Japanese Arisaka Bayonets
Brief history
There are over 200 variations of this bayonet, if you include all hilt, blade, scabbard, crossguard and maker combinations. As a collecting field it is possible to collect nothing but Arisaka's and have a large collection. The type was originally introduced in 1897 and stayed in production (under Chinese communist control) until 1950. The type was trialled by the British prior to adoption of the very similar P1907, 150,000 were bought by the British, however most were shipped to Russia during WWI and few UK marked ones are available to the collector. Many of the Russian supplied blades ended up in Finland and may be found as used by them, in addition the Russians also captured large numbers from their actions against the Japanese.
After WWII the Chinese took over the Japanese arsenals and continued to produce the Arisaka initially under Nationalist control and subsequently under Communist Control.
As time progressed the Japanese modified the design, to simplify the production, this lead to several cross guard variations, pommel variations, grip variations, blade variations, and scabbard variations, many of which were Maker specific. A specialist marine version was made, that had a locking system to hold the blade in the scabbard. There are also specialist training blades, typically having very crude manufacture, these are often not for the Arisaka rifle but for training weapons.
My collection continues to grow and I've compiled them all on a single page
Previously unknown Variations have been found by the 1ST MARINE DIVISION ASSN.MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC and Tom has allowed me to post pictures here
A shortened and cut down Type 100 has been sent to me by Mario Rossetti