Order of the Golden Kite - 5th Class

[abufletcher]

A couple of years ago I was visiting my favorite small antique shop in the city of Kochi (in Shikoku, Japan) and bought a very nice Order of the Golden Kite 5th Class in its original box.  Previously, I had bought the 7th class award at another small antique shop.

 

There's some interesting history implied by the box of the 5th class award.  You will notice that the kanji on the box are done in silver vs. the usual gold.  In 1940 the Japanese government issued a decree that gold was no longer to be used as it was a scarce war material.  But also in that year, a second decree stated that the Order of the Golden Kite would be issued either 1) posthumously or 2) after a final Japanese victory of the war.  Given the silver writing and the historical fact that Japanese didn't win the war, this particular decoration must have been awarded posthumously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abufletcher]

One of the joys of living in Japan (for the 26 years I lived here before retiring to California last year) was to be able to have personal contact with the shop owners.  It meant that every purchase came with a treasured memory.

 

This is the shop in Kochi where I bought the Golden Kite 5th class...and also the officer's uniform on a subsequent visit.  The older gentleman who owns the shop also had a Golden Kite 4th class, but that was way out of my price range.

 

My son goofing around in another shop while I ask for a discount (you never actually "haggle" in Japan).  You just ask for a "warabiki"

 

My son keeping up the conversation with the owner of a small shop in Kanonji, who offered us strawberries and manju while I looked over the decorations he pulled out after I expressed an interest in them. 

 

The owner wasn't himself at all interested in the decorations and seemed to be surprised that I was.  He only got these out when I said that I was interested in the Taisho era and into the 30s.  He seemed to want to get rid of them all in one sale and quoted me 50,000 yen.  I already had many of them so we agreed on a few for a lower price.  This is where I got the Golden Kite 7th class.

 

My daughter was with me on another visit to the antique shops in Kochi.

[SARGE]

Neat photographs.  These photos are indeed made to induce memories of earlier days.  

 

 

[abufletcher]

This website contains a lot of excellent information about the origins of the Golden Kite award.

 

And further information on this thread.

 

And yet more background information on the Golden Kite.

[abufletcher]

I read that the 6th class of the Golden Kite was among the rarest (excepting the classes awarded to generals) because the 6th class was awarded to NCOs and numerically there just weren't as many of those. 

 

The 4th class is a very pretty medal, with some gold trim that is missing from the 5th class award, but unless you're really aware of the subtle differences, it looks very similar to the 5th class...and costs twice as much. 

 

Another thing that set the Golden Kite apart from other Japanese decorations is that it is strictly a battle award vs. a campaign medal and initially came with a lifetime pension that was many times a soldier's typical monthly pay.