Japanese Helmet with Painted Kanji

[MarkMcM]

Hi All!

I found it at the local flea market this past weekend. Can anyone translate? Anyway, I thought I would share this interesting little bit of history with everyone.

Thanks!

Mark

 

[undrentide]

Found a website showing the helmets used by Imperial Japanese Navy, the one you bought seems to be authentic judging from the anchor mark on it.
http://rain.prohosting.com/~shunpart/helmet/helmet.htm
Two photos on the right.
It explains that those helmets are either with "anchor and sakura" badge or "painted anchor mark" in yellow or olive green.

The kanji on the helmet saysﾂ ﾂ債ｲﾂ港.
(At that time horizontal writing was written from right to left.)
ﾂ港 means bay or port, I assume it is the name of a port but cannot find such name on internet.

窶ｹ@13ﾂ坂?? (written on inside) seems to be a serial number. 窶ｹ@ means machine, and ﾂ坂?? often used for numbering machiens, vehicles, etc.
But I have no idea whether it is the name of the machine (boat? plane?), or something totally different...
I hope other members shed light on it.

 

[MarkMcM]

Hi,

Thanks for that! Regarding the name of the bay or port, can you spell that phonetically? Also, do you have an idea for what the small stamped character is (in the pic on the right)??

Regards,

Mark

 

[caster51]

http://cb1100f.web.infoseek.co.jp/collection3.htm

 

[JimmySeal]

According to my dictionary, 佐港 is pronounced "sasakura."
The small character in the right picture appears to be the katakana (phonetic character) for "ki," which is the pronunciation for 機 (from the inside of the helmet).

 

[MarkMcM]

Interesting. I'm not sure it all makes any sense at this point, though. Could 'Sasakura' be a person's name? Or, could it have something to do with Kure Naval Base???

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Here's some wild speculation:

Do you not think that maybe ﾂ債ｲﾂ港 is short for Sasebo? (ﾂ債ｲﾂ青｢窶｢ﾃ崢港)

 

[hotaruika]

yes. It is short to Sasebo naval port.