the same as the previous medal.

[Paul L Murphy]

And finally we have the real reason I bought this broken group. This is a certificate for the Sacred Treasure 2nd class. It is issued in 1924 and what is interesting is that it is hand signed by both the Taisho Emperor (the right hand signature) and the Showa Emperor (left hand signature). By this stage I believe Hirohito was acting as regent for his father who was increasingly ill, hence the two signatures. This is an incredibly rare certificate. On it he is a member of the 5th rank of nobility, which was equivalent to a Major General. He eventually retired as a Lt General.

Edited May 5, 2009 by Paul L Murphy

[Paul L Murphy]

A close up of the signatures.

The only emperor signature I do not have in my collection is the present emperor, Akihito. He still signs the 1st and 2nd class certificates.

Edited May 5, 2009 by Paul L Murphy

[Paul L Murphy]

And a close up of the representation of the Sacred Treasure 2nd Class from the bottom of the certificate. I do have five other documents from Endo, not medal certificates, but they would only be of interest if you could read them since it is the content that is useful in tracing his career.

Enjoy, certificates like this are seldom encountered and as you can imagine are rather expensive when they do come up for sale.

[Ed_Haynes]

Oh!

[Ulsterman]

WOW!!!!!!

Two Emperor's signatures! That is a WONDERFUL piece.

[Dieter3]

Oh!

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:

Edited May 6, 2009 by Dieter3

[Dieter3]

How about these? The Sacred Treasure went for ¥119,000 (about $1300 U.S.) and the Rising sun went for ¥359,000 (about $3900.00) YIKES! - so somebody help me with the significance of either the recipient or the relationship of these items to the text in the auctions which was:

★勲六等瑞宝章勲記飛行第64戦隊隼戦闘隊★軍神★

商品詳細

古いものです

ヨゴレヤケ折れシワシミ有

本物保証

Other状態、内容は写真でご判断ください

飛行第64戦隊隼戦闘隊関連のお品です

こちらで詳細これ以上解りません

解る方よろしくお願いします

Something to do with the 64th Fighter Squadron (?) -

Edited December 23, 2009 by Dieter3

[Dieter3]

This 110K upload limit is killing me....

Apologies to Paul - not trying to hijack your original thread - please feel free to relocate these posts as you see fit!

Edited December 23, 2009 by Dieter3

[RichC]

These were awarded to someone famous: Katou Tateo. Read about him here: http://en.wikipedia....Tateo_Kat%C5%8D

The Emperor-signed document and Katou's documents in one thread! Wow!

Note that the first award was in Showa 13 [1938] but the latter (Rising Sun award) is dated May 22, 1942, which is the day of Katou's death. Awarded posthumously.

Edited December 23, 2009 by RichC

[Dieter3]

Thanks Rich! That explains the prices! It's not often you see docs. going for that kind of coin, so they stand out for sure.

[grimnar]

Paul,

Very beautiful documents. I would be very proud to have them in my war room. Well done.

On a side note, would it be very hard to get the current emperor's signature?

[Paul L Murphy]

Paul,

Very beautiful documents. I would be very proud to have them in my war room. Well done.

On a side note, would it be very hard to get the current emperor's signature?

The current emperor's signature is the only one I am still missing. He still signs 1st and 2nd class certificates so it is a matter of waiting until one comes on the market. Most likely early 1990s certificates to foreign recipients will start to come on the market soon (deceased former ambassadors to Japan etc) so I am waiting patiently.

[Kryptos]

:speechless1:.Simply beautiful. Seeing items from a collection like yours is always a feast for the eye!

[Eric K.]

Great documents!! Am I totally wrong or do these come in a wooden "tube" or scroll?

Eric

[Paul L Murphy]

Great documents!! Am I totally wrong or do these come in a wooden "tube" or scroll?

Eric

Older documents are normally found in a wooden box or tube. More recent documents come in a cardboard tube. However I have not yet worked out the time period when it switched over, and it may have depended on the class of award as well.

[Dieter3]

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say Meiji and Taisho order documents were "boxed" and Showa documents were "tubed". I have some low orders Meiji and Taisho in wooden cases, and by observation of sales, this seems to be the case (no pun intended). I also have some early docs. in tubes, and that in my opinion is just wrong - a seller simply putting a doc. in a tube to attempt a higher price. A few Showa documents I have are indeed tubed, but I have no examples of late Taisho or early Showa to pinpoint a date. But again, observations of sales indicate Showa docs. are tubed, I've not seen any in cases, BUT I certainly wouldn't say they don't exist, perhaps for the higher class awards???

[Paul L Murphy]

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say Meiji and Taisho order documents were "boxed" and Showa documents were "tubed". I have some low orders Meiji and Taisho in wooden cases, and by observation of sales, this seems to be the case (no pun intended). I also have some early docs. in tubes, and that in my opinion is just wrong - a seller simply putting a doc. in a tube to attempt a higher price. A few Showa documents I have are indeed tubed, but I have no examples of late Taisho or early Showa to pinpoint a date. But again, observations of sales indicate Showa docs. are tubed, I've not seen any in cases, BUT I certainly wouldn't say they don't exist, perhaps for the higher class awards???

I have a Showa era Sacred Treasure 2nd class and Golden Kite 3rd class documents to a general, both of which are in cases. Hence my earlier comments about perhaps it depends on the class of award. It is also possible that some of the cases are actually private purchased rather than what came with the document. I do not know at this stage.

[Dieter3]

It certainly would make sense for higher class awards to come in nicer cases, I can see that. Unfortunately, so few (relatively speaking) cased documents come up, let alone higher class documents, it is really hard to say. Are those Showa documents earlier or later ones?

[Paul L Murphy]

It certainly would make sense for higher class awards to come in nicer cases, I can see that. Unfortunately, so few (relatively speaking) cased documents come up, let alone higher class documents, it is really hard to say. Are those Showa documents earlier or later ones?

Showa Year 9 awards in both cases. He retired about the time of the Manchurian Incident and I suspect the GK3 was for that and the ST2 was his retirement kick upstairs in the seniority of long service award.