Arisaka Type 38 Serial Number Lookup

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I have an opportunity to buy an Arisaka Type 38 Carbine. The serial number is 112598 (yes, there is no 7th digit). It has no MUM and unless someone was a magician in removing it, it never had one. It has a small left side crack stretching back from the trigger guard above the stock seam but other than that the stock is in remarkable condition. Continuing on with our buyer's guide #101 series, this time we talk a bit about the Japanese Arisaka of WWI and WWII. We checkout and compare the Type 30, Ty.

  • Below are the characters san-pachi-shiki, i.e. This is a reference to Meiji 38 (1905), the year of its adoption. The two holes are a safety feature on all Arisakas: they vent gases upwards in the event of a primer or case head rupture. The serial number and arsenal marking are on the left side of the receiver. The serial number of.
  • Other variants developed from the Type 38 were the Type 44 Cavalry Rifle, Type 97 Sniper Rifle. The Japanese Imperial Navy also purchased a number of Type I Rifles from Italy at the beginning of World War II. The Italian-built rifles were chambered for the same 6.50 x 50 mm cartridge as the Type 38 rifle.
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FirearmsTechnical Trivia, September 2000:

Arisaka Rifle Collector'sGuide

by NoelTominack

In the late19th Century, Imperial Japan joined other industrial nations in equippingits military forces a repeating bolt-action rifle that fired smokelesspowder cartridges. This rifle became known as the Arisaka rifle,after the man in charge of selecting them, Lieutenant Colonel NariakiraArisaka. From its adoption in the 30th year of the Meiji emperor(that's 1895 to those of you who don't speak Imperial Japanese dates) tothe end of the World War Two (1945), the Arisaka served as Imperial Japan'smain longarm in one form or another for fifty years.

Although manywere brought back by American GI's during and immediately
after WorldWar Two as souvenirs, they have never achieved the same degree of collectabilityas the German K98 Mauser rifles. This is due in part to the relativescarcity of ammunition chambered for these rifles, and the unearned reputationfor poor quality resulting from the very dangerous practice of firing standardammunition through training rifles. Times have changed, however,and there is a growing interest in Arisaka rifles by historians, crufflers,and people who wonder just what kind of rifle they found in their grandfather'sattic.

This is a primerfor those wishing to know more about the Arisaka rifles and should be enoughto help someone identify rifles of interest. For more detail, thecollector may want to invest in a good reference book such as Fred Honeycutt's'Military Rifles of Japan.'

GENERAL APPEARANCE: There are a few features common to all variants of the Arisaka rifles. These include a two-piece buttstock, plum or egg-shaped bolt handle, anda 16-petal chrysanthemum, or 'mum,' on the receiver ring.

Arisaka Receiver Ring Chrysanthemum
Insome cases, the mum may have been marred or ground off by Japanese soldiersin anticipation of the arm's capture by enemy forces or by General MacArthur'sedict. (Both of these defacements serve the same purpose, to preservethe honor of
the Emperor ofJapan, as the chrysanthemum is the Imperial symbol). The serial number,manufacturer's symbol, and sometimes the series symbol are all locatedon the left side of the receiver.

The followingcharts provide a rough guide toward interpreting these symbols:

Serial
1. Theshiki (type)characterand the characters for the Japanese numerals:
Japanese Characters Used on Arisaka Rifles
Character Meaning
Type
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

2. Each Japanese rifle was markedwith the symbol of either the arsenal of manufacture or the arsenal thatsupervised the manufacturing subcontractor. This mark can be found on theleft side of the receiver at the end of the rifle serial number. Riflesmanufactured by a commercial subcontractor bear the subcontractor's markto the right of the supervising arsenal's mark.

Japanese Rifle Manufacturers
Symbol Arsenal/Subcontractor Period of Operation
Koishikawa Arsenal (Tokyo) 1870-1935
Kokura Arsenal1935-1945
Nagoya Arsenal1923-1945
Jinsen Arsenal (Korea)1923-1945
Mukden Arsenal (Manchuria)1931-1945
Toyo Kogyo1939-1945
Tokyo Juki Kogyo1940-1945
Tokyo Juki Kogyo1940-1945
Howa Jyuko1940-1945
Izawa Jyuko1940-1945

3. All Japanese military rifles hadserial numbers except extremely rare
prototypes, other pre-productionguns, and occasional rifles assembled
very late in World War II. The serialnumber was stamped on the left
side of the receiver, followed bythe arsenal symbol. Initially, rifles make
in Japanese arsenals were numberedconsecutively within each Type
designation. In 1933 this schemewas replaced by a system in which
rifles were numbered in blocks,or series, of 99,999 each [actually
100,000, according to Honeycutt,running from serial numbers 0
through 99,999]. Each series wasidentified by a small Japanese
character (kana) placed withina circle to the left of the serial number.
Specific blocks of kana wereassigned to each arsenal or manufacturer
to use for a specific rifle type.

Series Markings
Series Number Series Mark Series Number Series Mark
1 24
2 25
3 26
4 27
5 28
6 29
7 30
8 31
9 32
10 33
11 34
12 35
20 37
21 40
22 45
23
(Special thanksto Bryan Brown for permitting CRUFFLER.COM to use the above charts anddata. Please visit Bryan's site at http://www.radix.net/~bbrown.)ARISAKAVARIANTS
Type 30 Rifleand Carbine: These are easily identifiedby the hook shaped safety on the back of the bolt. This and all modelsuntil the Type 99 have a bore diameter of 6.5mm.

Arisaka Type 30
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page31
Type 35 Rifle: These are rather scarce and can be identified by its small round safety. Late in WWII, Japan created 'substitute standard' rifles
using Type35 barreled actions and 'last ditch' parts made from inferior
materials. These are referred to by collectors as the Model 02/45 rifle.

Arisaka Type 35
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page37
Type 38 Rifleand Carbine: These can be distinguishedby both its very long and short lengths, elaborately machined safety knobs,and two gas vent holes over the chamber. Carbines have very shortrear sights as opposed to the long ladder sights of the rifle. TheJapanese rebarreled some rifles to an intermediate length, and designatedthem as 'Cavalry rifles'.

Arisaka Type 38
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page49
Type 44 CavalryCarbine: These have a permanently mountedbayonet, side mounted sling swivels, and a trap built into the buttstock.

Arisaka Type 44
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page31
Type 'I' Rifle: This Italian built rifle looks similar to the Type 38 rifle, except thatit uses a Carcano action, has no vent holes, and lacks any markingsexcept a serial number.

Arisaka Type I
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page147
Type 99 Rifle: This is the WWII version of the Arisaka rifle and it differs from the earlierversions with a 7.7mm caliber bore, a single vent hole over the chamber,a front barrel band held on by screws or rivets, its intermediate length,and its rear aperture sight. As the war progressed and productionbecame increasingly difficult, the rifles grew more crude in appearanceas inferior materials were used and fit/finish standards were lowered significantly. These are often called 'last ditch' models.

Arisaka Type 99
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page110

The followingare relatively rare, but worthy of mention:

Paratroop Rifles: The Type 1, Type 2, and Type 100 paratroop rifles are all two-part takedownrifles that are similar to Type 99s in appearance.

Arisaka Type 100 Paratroop Rifle
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page31
Sniper Rifles: The Type 97 and Type 99 are basically standard Type 38 and 99 rifles thathave been fitted with scope mounts and bent handles.

Arisaka Type 97 Sniper Rifle
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page81
Training Rifles: These are Japanese rifles of all types that have been converted to smoothboretraining rifles that can only be fired with blank ammunition. Othertraining rifles are no more than elaborate cap guns.

Arisaka Training Rifles
Image Credit: Honeycutt, Fred L. and F. Patt Anthoyn, MilitaryRifles of Japan, Julin Books, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 1996, Page173

Note: Data for this month's trivia page was gathered from:

MilitaryRifles of Japan, by Fred Honeycutt, Jr., Julin Books, 1996

Type 38 Arisaka Serial Number Lookup

MilitaryRifles of Japan is available from IDSA Books. Click on the imageto order.

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Arisaka Type 99 Serial Number Lookup

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