Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[gwsiii]

An interesting man once said "there's a sucker born every minute," I tend to agree, and I feel that I must have taken several minutes to be born. Here is a box of very light construction I picked up this weekend. Interestingly enough it is marked on the inside of the lid, and, on the front of the box. There are no provisions (never appear to have been any) for attaching the lid to the box. There were two braces on the underside of the lid that appears to have held the lid on to the box just with friction. Only one brace is left. At first I thought maybe a document box, but if it was full of paper I think it would be too heavy. I assume it's war era, and see similarities in the kanji on the lid and side. Is it military and can anyone translate it? Thanks, Trey

Top:


Side:

note: additional kanji at lower left, and a little different at upper right.
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[gwsiii]

Translation provided by Takehito Jimbo:

...Sure thing. These are wooden box styles that are used to store ceramic wares
and other utensils and usually have lids that slide in on the top of the box
as Trey describes (this particular example seems to have one of the slide
lips broken on the lid) . This particular box was used to store small
plates, and the translation as follows.

Right column : 30 nin-mae (for 30 people)
Left column : Nishikihada Moyo zara (Nishikihada design plates)

There is nothing special about these boxes in terms of collectability and
value, unless it originally stored some incredibly valuable artist, and
these will normally have the artists signature (and perhaps a inkan stamp)
on the box itself too...

Thanks much!
_________________
Subscribe to BANZAI!
Fill out a Japanese Rifle Datasheet.
I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!