Well traveled Jappa

[Fragman]

Hi. This Japanese practice grenade was found in China a few years back. Since then it has travelled the world and been in several collections. Having come from China, it probably dates from the mid-thirties, which is interesting as it has no facility for the addition of a dummy booster. Whilst it has an obvious Japanese appearance, it does not look like any Japanese HE grenade I have seen. Does anybody have any information on this piece? Cheers

 

[siegfreid]

The Chinese made crude copies of the WW2 Japanese grenades during the 1950's . It may be one of theirs as a practice version .

 

[JCB99]

Type 10 training grenade variations.

Hello Fragman,
I have its twin brother. These are type 10 bodies with dummy fuzes. I've seen several with the rounded bottom without the threaded hole for the dummy booster. I have seen both brass and steel dummy fuzes. Most of my trainers came out of China. Check out the picture, it's the one on the far right. I don't have any reference on this grenade.

Jim
japaneseOrdnance(at)yahoo.com

Link to Japanese Ordnance Page: http://www.castle-thunder.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=976

 

[Fragman]

Hi, Thanks for the comments. I'd not considered that it could be a Chinese practice grenade from the 50's. I know there were a lot of Japanese type Chicom ordnance used in Korea, so it's an interesting possibility.

Judging it purely from its appearance I would position it between the Type 10 and Type 91 eras. This is based only on it having a basic T10 shape and a top fragmentation pattern that looks like the rising sun style of the T91. The lack of a booster can be attributed to the acceptance of the Japanese for stylized practice grenades that only loosely resemble their HE counterparts or equally because it was from an era where the grenades were no longer used with the knee mortar. Without documentation I guess the jury is still out.

A great piece of ordnance and I'm very pleased to have it. Cheers

 

[Fragman]

And then of course you get an add like this and you need to reconsider :goodnight:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=216019368