Other Cloth Bags

            This one is labelled a kun-ren-bukuro (training bag). The large character in the star is sei-nen, short for “youth”. Down at the bottom is a box for the name of the boy and the training centre (see close-up below).

 

            Here is the back. Instead of listing the contents, as on the bags above, this is a list of rules. The rules are translated below with a close-up picture.

 

This close-up shows the name of the youth and his training centre. The two rows each start at the left. The top one says: kun-ren-sho-mei (name of training centre), then Yama-guchi-shi-dai-seki-sei-nen-kun-ren-sho (Yamaguchi City Daiseki Youth Training Centre). The bottom row says shi-mei (name), then Yama-moto Ko-suke. The family name Yamamoto is easy, but the given name Kosuke is just an educated guess based on the separate readings of the two characters. The ko part means filial piety, a core value of Confucianism.

 

Here’s the translation of the rules I promised you. The column at the far right says: Yama-guchi-ken-sei-tei, “enacted by Yamaguchi prefecture”. The second column from the right says: bo-cho-sei-nen-ki-go-soku. Based on the context, it seems like the term bocho, meaning literally “defense leader”, was applied to the recipients of this type of bag. Perhaps these were youths who had been selected for leadership. However, Bocho is also a place name in the yamaguchi prefecture area. Anyway, the whole thing means “five rules for youth defense leaders”  or “five rules for Bocho youth” [continued below photo].

The rules themselves are:

  1. Being loyal and serving the nation without regard for body or life and maintaining a strict spirit of service, we will be consistently devoted to the prosperity of the empire.
  2. Strict observation of the constitution and respect for authority being the duty of a defense leader, we will establish the ideal of “one million hearts as one” in our hometowns.
  3. Polishing my intellect and conducting myself to create a pattern of daily progress according to the tradition of the ancient sage [Confucius?], I make strenuous efforts to develop a culture of self-disciplined study.
  4. [to come]

 

  1. [to come]

 

 

            This next bag is a bit of a mystery. It is completely devoid of external markings and is like new. I wonder whether it might have been left plain so the user could apply his/her own markings?

 

            Although neither the front nor the back has any markings, these three stamps are inside the bag near the top. The top one has the date Showa 18 (1943) on the left. I can make out a few of the other characters but not enough of them to make sense of the meaning.

 

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Last updated: October 16, 2004. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.