Extremely Rare Japanese Meiji Registered Spencer New Model Navy Rifle
- Product Code: FLA-4106
- Availability: Out Of Stock
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$0.00
Sometimes, in order to understand the significance of an historic weapon, one has to have at least a broad understanding of the historical context into which the weapon was thrust during its period of use. In order to understand the significance of the Japanese Meiji Era Registered Spencer New Model Navy Rifle offered here, nearly three hundred years of Japanese military and social history have to be at least summarized. Sometimes customers note that my descriptions are more akin to a history lesson than an antique arms description, but in this case, I do not think the significance and context of the rifle offered here can be appreciated without a substantial amount of background history. I would also like to note that I am indebted to a couple of important reference works in compiling the historical background on Feudal Japan, the era of the Boshin War, the Meiji Restoration and firearms within that historical context. First and foremost is Japanese Imported Arms of the Meiji Era by Francis C. Allan, Chip Goddard, Takehito Jimbo, Doss H. White and Dr, Stanley Zielinksi. The second, offering broader historical information for the period is A Brief History of the Samurai – The Way of Japan’s Elite Warrior Warriors by Jonathan Clements.
For well over two centuries, Japan had been an isolated country with minimal interaction with the outside world, other than some trade through the heavily regulated and restricted port of Nagasaki. The first westerners to arrive in Japan were the Portuguese, who reached the islands in 1543. This began Japanese interaction with western trade, inventions and religion. The Portuguese introduced a variety of previously unknown items and concepts to the Japanese, ranging from refined sugar, the concept of frying food in hot oil and western ship building techniques to hand-held firearms and Christianity. Over the next seventy years, a number of other western countries contacted Japan and established trade, although in the end, the Dutch would have the longest relationship with the island nation.
When the Portuguese first arrived in Japan, the five primary islands and thousands of smaller ones that comprise the Japanese archipelago, were not a unified country, but rather a collection of feudal lords and localized rulers. Some of these rulers had allegiance to other more powerful lords and rulers, and sometimes other farther-reaching alliances and groups of allies would lend support to each other. The power was distributed quite regionally, typically based upon the family or clan’s power to enforce its will on the surrounding area. Six major ancient families or clans held the majority of the political power during this period, all holding influence over the emperor at some point in history and thus being his instrument of control of Japan during his reign. In general, these ancient families held control over large areas of the home islands that were their traditional homelands.
During the period of our interest the Ashikaga clan and the Tokugawa clan were preeminent, although the ancient Fujiwara and Minamoto families still held great power as well. While there was no truly unified government, there was a titular head of the home islands, the Emperor of Japan. However, his power was no greater than the most powerful lords allowed it to be. The Emperor of Japan had no army, nor any method of enforcing his will upon the people. The Emperor and royal court actually lived off the good graces of the various Daimyō (lords) who provided the court with stipends to cover the royal court’s expenses in the form of tribute, which were in essence voluntarily paid taxes. The emperor was the spiritual leader of Japan, as the people considered that he was descended from a god and a was in fact a living god himself. As early as the 7th century, the Japanese people had referred to their emperor as the “Son of Heaven”. The emperor’s power came from the various powerful families that supported him and in turn he often conferred the title of Shōgun upon the head of the family of his most powerful supporters. The Shōgun was a ruling military dictator, who was in charge of all “temporal” matters, allowing the “Son of Heaven” to concentrate on “spiritual” matters. An analogy common among the early Portuguese travelers to Japan was that the emperor was like the Pope of the period, highly regarded, wielding the great power of respect, but reliant upon his most powerful supporters to be the instrument to enforce his will, if they chose to do so.
During most of the Nanban Period (circa 1543-1614) there was much political and military maneuvering in Japan to establish a truly powerful, centralized government that would unify the islands completely. During the period it was much like the many smaller kingdoms in England that had not been unified under a single king. Eventually, as a leader became more powerful his range of control increased, but the further a particular lesser lord was from the center of power, the less likely that lord was to subjugate himself to a distant “ruler”. By the middle of the 16th century, power had been consolidated in much of Japan and the Ashikaga Shogunate was effectively ruling most of the country. A series of coup attempts to further centralize power resulted in the Shōgun Ashika Yoshiaki attacking the lord that was the primary supporter for his power, Oda Nobunaga. The attempt failed and resulted in the end of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Nobunaga subsequently became the effective ruler of Japan, although he did not have total control or unification of the country. In 1582, he was murdered by one of his own retainers, who was in turn killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Nobunaga’s chief subordinates. Hideyoshi then became the titular ruler of Japan. However, he could not be granted the Imperial rank of Shōgun, as he was not directly descended from one of the six ancient ruling families and was without a samurai lineage. It is interesting to note that Hideyoshi was the first ruler to ban the ownership of weapons by the peasant class, and in fact any class other than the Samurai, which he stratified as a professional warrior class. He also created the first Japanese ban on the ownership of firearms by any but the Samurai class.
Although the introduction of firearms by the Portuguese half a century earlier had been an interesting technological innovation, the very traditional Japanese military preferred the skill and discipline required to fight with swords and bows and arrows. In fact, despite the myths portrayed by Hollywood, the bow and not the sword was the most traditional of Samurai weapons. The origin of the Samurai was as mounted archers who were probably the best mounted bowmen in the world. There was also the general fear that firearms, in quantity, could tip the balance of power within the country. They required minimal training to be effective weapons in the hands of the general public. A master bowman or swordsman was produced after only a lifetime of study that often started when the Samurai was very young. Firearms could potentially undermine the power of the Samurai and the ruling classes. For this reason, the musket was universally disdained by the military elite, although they did utilize firearms for specific purposes with specially trained musket regiments that often served as shock troops to soften an enemy prior to an attack or defensively to repel a larger attack.
The death of Hideyoshi in 1598 left the two major factions of power in Japan, the Tokugawa clan under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Toyotomi clan followers who were led by Ishida Mitsunari, maneuvering for total political dominance. While Hideyoshi was alive, he had managed the delicate relationship between these two major power brokers, who had both taken oaths to be his vassals. The various less powerful lords soon fell in line to support one or the other leader, resulting in some 75,000 soldiers to support the Tokugawa side (the Eastern Army) and roughly 120,000 for the Toyotomi side (the Western Army).
The decisive battle between the two sides was fought at Sekigahara on October 21, 1600. Despite being significantly outnumbered at the outset of the engagement, Tokugawa Ieyasu won a stunning victory. He had worked diligently in the weeks prior to the battle to establish alliances with some of the Toyotomi supporters, and on the day of the battle some of these leaders either remained neutral, not fighting for Ishida Mitsunari, or actually turning against the other Toyotomi followers during the battle. One such leader who switched sides to support the Tokugawa forces was Nabeshima Naoshige, Daimyō of the Saga Domain. Tokugawa Ieyasu also used firearms quite effectively during the battle. He used musket regiments as shock troops and also used nineteen bronze cannons that had been taken from a shipwrecked Dutch trading ship. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s men had been trained in the use of the artillery and in European musket tactics by the English navigator William Adams, who had been one of the few surviving members of the crew of the Dutch trading ship Liefde that had foundered in a typhoon off the island of Kyushu in April of 1600. The fictionalized version of this story is told in James Clavell’s Shōgun, with Adams being represented by the character Blackthorn. Although it would not be until 1603 that the Toyotomi clan was essentially eradicated and Tokugawa Ieyasu would have complete control of Japan, the battle of Sekigahara is essentially considered the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, or Edo Period of Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu was made Shogun by the emperor in 1603, and the Tokugawa family would rule Japan in that capacity for more than 250 years.
The Tokugawa Shogunate soon enacted tight restrictions on foreign trade and western interaction. Missionaries were expelled, along with nearly all westerners. Western trade was limited to a small island in bay of the port city of Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, where the Dutch alone were allowed access to the markets of Japan, handling all imports and exports.
One of the first edicts of the new Shōgun not only further restricted the possession and use of firearms but also restricted their manufacture to a single location within Japan. This gave the Tokugawa Shogunate complete control over all firearms production on the islands. It also meant that due to a lack of competition and innovation, combined with a ban on the importation of firearms, that in the mid-19th century the standard Japanese military firearm was still the antique matchlock mechanism arquebus (harquebus) of the Sekigahara era. In Japan these were known as Tanegashima-tsutsu. Tanegashima was the Japanese village into which the first firearms were introduced in 1543 and “tsutsu” means “barrels”.
When Commodore Perry entered the bay of Edo (now Tokyo) in 1853, he opened Japan to the rest of world. He also brought with him a wide variety of modern percussion firearms, including repeating firearms like the Colt Model 1839 Paterson Carbine as well as some Colt revolving pistols. These were spectacularly modern innovations to the Japanese.
Perry came at a turbulent time for the Japanese. More than two centuries of rule under the Tokugawa Shogunate and their bloated bureaucracy the Bakufu had left much of the country unhappy. The Bakufu ruled and administered the country ineffectively during the period, and the country was dealing with a financial crisis primarily due to a huge trade imbalance. Hereditary enemies of the Tokugawa family had allowed their hate and desire to return to power to fester for some 250 years. The domains of Satsuma on the island of Kyushu and Chōshū on the island of Honshu were particularly anti-Shogunate and were the homes of many of the displaced clans who were on the losing side after the battle of Sekigahara. These Toyotomi loyalists had lost their ancestral lands and power and had been relocated. In particular the formerly powerful Mori clan had lost their huge ancestral wealth and had ended up in Chōshū.
With the forced opening of Japan and the startling amount of westernization that occurred in the country over the coming decade, the Chōshū province became the center for a traditionalist, reactionary uprising against the Bakufu and the Tokugawa Shogunate. The movement was called sonnō jōi. This translated to “revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians” and certainly expressed the desires of the movement’s followers. They sought to return the Emperor to full power as head of state and to eliminate the Tokugawa Shogunate and their Bakufu administration. Interestingly, the primary way in which these “traditionalists” sought to be able to overwhelm and Shogunate forces was to modernize their own armies and to acquire modern firearms from England, Europe and the United States. Interestingly the Tokugawa Shogunate had clearly seen the writing on the wall about the need to update their army’s weapons and during the late 1850s and early 1860s had worked to modernize the defenses of Edo (Tokyo) Bay to resist a Western fleet and had acquired a small number of US Model 1855 Rifle Muskets which they were attempting to duplicate for their forces. However, these handmade copies of the US Model 1855 were only produced in very small numbers and surviving examples are practically unknown today.
The end of the American Civil War in 1865 had made a huge number of obsolete percussion ignition muzzleloading rifles and rifle muskets available on the secondary market from international arms traders like Schuyler, Hartley & Graham. While these guns were being replaced with modern metallic cartridge breechloaders in most of the world, a muzzleloading Enfield pattern rifle or rifle musket was a huge technological advantage against the traditional smoothbore Tanegashima-tsutsu matchlocks in Japan. Other firearms found their way into Japan through western traders as well, ranging from Spencer Rifles and Carbines to Smith & Wesson Model No 2 revolvers, and everything in between. The traders were only too happy to arm what was looking to be a Japanese civil war.
During the 1860s a variety of small incidents and conflicts expanded the rift between the Imperial Court, Emperor Komei and the supporters sonnō jōi and the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Emperor of Japan ordered the expulsion of all “barbarians” in March of 1863, but the Shogunate refused to comply with the edict. As the Shogunate was the enforcement and administrative arm of the government, there was little the Emperor could do. The traditionalist supporters of the Emperor and sonnō jōi reacted to the Shogunate’s refusal to enforce the Imperial edict by launching a mostly guerrilla style campaign against the Shogunate, its supporters and most importantly foreigners in Japan. This culminated with the Hamaguri Rebellion in 1864, which was quickly put down by the Shogunate.
As tensions grew, the various western nations started to jockey for position in what they saw as the very lucrative Japanese trade, particularly in the modernization of both the country and its military. To that end, they started to take sides to help and support either the pro-Shogunate or pro-Imperial forces. In particular the French supported the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the English supported the pro-Imperial forces, including the anti-Shogunate rebels of the Satsuma and Chōshū provinces.
In 1868, an all-out war erupted and the Boshin War, or Japanese Civil War, began. The more modern pro-Imperial, anti-Shogunate forces won, in part due to the large number of modern, western firearms that were made available to them. In particular one of the modern weapons acquired by the Imperial forces were Spencer carbines and rifles. The first governmental order had been placed in 1868 at the rate of $37.80 each, substantially higher than the cost of muzzleloading firearms. These guns appear to have primarily been carbines destined for cavalry use. It is not clear, due to fragmentary records, whether the guns were Civil War surplus arms or guns newly acquired from the currently faltering Spencer Arms Company. In any case, the guns were in the field with Imperial forces by the fall of 1868, seeing service in the Ōu mountains on the island of Honshū.
By the summer of 1869, the Shogunate was essentially defeated and ruling power was in the process of being returned to the Emperor. The few anti-Imperial, Shogunate loyalists that remained retreated to the northern part of Japan, but they were hounded by the pro-Imperial forces and eventually defeated. On October 26, 1869, the old Tokugawa capital city of Edo was renamed Tokyo, and the Meiji period began, with the Emperor Meiji being restored to power, thus the often-used term Meiji Restoration to describe this period. At this time the traditional Imperial Court home of Kyoto was transferred to Tokyo.
A sweeping restructuring of the Japanese ruling class followed almost immediately during the early days of the Meiji Restoration. Very quickly the old feudal lords (daimyō) were eliminated, old fiefs were restructured, and the old system of local government converted from a powerful lord ruling over vassals that worked his land to an Imperial appointed governor ruling over a prefecture with essentially free inhabitants. Some 302 old feudal domains were restructured as prefectures, and in the coming years the number of these prefectures was further reduced to a more manageable number and to more easily centralize the ruling authority of the Emperor and his administration. Additionally, the Samurai class was abolished, ending more than 250 years of control by a group of hereditary warriors who could for all practical purposes take the life of a peasant or any lower-class person at any time and for nearly any reason. Many of the disenfranchised Samurai found work as administrators within the new governments, as Samurai were typically well educated and could read and write. Others, however, were ruined financially, particularly the lower-level Samurai who had lived as the retainers of a wealthy lord who had provided for their welfare. For the first time ever, the people of every Japanese class were given the freedom to pursue any career or occupation they chose to and were expected to participate in the overall administration of the nation.
Interestingly one of the primary goals of the sonnō jōi movement had been to “expel the barbarians”, but the new Imperial administration sought to modernize the country of Japan and developed numerous international relationships that certainly chafed at the supporters who had returned the Emperor to power. Possibly in response to what the new Imperial administration expected to be a backlash, on July 8, 1869, the Imperial government established the Bukoshi, or “Arsenal Administration”. This organization was charged with the collection, registration and “control” of all firearms in Japan. These included, but were not limited to handguns, rifles and even cannon. The new administration understood that these imported weapons, that had been cached around the country under the control of various daimyōs had been instrumental in the success of the pro-Imperial forces during the Boshin War, but could be equally effective at over throwing the new Imperial government; if such an uprising were to occur before the government had fully centralized power and built up a strong Imperial Army. By 1872, it was decreed that all breechloading firearms be transferred to Imperial government control in Tokyo and soon thereafter all Enfield pattern rifles be forwarded to Imperial arsenals for alteration to breechloader by the Albini system.
The registration, collection and control of firearms during the early days of the Meiji Era was providential for the regime. In 1874, the prefecture of Saga on the island of Kyushu rebelled against the new Meiji government. This was a small and poorly organized rebellion that was quickly suppressed by Imperial forces. However, it set the stage for the much larger Satsuma Rebellion three years later. In 1877 the Satsuma province, which was also on the island of Kyushu, rebelled. Ironically this was one of the major regions to support the uprising against the Tokugawa Shogunate less than ten years earlier. However, the change in attitude by the Imperial administration towards western influence and abandonment of one of the key principles of sonnō jōi (expel the barbarians), the elimination of the noble class and their land holdings, the elimination of the Samurai and the forbidding of the wearing of the two swords in public in 1876 was simply too much. The traditionalists rebelled and were crushed by Imperial Forces. While the account of this uprising as told in the movie The Last Samurai is certainly a highly fictionalized portrayal of the events, the final outcome was the same. The Imperial forces, armed with the most modern weapons, including artillery and Gatling Guns, easily defeated the last of the rebellious Samurai. While the movie depicts these Samurai as being largely armed with the traditional sword and bow, the reality is that the rebel forces had reasonably large numbers of firearms at their disposal, ranging from the official Imperial Japanese military percussion muzzleloading Enfield rifle to repeating breechloading firearms like the Spencer carbine and rifle.
All of the preceding is necessary to understand the historical importance of the rifle offered for sale here. It is a very rare Japanese Meiji Era Marked New Model Spencer Navy Rifle. The upper left of the receiver is marked with kanji in two columns, four to the left and three to the right over the bottom three central characters that indicate Saga Prefecture. The top left-hand group of four symbols are the numbers 5-1-8-0, likely a weapon registration number. The top right-hand column are the kanji for Meiji 27, which would be 1894 in the Western calendar. In 1871, after the overthrow of the Shogunate, the Han (domain) of Saga became the Saga Prefecture.
Saga was located on the island of Kyushu and from not long after the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the domain had been charged with providing the primary oversight of the port of Nagasaki and to keep the Westerns traders contained in the areas they were allowed to be in and keep them from journeying to Japan’s interior. However, because of Saga’s proximity to Nagasaki and their need to interact with the Westerners as part of the Shogunate’s military control of the area, the domain was exposed to ideas and technology not widely available elsewhere in Japan. Due to interactions with the Dutch traders, they became knowledgeable enough about Western metal working technique to establish the most advanced cannon foundry in Japan. This foundry would provide the cannons ordered by the Shogunate in 1853 to improve the defenses of Edo Bay. During the period leading up the Boshin War, local daimyōs had arranged for the smuggling of thousands of small arms into the region to support the anti-Shogunate uprising and had been particularly helped and supported in this matter by the English. The domain’s proximity to Nagasaki, their military control of the port, and more personal relationships with the various Western traders gave them the opportunity to more easily smuggle in and stockpile western arms in preparation for what would be the Boshin War against the Shogunate. As a result, it is likely that this rifle was one originally imported secretly for Boshin War use and likely saw additional use during the Saga Uprising and possibly the Satsuma Rebellion as well. The gun was then almost certainly hidden as possession of firearms had been ruthlessly banned and the rebellious provinces were regularly searched for such weapons. The gun was finally registered as number 5180 in 1894, in the very location that helped to bring about the Meiji Restoration and then rebelled against the Imperial government only a few years later.
The last variant of the Spencer Rifle to be produced, the “New Model” which was introduced circa 1868 as a final variant of the Model 1860, which had been upgraded as the Model 1865, Model 1867 and finally simply the “New Model”. Practically no Spencer factory records exist for this time period, but research done by Roy Marcot and published in Spencer Repeating Firearms indicates that only about 6,000 Spencer “New Model” firearms were produced, approximately 5,000 carbines and 1,000 rifles. The New Model guns appear in the serial number range of 103,000 to 109,000 and were all produced during 1868. The rifles were produced in both the “Army” variant, which took an angular socket bayonet and the “Navy” variant which had a lug under the barrel to accept a saber bayonet. Based upon the limited number of surviving examples, it appears that only a very small number of the “Navy” variants of the Spencer Model 1867 and New Model Rifles were produced, with most of the limited production of these late rifles being of the “Army” pattern. The primary difference between the New Model and the models preceding it were some minor changes within the breechblock with a short blade extractor and an additional small spring to keep the extractor blade correctly oriented during the operation of the breechblock. Otherwise, the rifles had .50 caliber bores and were chambered for the .56-52 Spencer Cartridge, 30” barrels retained by three solid, spring retained barrel bands and were equipped with either a standard musket front sight and lug for a socket bayonet on the “Army” version or had a saber bayonet lug under the barrel on the “Navy” version. These rifles incorporated the Spencer Patent magazine cut-off on the top of the receiver, had the serrated base magazine follower tube that had been introduced with the Model 1865 and the Model 1865 ladder rear sights. Sling swivels were mounted in the toe of the stock and on the middle barrel band. Like all Spencer long arms, the standard finish was a blued barrel, a color casehardened receiver, lever and buttplate and was mounted with a smooth, straight-gripped walnut stock and smooth musket-style forend.
This Japanese Meiji Era Marked New Model Spencer Navy Rifle remains in FINE condition, although it certainly shows real use. The barrel retains about 70%+ of its original blued finish, showing moderate amounts of thinning and faded, areas which are toning towards plug and scattered areas of minor impact and handling marks. The barrel shows moderate amounts of freckled surface oxidation, and some surface roughens as well. The receiver retains about 50%+ of the vivid case coloring, with moderate fading and loss, primarily in the center of the receiver on both sides. Like the barrel, the receiver shows scattered freckles of surface oxidations, some minor surface roughness and some scattered marks and scuffs. The lock and hammer retain about 85%+ of their vivid casehardened finish and the buttplate retains about 40%+ of its case hardening. The top of the receiver is clearly marked in three lines:
SPENCER REPEATING
RIFLE CO. BOSTON, MASS.
PAT’D MARCH 6, 1860
The top of the barrel, forward of the receiver is simply marked NM for “New Model”. The serial number 105468 is stamped on top of the receiver at the wrist. The only other markings are Meiji Registration markings on the upper left edge of the receiver, which I have previously discussed. The action remains mechanically functional and operates smoothly and crisply, with the Spencer Patent magazine cut off device functioning as it should as well. The bore remains in about FINE condition and is mostly bright with crisp rifling. The bore shows scattered oxidation, some frosting in the grooves and some lightly scattered pitting with some dust and dirt present as well. The original and correct magazine follower tube with grooved base plate is in place in the butt. The rifle retains its correct pattern 800-yard folding leaf rear sight and the original fixed front sight base and blade. The original saber bayonet lug is in place under the barrel and is numbered 59 to mate it to the saber bayonet that was fit to it. Both of the original sling swivels are intact and present as well. The wood remains in VERY GOOD+ condition overall. The Butt stock is FINE, solid and tight with good edges and lines and no indications of having been sanded. It is solid and complete and free of breaks and repairs. The butt does show a couple of tiny chips out at the tail of the lock and some scattered bumps, dings and mars but overall remains in very nice condition. The forend rates about GOOD+ to NEAR VERY GOOD and shows much more wear than the butt. The forend is also solid and complete and free of breaks and repairs, although there is a grain crack on the obverse running about 3" diagonally from the front of the receiver up to the edge of the forend. It also shows numerous bumps, dings, mars, scrapes and scuffs along its length. It is hard to know exactly what caused this wear, but it could be related to how the gun was stored, or more likely, hidden for many years.
Overall, this is wonderful example of a Japanese Meiji Era Marked New Model Spencer Navy Rifle. The registration markings remain clear and crisp and register the gun to place that was so important to the period of the Meiji Restoration. The fact that the gun was registered in the heart of the region that initially supported the Meiji Restoration and then spearheaded a rebellion against it only a few years later suggests that the rifle likely saw service returning the Emperor to power and subsequently in a rebellion against his power! The New Model Spencer Rifles, particularly in the “Navy” configuration for saber bayonet are quite rare on the collector market in and of themselves, as only about 1,000 of both patterns of New Model Spencer Rifles were produced and of those it is unlikely that more than 200-300 were of the Navy Pattern. However, to find an example that is Meiji registered is truly incredible. These two factors combined create an extremely scarce and very desirable piece of military history. This gun fits not only in a collection of 19th breechloading arms, a collection of Spencer firearms, but is an incredibly scarce piece of Japanese military history. This is an extremely rare gun with amazing history and a rather long and intriguing backstory that I find simply fascinating.
Tags: Extremely, Rare, Japanese, Meiji, Registered, Spencer, New, Model, Navy, Rifle