Grandpa
Nambu Gallery
I
have never seen a Grandpa Nambu except in books, and
probably this is true of most Japanese pistol collectors. In fact, I don’t know
if there is even one in all of
This
pistol is of enormous historical value as it shows the earliest development of
the Nambu pistol, dating back to 1902. This photo
shows some characteristics which are standard distinguishing features between
Grandpas and Papas, and some that are unique to this pistol. Although there are
several minor differences in appearance between Papas and Grandpas, the easiest
for the non-specialist to note are that the Grandpa has a fixed (not swiveling)
lanyard loop, an extremely small trigger guard, grips that do not cover the
grip safety pin (bottom left of trigger guard in photo), a non-metallic
magazine base and a stock slot in the back of the grip (most Papas either had
no such slots or had them filled by order of the Navy). A unique feature of
this particular pistol is that the magazine base is made out of horn rather
than wood, as was standard on almost all Grandpas except some late production
models. Papa magazine bases are made of aluminum. If you look carefully you
will also see that the trigger spring on this gun is a coil spring rather than
a leaf spring as on most Grandpas. The Grandpa was the first gun to use the 8mm
Nambu cartridge that became the standard service
pistol round in Imperial Japan.
(Photo courtesy of the
Shin Nimura collection)
There
were two types of Grandpa wooden holster/stocks, “small” and “large”. This is
the small type and is carved out of beautiful maple wood. A rare leather
holster was also made for those who did not want to use the wooden
shoulder-stock/holster.
(Photo courtesy of the
Shin Nimura collection)
Here is the stock attached to the pistol,
showing the ingenious telescoping metal extension, which allowed the stock to
be of more compact dimensions.
(Photo courtesy of the
Shin Nimura collection)
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