4th of July Gift -- Showa 18.12 "The Ugly One"
 

All matching, except the magazine (that's actually good news, well, one magazine match). Mint bore. Come with cleaning rod and holster.

Showa 18 = 1943

Nice Alvin. Some designs, no matter how competent, just never catch on :-)

Maybe it's the exposed sear...... ;)

I causally collect Japanese pistols.

Nambu's initial design of Grandpa/Papa/Baby was obviously under influence of Luger 1900, but the toggle was not used, instead, he applied a C96 like wedge locking system. Those early Nambus were actaully pretty. "Type 14" started looking weird, still not bad, especially the small trigger guard ones. From initial Grandpa to final Type 94, one step after another, Nambu's design became more and more original.

It's very unsafe because the fully exposed sear. This was probably influenced by Luger. Luger is not a very safe pistol either. But unlike Luger, Type 94 has no sear cover and the sear just sit flat on left side of gun, which makes it a super dangerous pistol. Ironically, safety was not totally out of Nambu's mind -- it has a magazine safety (a trigger level safety). A little bit self-conflicting.

Another weird feature of Nambu was its hold-open by magazine follower, which was probably influenced by Mauser. However, Nambu either had never fully thought about the difference between his gun and that of Mausers, or that's exactly what he wanted (?) -- the bolt slams back when the empty magazine is removed !!

Thats a mighty nice piece of history and its nice that it comes with holster. Jap pistol evolution is interesting as noted above. Thanks for showing your July 4th gift.

Charlie

As I understand it, the Japanese military establishment was reluctant to evaluate and test (and perhaps scrap/modify) new weapon designs for fear of "insulting" the designer.

They relied on their "warrior spirit" (a supernatural ally) far too heavily. An emphasis on more conventional equipment, supply, and military tactics would have been infinitely more useful for them (Thank God they never figured that out!).

The fact that the Japanese army had to deliver and manage the supply of several ammunition types (6.5mm, 7.7mm and 7.7 rimmed machine gun) to the same battlefield is evidence of their inattention to standardizing equipment.

Jack

Here's a pic of a Papa I let get away:

Let's give Nambu a little bit credit :)

It does have two advantages. Its bolt is the smoothest one that I've seen on wedge locking guns, definitely way better than that of C96, probably even better than P38, or 92F. The wedge moves up and down easily, and there is a pulley on the tip of the hammer which helps bolt moving big time! Very unique.

The grip shape is not pretty but fits small hand extremely well, and grip angle is correct -- it points as good as Luger.