Koishikawa Type 26

     At the turn of the 20th century, the Japanese finally realized that they needed a military handgun for some purposes.  In 1877, they chose the Smith & Wesson No. 3 Russian, and later, the Smith & Wesson Now Model No. 3 and the New Model No. 3 Frontier revolver, which they used until 1896.  However, eventually national pride and the need for a more modern handgun led them to start designing what became the Type 26, also called the Meiji 26 Nen Ken Ju.  The Type 26 began service with the Japanese Army and Navy in 1893.  Unlike the design philosophy of most revolvers of the period, the Type 26 was meant as a last-ditch weapon and it was not designed for long-range fire.  The Type 26 remained in Japanese military service until the 1970s, and hundreds were also purchased by Japanese civilians before, and eventually after, World War 2.  (The Type 26 was the standard issue handgun for enlisted personnel who were equipped with handguns; Japanese officers were required to buy their own handguns and normally bought the Nambu pistol or foreign-made pistols.) In addition, captured or confiscated Type 26s were used by China and North Korea in the post-World War 2 period, the Korean War, and into the 1960s.  Other captured or confiscated Type 26s were used by Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam; they were used by the first three countries into the 1960s, and the Vietnamese and Viet Cong used them throughout the Vietnam War and shortly thereafter. Thousands came home during and after World War 2 in the duffel bags of US servicemen.  In 1930, production of the Type 26 shifted to the Kokura Arsenal, who continued to produce them until the late 1950s; older Type 26s were also rebuilt at Kokura, and the Kokura-built examples are of better quality and finish than their predecessors.  Many Kokura-built examples are still in firing condition to this day, and even some Koishikawa-built examples are still perfectly serviceable.

     The Type 26 is a lightweight revolver with a 4.7-inch barrel, a round blade front sight, and a U-notch fixed rear sight which is integral to the barrel extension.  Koishikawa-built examples are finished with a charcoal-colored or rust blue color, with checkered grips of checkered beech.  Kokura-built (or rebuilt) examples are dark blued and have grips of serrated beech.  Operation is DAO, and the Type 26 is known for its heavy trigger pull weight. The Type 26 is a top-break revolver; the user breaks the weapon open at a point just behind the cylinders to load the revolver.  When reloading, breaking open the Type 26 automatically ejects all casings or rounds in the cylinder. In addition to field stripping, the Type 26 can be cleaned by removing a plate on the left side to clean the internal mechanism, and the cylinder can also be removed for cleaning without disassembling the weapon. Special holsters were made for the Type 26; these are hard leather holsters with a clamshell-type hatch and straps which allowed for shoulder carry or belt carry.  The holster had an integral pouch for 12 rounds of ammunition and loops on the front edge for a cleaning rod.  Late in World War 2, these holsters were no longer produced in order to reduce cost and production time; instead, they were replaced by ordinary soft leather or canvas holsters, and a strap was added which allowed carry by dangling it from the neck.

     Type 26s fired a special cartridge designed for it.  Today, this cartridge is as rare as hen’s teeth, and many Type 26s that are still fired by their owners today have been modified to fire the .38 Smith & Wesson round.  As the rounds are of almost identical diameters and the .38 Smith & Wesson is shorter, the only modification required is to modify the cylinder slightly.  In addition, some of today’s owners of Type 26s have replaced the wooden grips with rubber grips.

Weapon

Ammunition

Weight

Magazines

Price

Type 26

9mm Type 26

0.88 kg

6 Cylinder

$145

Type 26

.38 Smith & Wesson

0.88 kg

6 Cylinder

$141

 

Weapon

ROF

Damage

Pen

Bulk

SS

Burst

Range

Type 26 (9mm)

DAR

1

Nil

1

4

Nil

11

Type 26 (.38)

DAR

1

Nil

1

4

Nil

12

    

Miroku Special Police

     Notes:  This weapon was built for the Japanese Police, who were allowed only revolvers after World War 2.  Unfortunately, the Miroku did not appear on the scene until 1967, and by this time, the Model 60 was already the standard Japanese Police handgun.  Thus, almost the entire production run was exported to the US under the names EIG and Liberty Chief.  The Miroku is a cheap, snub-nosed revolver, but a serviceable one.  It comes in 5 and 6-round models, both with the same names.

Weapon

Ammunition

Weight

Magazines

Price

Miroku Special Police

.38 Special

0.49 kg

5 Cylinder

$152

Miroku Special Police

.38 Special

0.5 kg

6 Cylinder

$154

 

Weapon

ROF

Damage

Pen

Bulk

SS

Burst

Range

Miroku Special Police

DAR

1

Nil

1

6

Nil

3

 

Model 60 New Nambu

     Notes: Adopted by Japanese Police in 1961, and later by the Japanese Maritime Safety Guard (the Japanese equivalent of the Coast Guard), the Model 60 is in many ways similar to Smith & Wesson revolvers of the time of its design.  The construction of the Model 60 is largely of steel with an anticorrosive finish, and it uses grips of textured plastic.  The grip is considered small, even too small for the hands of the Japanese Police who were first issued the weapon in 1961, and as the average size of Japanese citizens has grown in the years after World War 2, this problem has slowly become more troublesome.  A large cutout on the butt of the grip has a ring for a lanyard.  In addition, despite the fact that the Model 60 is a service revolver, its chamber capacity is only 5 rounds instead of the usual six.  Civilian sales have also been made (mostly overseas), and security guards in Japan also commonly use the Model 60.  Though many times through the years, many automatic pistols of domestic and foreign design have been proposed to replace the Model 60 – but for whatever reason, the Japanese have stuck with the Model 60 revolver, and some 135,000 have been built since 1961.

Weapon

Ammunition

Weight

Magazines

Price

Model 60

.38 Special

0.68 kg

5 Cylinder

$156

 

Weapon

ROF

Damage

Pen

Bulk

SS

Burst

Range

Model 60

DAR

1

Nil

1

4

Nil

4