Description
Uber rare & matching unicorn gun!
Due for import from the US is this incredibly rare & hard to find example of a Chinese made authorised copy of the Arisaka Type 38 manufactured for supply to the Chinese troops under the control of the Japanese after they invaded China.
This war of occupation in China was a massive effort on the part of Japan’s military, involving more than 2 million troops at its height. When the war spread into the Pacific in 1941, the siphoning off of seasoned troops to fight on the new front presented a significant logistical problem of the Imperial Army leading to questions of how it could maintain the necessary troop strength in China while also fighting the Americans? The answer was to increase the use of native Chinese troops under a series of puppet governments, estimated to be between 500,000 & 900,000 men. Many of these men were undoubtedly poorly trained & poorly equipped but the could at least perform duties like guarding railroads, thus freeing up the more skilled & experienced Japanese troops for places they could be more effectively used.
These Chinese soldiers would need some sort of guns. Arms captured from the enemy Communists & the KMT were one way Japan could cheaply arm them, but more was required. At some point (no-one really knows exactly when), five Chinese manufacturing concerns began to manufacture rifles for the Japanese to issue to Chinese troops. These rifles were basically copies of the Type 30 Arisaka carbine (aka “hook safety”) but chambered for the 8mm Mauser cartridge. The 8mm was a common cartridge in China at the time & its use would have made good logistical sense for the Japanese to provide as the Japanese controlled arsenal at Tientsin manufactured both 6.5mm Japanese & 8mm Mauser ammunition for many years during the war.
This first set of rifles is known to the collecting community as the North China Type 30 although it is not known what the rifle’s official Japanese designation was – there are very few records available regarding these guns & much of the history is supposition based on the characteristics of documented rifles. The North China Type 30 was a reasonably high quality rifle – the workmanship was not as good as the Japanese homeland arsenals but it was not a “last ditch” rifle, so to speak. It had a flip-up ladder sight like the true Type 30 & the receiver was marked with the emblem of a cherry blossom (not the Imperial chrysanthemum).
By 1944, it appears that the need to supply Japanese troops in northern China had become more urgent than supplying the Chinese puppet troops & these Chinese concerns that had been making the North China Type 30 changed their tooling up to make the North China Type 19 instead. The Type 19 was a more modern Type 38 copy, chambered for the 6.5mm Japanese cartridge. While 8mm was easily available in China, official Japanese Army supplies did not use it as the 6.5mm had always been the predominant cartridge used in Chinese fighting (the 7.7mm saw much more use in the Pacific than in China). Despite being copied from the Type 38 carbine, the North China Type 19 retained a distinctive “pot belly” stock design. They also had the same cherry blossom crest on the receiver, although it was now paired with a series of 5 kanji that translate to “North China Type 19” (hoku – ushi – shiki – ichi – ku).
While the Type 30 copies appear to have been fairly uniform in construction, the Type 19 shows significant production degradation as the war neared its end. The best quality North China Type 19 rifles have flip-up ladder sights, typical sling swivels, a blued finish & knurled safety knob, as this excellent example has. Others, however, show all the same cost-reducing modifications that are seen on late Type 99 Arisakas. In total, around only 38,500 of these North China Type 19’s were made with all being carbines, no full length rifles & only a limited number being of the high quality that this rifle displays & an unknown but presumably larger number being the poor quality, late war guns similar to the ‘last ditch’ Arisaka series.
Like some typical Arisakas, this Type 19 exhibits both a serial number on the receiver sidewall & a 3-digit assembly number on the significant parts. The serial number & assembly number are not related & so this should not be mistaken for a mismatched gun, as it is all matching!
Being a relatively obscure & rare rifle not many collectors know about these & those that did assumed them to be unobtainable, as they rarely come onto the collector market, let alone here in Oz.
Little else is known about the North China Type 19, including exactly who made them & where (the best guess right now is Beijing), how many were made, who they were issued to & so on. Considering the chaos in China from fighting the Japanese & then a civil war, it is unlikely that we will ever find definitive records on these rifles.
As can be seen in the limited photos we can provide here & now, this example is probably as good as you could hope for with strong rifling with no evidence of rust or pitting.
The serial number of 0992 indicates this is an early build, probably explaining the higher quality finish.
If you have an interest in the Japanese-Sino war(s) be the envy of your fellow collectors & add this unicorn gun to your collection as it could be years before another comes up for sale in Australia, especially in this condition.
Being due to arrive in March 2022, we can take a deposit on this rifle so if you are interested, get in contact now.
Do your own research & you will know if this is for you. Please view the photos carefully & make your decision based on what you see as they form the main description & override all written information. These are the only photos that we have at this time but if not sold, we will provide more once it arrives.
We are offering this rifle as a collectable piece of military history & acknowledge the grievous atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Empire & some of its military, particularly toward POW’s & the populations of occupied territories.
We think we have described it accurately & in good faith but do not claim to be infallible so if we have got anything wrong, it is unintentional & are happy for feedback from people who know more than we do. Even if you don’t want to buy it, we welcome any info you may have to further educate ourselves & the broader collecting community.
Whilst we check these out for serviceability, the warranty has expired & this is sold on an ‘as is’ basis. As with all used guns, we recommend you have this checked by a suitably qualified person prior to shooting.
We have a pretty unique refund policy on our collectable guns whereby we will refund your money if it is not as described when you receive it. Just let us know before you decide to send it back.
Call for shipping cost to your dealer.
