Nambu World: Student Marksmanship Badges

    Drill and later marksmanship training were part of the educational curriculum in the pre-war period, and regional and national competitions were held to prepare students for their later role in the military. The badges awarded for membership in the student shooting clubs and participation and proficiency in these competitions offer an endless variety of interesting designs. Interestingly, while the “official” marksmanship badges from the Army and the Imperial Reservists Association both feature crossed rifles, the student badges typically seem to show cartridges. They are also a good introduction to the perils of seal script (tensho in Japanese). Even if you can read pre-war Japanese, you may feel dumb again when you start looking at pre-war badges and medals because the inscriptions are usually written in an archaic style known as “seal script” that makes many characters look unrecognizable. Fortunately, the number of characters used on badges and medals is pretty limited, so eventually you get used to the common ones and can guess most of the others from context. A useful reference on seal script is http://www.nisfont.co.jp/home/shiryou/araitensyo/jitainokaisetsu.pdf. This document lists standard characters with their equivalent in seal script. Seal script forms vary somewhat due to “artistic license”, but this is the best thing I have found so far and is free (actually my friend Shoji Kai found it for me.). The characters are listed in order of their kuten code, one of several ways of assigning a numeric or alphanumeric code to Japanese characters. Many electronic dictionaries will give you the kuten code (and also the JIS and shift-JIS codes) when you look up a character. Now, on to the badges!

Saga High School Shooting Club Membership Badge

This one highlights the cartridge theme, being shaped like a stripper clip of five cartridges. The front has two large characters superimposed on an oak leaf (oak=kashiwa). The bottom one was easy, ko=high, short for high school (koto gakko). The top one, shown magnified in the middle below, was really tough, but eventually I was able to confirm that it was sa. Once that was established, I discovered from Japanese Wikipedia sites that this was the abbreviation of Saga High School (saga koto gakko), which is now a university (pre-war high schools were more like colleges). Saga City and Prefecture are on Kyushu. The prefecture is also home to Sasebo naval base and Nagasaki. The website http://www.geocities.jp/qsay55/SG.html  shows the same oak leaf logo for the school as is on the badge. The inscription on the back (right photo) is: sha-geki bu-in-sho (=shooting club member’s badge). The tiny little mark at the bottom has to be viewed with extreme magnification but it is a jun-gin (“pure silver”) hallmark. It measures 37mm (1-7/16”) high by 30mm (1-3/16”) wide, not counting the ring and mount at the top.  

All-Japan Shooting Competition Badge

This round badge is 30mm (1-3/16”) in diameter. Most of the kanji on this badge are fairly recognizable even though they are in seal script. The front features a large image of a cartridge with the seal script kanji for sha (as in sha-geki=shooting) above it. The back has lots of tiny little writing. Top line: dai go-kai; second line: zen nip-pon dai-gaku ko-sen sha-geki tai-kai; third line: shu-sai taku-shoku dai-gaku rei-taku-kai sha-geki-bu; fourth line: ko-en  ji-ji  shim-po sha. Putting it all together, it means roughly “All-Japan University and Specialized and High School Shooting Competition, organized by the Clear Brooks Society Shooting Club, Takushoku University, with the support of the Jiji [current events] News Corporation”. The date 2595 (1935) is shown in Western style numerals. Takushoku University is located in Tokyo. “Clear Brooks Society” (reitakukai) appears to be an allusion to a classical Chinese quote from the I Ching and refers to students studying together in a mutually supportive fashion. There is even a university with this name today, Reitaku University.

Kanto Regional Shooting Competition Prize Badge

A rectangular, copper-coloured badge featuring a stripper clip of ammo on the front with the character shō=”prize” superimposed on it. It is also for a regional competition. There is a line of right-to-left text at the bottom, gaku-sei sha-geki ren-mei, “Student shooting federation”. The back has the Japanese-style date 2596 (1936) on the bottom and an arc of right-to-left text across the top that reads dai ju-ik-kai kan-to gaku-sei sha-geki kyo-gi tai-kai= “11^th Kanto Student Shooting Competition”. It is 34mm (1-3/8”) wide by 29mm (1-1/8”) high. Kanto is the region around Tokyo.    

Kyushu Regional Shooting Competition Participation Badge

The badge showing a silver-coloured bird of prey holding a rifle is from a regional- level competition. The left-to-right writing across the top says Zen kyu-shu gaku-sei sha-geki tai-kai=All Kyushu Student Shooting Competition. The bottom says san-ka sho=participation badge. The back has two large silver-coloured kanji written vertically, dai-gaku=university, and then three lines of left-to-right horizontal script: shu-sai naga-saki i-ka dai-gaku sha-geki-bu=”Organized by the Nagasaki Medical University Shooting Club” and the date 2591 (1931). It is 27mm (1-1/16”) wide by 31mm (1-1/4”) high, not including the mounting ring. The colour is close to that in the photo on the right; the one on the left had some kind of colour shift.

Hosei University Shooting Competition Prize Badge

    This badge is from Hosei University, which is located in Tokyo. The university's origins date back to 1880, but it only became a university in 1920, when a legal change allowed the establishment of private universities. The badge measures 39mm (1-9/16") high including the stud but not the ring, by 26mm (1") wide. The H on the front (left photo) stands for Hosei, obviously. The silver character below that is sho, meaning "prize". The writing on the back (right photo) is in seal script and is all written from right to left. The top line says Ho-sei-dai-gaku, "Hosei University". The second line says sha-geki-tai-kai, "shooting meet", or "shooting competition". The bottom line is the date, sho-wa-go-nen, Showa 5, or 1930. At the very bottom tip is a small hallmark. It is very small, but I think it says jun-gin, "pure silver".

Unknown Shooting Competition Prize Badge

    The front features a bird of prey holding a cartridge and the back has the single character sho=prize followed by the date 2592 (1932). It is silver-coloured except for the brass coloured cartridge, very large and heavy, and measures 45mm (1-3/4”) high including the fixed mounting loop by 37mm (1-3/8”) wide. I don’t know the significance of the crest at the top. Please let me know if you do recognize it as it may provide a clue as to the place (school? university?) associated with this badge.

Last updated: July 21, 2009. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.

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