rouellette916

Hello all, Recently, I recalled seeing a photograph from the Second World War of a number of black powder firearms collected for use in the expected defense of the home islands of Japan. However, I cannot for the life of me recall where I saw this picture. If anyone has any leads, it would be much appreciated. Description bellow. As I remember it, the photograph was either of a raised porch under and overhanging roof outside, or a raised section of room indoors. There was a rack of teppo (and possibly other miscellaneous weapons) on the right, and a few men standing around. They were definitely antiques and NOT the crude rifles and other last-ditch firearms being produced at that point. I saw this years and years ago, before AI image generation, so it was definitely not a fake photo. I cannot recall if it was taken before the end of the war or afterwards.

Good point! Thanks for your input!

It is not magnetic so probably copper or bronze. He indicated it was probably for ceremonial use.

It's about 25cm across, not accounting for the bend in it.

An update for anyone who may be interested! I took this item to a local antique dealer I was purchasing something else from, and he identified what it is! It is indeed a piece of forehead wear, but not for a man, but a horse! He said it was probably Bakumatsu or Meiji period in origin, and that such thing would usually be seen in ceremonial settings. I should have guessed as such at first, as it is drastically oversized for a human forehead.

Hello all, just a quick question. I have been planning to purchase an antique firearm from a local antique dealer here in Japan, and I have been reading up on the laws regarding it. However, since my Japanese is limited and I don't want to rely entirely on translation apps, I just wanted to double check what I need to do. (For added context, I am in Niigata-ken) Basically, if the antique, non-functional firearm I intend to purchase already has a registration certificate, do I only need to submit a notification of change of ownership, or are there any other permits or forms I need to submit? I am not exporting it as I will be living here for the near future. Thanks for your help!

Interesting! I figured that might be the case. Do you have any idea what it might have been produced for? Plays or festivals or something as a costume? Or just a plain-old knock-off? If you have any images of similar examples I'd love to see. Could be fun to give it a proper headband again.

Hello all, First post here, looking for some help identifying this piece of armor (?) I recently purchased at a thrift/junk shop in the Japanese countryside. My initial thought was that it was a hitai-ate/hachigane, and the shopkeeper seemed to think it was the same (admittedly I am still learning Japanese so communication was limited, but he got the idea across that it was for the forehead and was attached to a headband). However, looking at images of other forehead protectors, I've only been able to find one similar looking one through a reverse image search. I'm by no means an expert though, so that's why I came here! So, my question is, what is it? Is it actually a piece of armor, or is it something else? It only cost me 2000 yen so if it's not the real deal it's not a huge loss haha. Any help is appreciated!