Nambu World: Order of the Sacred Treasure

            This medal came in eight classes, with the different classes awarded to different ranks. The one shown here is 8th class, the lowest. Seventh and eighth classes were the only ones available to enlisted men. The Japanese name of this order is zuihosho.  I believe the “Treasure” in the name is a reference to the three sacred treasures that Japanese myth says the sun goddess Amaterasu gave to the first emperor of Japan. These treasures were a sword, mirror and beads. They are now said to be held at three separate sacred Shinto shrines in Japan, though no one has been allowed to see them for centuries. This medal is covered on pages 34-37 of OMJAS, which indicates that it tended to be awarded for long service and is the lowest of the orders. Since 1919 even women have been allowed to get it.

 

            Here is the inscription on the back. It reads from top to bottom, right to left (i.e. upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left). It says kun-ko ki-sho, which means “meritorious deed ribboned medal”. The characters are very old fashioned and hard to read, as they bear little resemblance to the modern way of writing them. Kun means merit, and sho means medal, so the general term for a merit medal is kun-sho.

 

            This is the front of the case. The inscription, again in very old-fashioned style characters, reads kun-hat-to-zui-ho-sho. Literally this means “merit-eight-class-congratulations-treasure-medal”, or more colloquially, Eighth Class Order of the Sacred Treasure.

 

The top hinge on the case has come loose.

 

It looks like there should be a little clasp or plate that goes around the peg to hold it shut.

           

            This certificate measures 590mm X 448mm (23-1/4” X 17-5/8”). It is made of a fairly heavy weight paper. It has the standard two watermarks, a chrysanthemum in the upper right corner and a cherry blossom in the lower left corner (shown below). There is nothing printed or stamped on the back. The little dots (three along each side, top, bottom and middle) require a brief explanation. This certificate is strongly curled and would not lay flat. I therefore used my special equipment for such situations: a flat steel strip under each side and three ¼” rare-earth magnets to hold the edges down and prevent them from curling. I painted the magnets using Humbrol #148 flat tan enamel to make them less conspicuous (they come with shiny nickel plating).

 

            The most important information is on the right side, which records the recipient’s name and the date of the award. The writing is in vertical (top down) columns, starting at the right and working across towards the left. Here is the text in Japanese, followed by a translation:

First column on right: ten-yu-o-ho-yu-shi-ban-sei-ik-kei-no-tei-so-o-fu-meru

Second column from right: dai-nippon-tei-koku-ten-no-wa-o-i-gen-za-buro-o-mei-ji

Third column from right: kun-sho-no-kun-hak-kyu-ni-jo-shi-zui-ho-sho-o-jo-yo-su

Fourth column from right: sunawa-chi-kono-i-ni-zoku-suru-rei-gu-oyo-bi-tok-ken-o-yu

Fifth column from right: seshimu

Sixth column from right: jim-mu-ten-no-soku-i-ki-gen-ni-sen-go-hyaku-kyu-ju-ni-nen

Seventh column from the right: sho-wa-nana-nen-shichi-gatsu-ni-ju-kokono-ka-to-kyo-tei-kyu-ni-oi-te

Last column on left: ji-o-?-seshimu [I could not identify the third symbol from the top, though the meaning is clear both from the context and the OMJAS translation].

            I was somewhat lucky because OMJAS translates a certificate for another medal with similar (but not exactly the same) wording on pages 20-21. However, I have not followed their translation very closely. Here is my translation of this certificate:

“The Emperor of Greater Japan, having come to the Imperial throne in an unbroken Imperial line with divine guidance, confers the Meiji Order of Merit, Eighth Class, and awards the Order of the Sacred Treasure to Genzaburo Oi [surname Oi] along with the honours and privileges appurtenant thereto. The Imperial Seal has been affixed in the Imperial Palace on this 9th day of July, Showa 7 [1932], the 2592th year since the ascension to the throne of Emperor Jimmu”. Jimmu was the mythical first Emperor of Japan, whose reign is said to have begun in 660 BC. One of the Japanese systems of reckoning dates that was in use in the 1930s takes this date as the starting point, so 2592 is equivalent to 1932 AD (2597-660=1932). The nationalistic government of the time tried to phase out use of the Western AD (nowadays sometimes called CE) system in favour of this indigenous Japanese system, but today nobody uses it.

 

            The left side has the formalities from the Board of Decorations. Surnames are underlined in the following translations. The big round red seal at the top says dai-nip-pon-tei-koku-sho-kun-kyoku-in, “Seal of the Board of Decorations of the Empire of Greater Japan”. The first column on the right has the date, July 9, Showa 7 (1932). The second column says sho-kun-kyoku-so-sai-sho-yon-i-kun-ni-to-shimo-jo-yasu-maro: “President of the Board of Decorations Yasumaro Shimojo, Fourth Rank, and holder of the Second Order of Merit. The third and fourth columns say kono-sho-o-dai-nana-ju-roku-man-nana-hyaku-roku-ju-yon-go-o-motte-kun-to-bo-satsu-ni-ki-nyu-su: “We have entered number 760764 in the Register of Grades of Merit” (this is the number of the certificate). The last column on the far left says sho-kun-kyoku-sho-ki-kan-ju-go-i-kun-roku-to-i-de-hitoshi: “Secretary of the Board of Decorations Hitoshi Ide, Junior Fifth Rank, Holder of the Sixth Order of Merit”. The square-ish red seals at the bottom repeat the titles (President and Secretary) of the individuals whose names are affixed. Such seals are often used instead of signatures in Japan even today, though usually nowadays they have the person’s name.

 

            This close-up of the artwork at the top-middle of the certificate has the Imperial Chrysanthemum in the centre and paulownia leaves in the border on either side. This kind of scrolly, flowery border is Western-influenced.

 

            The big red seal in the centre reads from upper right down, then upper left down. First (right) column: dai-nip-pon. Second (left) column: koku-ji. Together it means “Imperial Seal of Greater Japan”. The kanji in the lower left, ji=Emperor’s seal, gave me some trouble, as it is rather rare and written in an ancient fancy script style. I finally realized that it was the same as a printed character on the right side of the certificate and was able to find it on page 55 of Nelson’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary, Second Revised Edition, where it is kanji #71.

 

            Here is a close-up of the artwork in the bottom-centre of the certificate. Note the colour of the ribbon, which is not the same as the colour of the actual ribbon on this medal.

 

            In this close-up of the lower left corner you can see that the border is made up of alternating Imperial Chrysanthemums and paulownia leaves, another symbol of the Imperial family.

 

            This is the watermark in the upper right corner. It is the Imperial Chrysanthemum. The photo appears very orange because I had to put an incandescent lamp directly behind the certificate to get the watermark to show up and to have enough light to get a shutter speed that would allow a clear, sharp shot.

 

            This is the much smaller watermark in the lower left. It is a sakura (cherry) blossom with the character in (short for insatsu=printing) inside it. I think that means the certificate was printed by the Government Printing Department of the Empire of Greater Japan.

 

To return to the base page on Medals, please click here: Nambu World: Japanese Medals

To return to “Other Japanese Militaria”, please click here: Nambu World: Other Japanese Militaria

To return to the home page, please click here: Nambu World: Teri’s WWII Japanese Handgun Website

 

Last updated: July 29, 2006. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.