Nambu World: Other Japanese Weapons

    This section of the site has pictures and information regarding Japanese weapons other than handguns: Arisaka rifles, bayonets, machine guns, swords, ordnance, knee mortars, ammunition, etc.; if it isn't here, there is probably a link to it. Nambu World is gradually becoming a virtual museum of pre-1945 Japanese military artifacts of all kinds.

Japanese Rifles

I have divided these into the very early Murata rifles used mostly in the 1800s and the later Arisakas that are more familiar to WWII buffs.

The top rifle is an 11mm Type 13 Murata single shot, the middle one is an 11mm Type 18 Murata single shot and the bottom one is an 8mm Type 22 repeater. To see more photos of these Murata rifles, please click here: Nambu World: Murata Rifles

The Arisaka rifles are what people usually think of when they hear "Japanese rifles", as these are the ones that were most common in WWII. I now have far more of these than are shown in this section, but it will probably take me until 2018 or so to get them all posted, meanwhile, here is a reasonable selection.

Lt. General Kijiro Nambu, now best known for his work on Japanese handguns, was also very influential in the design of other weapons. Here is a small section on Japanese rifles. Nambu World: Arisaka and Other Japanese Rifles

Japanese Murata Rifle Bayonets

    The Murata rifles were Japan's first domestically produced modern military firearms. The bayonets for them are all rare, but I have a full set of the standard variations for the Type 13 (top), Type 18 (second from top) and Type 22 (bottom two)..

    To see more detailed photos of these bayonets, please click here: Nambu World: Murata Rifle Bayonets

Japanese Arisaka Rifle Bayonets

The most common bayonet by far was the Type 30. There are tons of variations of this bayonet, so you could do a very interesting collection just of this one type. The three pictured above are an early Tokyo Arsenal one with hooked crossguard; a mid-production one made by Matsushita with straight crossguard; and a late production specimen with fullerless blade made by Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. I have around 40 bayonets, but it will take me quite a while to get caught up posting them.

To see the bayonets I have got posted so far, please click here: Nambu World: Japanese Arisaka Bayonets

Japanese Cartridges:

Handgun ammo is covered on the main site under Ammunition and Reloading, but of course the Japanese used lots of other interesting ammo. The Murata rifle rounds are covered in the sections on these rifles. If you are interested in Japanese ammo, a new two-volume book on the topic just came out in 2008-2009. It is state of the art and essential for anyone collecting in this field. It is illustrated below and if you want to get a copy, here is the author's e-mail. (note that to prevent spam, this is not a link; you'll have to copy it down and then enter it in your e-mail program)

Click here to see a variety of Arisaka cartridges and other similar Japanese rounds (this section will be greatly expanded to reflect new acquisitions): Nambu World: Japanese Cartridges

Japanese Machine Guns

Nambu's influence extended to automatic weapons, too. I have added a small section on basic identification of Japanese machine guns. To read more about them, please click here: Nambu World: Japanese Machine Guns

Japanese Military Swords:

Swords are probably Japan's most well-known type of militaria. I have one well-worn NCO sword in my collection.

To see more photos of my sword and some other material on swords, please click here: Nambu World: Japanese Military Swords

Type 89 Knee Mortar

This is a handy little item that was much feared by the Allied soldiers who faced it. Mine was made by the same company that made many Japanese handguns. To learn more about it, as well as the round that went with it, please click here: Nambu World: Type 89 Knee Mortar (Grenade Launcher)

Japanese Ordnance:

Like bombs, fuses, grenades and other things that go boom in the night? (or day). I have a few deactivated items of Japanese ordnance (fuzes, etc.), but I am far behind in getting the catalogued here. Here is the website of someone who has a lot of this stuff. Japanese WWII Ordnance & Markings - Inert-Ord.Net

    Another very specialized website deals with grenade launching rifles and grenade launching devices for rifles (not knee mortars) and the grenades and stuff to go with them. The webmaster is also publishing a book on this topic. To check it out, please click here: Imperial Japanese Grenade Launchers (currently under construction)

 The books pictured above, Japanese Explosive Ordnance Volumes 1&2 (US Dept of the Army 1953), are good references on Ordnance and Ammunition including some pretty heavy-duty stuff. They are both available from: Ordnance Military Manual Photocopies. If ordered from this source they come as a stack of photocopies. I ordered Vol. 1 this way and had it spiral bound when I got it. The neatly bound reprint of Volume 2 that I ordered came from IDSA Books, but it seems to be unavailable from them now. Volume 2 of the new book by Ken Elks also covers the larger ammunition (over 20mm).

Last updated: November 4, 2009. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.

Click here to go back to the main page on handguns: Nambu World: Teri's WWII Japanese Handgun Website

Click here to go to the Nambu World page on Other Japanese Militaria: Nambu World: Other Japanese Militaria