The Emperors New Handgun

By Patrick Phillips

The Type 26 was Japan’s first domestically designed and produced military handgun. Designed and accepted in 1893 (the 26th year of Emperor Meiji’s reign) production began the following year at the Tokyo artillery arsenal. Following a trend of self-sufficiency and nationalism, the Japanese did not want to be held reliant on western powers for arms, equipment, and engineering ability; the Japanese set out to design their very own handgun for military service. This new 6-shot, double action only revolver was intended to replace the earlier Smith & Wesson No. 3 revolvers chambered in .44 Russian that had been imported from the United States. Not only would the Japanese modernize their military arms, but they would do it themselves.

1. Design and Operation

The Japanese very much liked their Smith and Wesson revolvers and incorporated many of its best features into their new handgun. They maintained the ‘top break’ action for loading, and almost exactly copied the latch design. They also borrowed the auto ejecting feature for spent cases, which automatically pushes out spent cases as the action is opened, and then snaps back into place when the action is fully opened. Placing reliability and robustness as a high priority in their new sidearm design, they included a large pivot pin on which the pistol would open and close, therefore ensuring durability under combat conditions, and guaranteeing years of reliable service. From the French Mle. 1892 Lebel revolver, they borrowed the swing-out sideplate. This feature made for easy maintenance and servicing by allowing the user to completely open the side of the pistol and inspect or replace the internal components. Like most military pistols of the day, the Type 26 features a swiveled lanyard loop underneath the grip.

Fig 1.1 As you open the action of the pistol, the ejector will push all six cases from the cylinder and snap back into place inside the cylinder after fully opening the action.

Fig 1.2 To open the side plate, the rear of the trigger guard is pushed forward and unhooked from its retainer. The trigger guard is then rotated downward, unlocking the side plate. This procedure is aided by a small patch of checkering on the rear of the trigger guard. A small under cut at the front of the side plate can then be grasped by a thumb nail, and the sideplate rotated toward the rear of the pistol, exposing its surprisingly simple inner workings.

The revolvers originally left the arsenal with a charcoal blued finish, and Philippine mahogany checkered grips. The four stacked cannon ball stamping of the Tokyo artillery arsenal, Japanese characters for the model designation, and serial number are all stamped into the right-side plate of the gun. The first few hundred pre-production guns were devoid of markings.

Fig 1.3 Markings on the right side-plate of the pistol. Early production models would lack any factory markings. The Japanese had decided to take a step away from the Smith and Wesson single action only function of the No. 3 revolver and adopt a double-action-only (DAO) system of operation. DAO simply means that the trigger cocks the hammer, rotates the cylinder, and releases the hammer in one pull of the trigger. The hammer cannot be cocked back by itself. The hammer is large, and rectangular in shape and due to being DAO, lacks a hammer spur. The face of the hammer mounts a very large, fixed firing pin (again for durability). The front sight is a semi-circular blade pinned to the muzzle and the rear sights are very small, almost useless (more on the sights later).

The cylinder of the Type 26 is ‘free rotating’, held only in position by the cylinder hand and has no provision for preventing unintended rotation. This means that the pistols cylinder could be rotated after firing and the next time the trigger is squeezed, the hammer may fall on a spent case. In combat, hearing a ‘click’ where a ‘bang’ should be would have been gut wrenching. At least one account exists where this happened to a Japanese officer, costing him his life (Dabbs 2022). The cylinder rotation problem didn’t seem to bother the Japanese, given that they made no attempt to fix the rotating cylinder issue. Since the Type 26 would stay in active service until the end of the Second World War, it must not have been a serious concern.

Other common complaints are the lack of a single action, and the practically useless sights. It’s only appropriate in this situation to examine and understand Japanese doctrine of the time. Pistols in the Japanese military essentially served the same function as in other militaries. It was a badge of rank and status among officers and NCO’s (as well as the sword). Among enlisted men, the pistol served as a personal defensive weapon for soldiers who wouldn't normally carry a rifle, like machine gunners. The Japanese did not envision their soldiers taking deliberate aimed shots with the aid of a single action trigger, but instead imagined emergency close quarters engagements with quick point shooting at close distance of multiple attackers. In that type of doctrine, the double action performed well, and the sights tended to be a non-issue for the pistols intended role.

Fig 1.4 Very small rear sights.

The holster for the Type 26 bears many French hallmarks from the era, undoubtedly taken from the 1873 Chamelot-Delvigne “French Ordnance revolver”, and the later Mle 1892 Lebel revolver. These holsters as well as the holster for the Type 26 are leather and feature a large ‘clamshell’ flap that serves to cover and protect the pistol inside the holster. The clamshell cover of the Type 26 also serves to cover the ammunition pocket which has 18 individual loops for extra ammunition, enough for three reloads. The inside of the clamshell is often marked with production data such as manufacturer and date of production. The rear of the holster features a single large belt loop, and two steel ‘D’ rings for attaching a leather shoulder strap, which is adjustable for size. The front of the holster holds the included cleaning rod. A lanyard was also issued with the Type 26 revolver and attached to the pistols lanyard ring under the grip. The other end of the lanyard would be looped around the wearers neck and chest.

Fig 1.5 18 rounds of spare ammunition inside the ammo pocket.

Fig 1.6 Standard production pistols were charcoal blued, like this example.

2. Cartridge

The cylinder holds six rounds of a proprietary 9x22mm rimmed cartridge with a 150 grain (9.72 gram) solid lead bullet, with a velocity of roughly 500 feet per second (152 meters per second). The 9x22mm Japanese cartridge is similar in performance to the .38 Smith & Wesson cartridge. Although considered quite anemic by today’s standards, the 9x22mm Japanese cartridge was on par with other popular military loadings of the day. The Japanese 9x22mm ammunition was originally loaded with black powder but was later adapted for smokeless powder at the turn of the century. Ammunition was packed in 50-count cardboard boxes and sealed with a paper strip around the perimeter.

Fig 2.1 A 50 round box of 9x22mm ammunition as issued by the factory. This example is a reproduction.

In the United States 9x22mm ammunition is commonly referred to as ‘9mm Jap’. No major ammunition manufacturers currently produce it, although it is intermittently available in limited quantities through smaller boutique and obsolete ammunition makers but is generally quite expensive. (Buffalo Arms sells a 50 round box for $84.49 USD as of February 2023, https://www.buffaloarms.com/9mm-japanese-revolver-ammuniti-amo9mmjap.html)

Fig 2.2 9x22mm Japanese revolver ammunition. Note the very thin rim measuring in at only 0.30 in (0.75mm). (left) A converted .38 SPL case with thinned rim. (Right) Original Japanese 9mm ammunition. 9x22mm pistol ammunition can be made by reloaders and all the components are usually available at online retailers, except for the cases. The cases are the Achilles heel for reloaders with this ammunition. The cases can be made from .38 S&W and .38 SPL but require some serious work. The case must be shortened, and then the rim must be thinned down to the appropriate thickness. This generally wouldn’t be too much of an issue, except that this thinning must be done from the underside of the rim. The final rim thickness is only 0.030 in (0.75mm), and this thin rim also requires the use of shims to take up the space inside the shell holder when priming, or else one runs the risk of tearing off the rim of the case.

3. Production

Production of Type 26 pistols would run from 1894 until 1923, when the Great Kanto earthquake devastated Japan and destroyed the arsenal in Tokyo. Even before the earthquake the Japanese were in the process of adopting what would become the Type 14 Nambu, Semi-automatic pistol. Following reconstruction from the earthquake, it was decided that the Tokyo arsenal would not be rebuilt and instead a new arsenal would be established in Kokura, Japan. At Kokura, production of Type 14 pistols took over, and roughly 300 more Type 26 pistols were assembled from existing parts. These last revolvers would have straight grooved grips, and a salt blued finish. Production numbers indicate that just under 60,000 Type 26 revolvers were produced; quite low when considering that approximately 277,000 Type 14 pistols were manufactured in total (Honeycutt 1991).

Although new production of Type 26’s had ceased and newer semi-automatic pistols were becoming the standard, the Japanese kept the Type 26 in service until the end of the war. They would repair and refurbish pistols on an ‘as needed’ basis. These refurbished pistols would receive the new salt bluing and grooved grips. It is common to find these refurbished guns throughout the entire serial number range. The Japanese would also continue to manufacture replacement holsters throughout the war. Type 26 revolvers would continue to be used post war by Japanese police departments.

Fig 3.1 A Type 26 revolver with grooved grips.

4. Conclusion

Some have dubbed the Type 26 the “worst military handgun” due to its quirks and strange features (Venturino 2022). The drawbacks that we see today are best understood through the context of its day. Is the 9x22mm round anemic? Yes, but that wasn’t uncommon for its day, and many military pistols were chambered for what we would consider ‘weak’ by todays standards. Is the rotating cylinder an issue? Depends on how you look at it. Today we would not accept such a shortcoming in a handgun designed for self-defense, but it doesn’t appear that it was serious problem for the Japanese military. Sure, the pistol has some interesting design elements that we might not consider today, but for its time none of these features were considered extreme, and some, such as the swing-out sideplate were revolutionary. The double action only mechanism would also go on to be adopted by other major military powers in the world such as Great Briton. It is the authors opinion that the pistol was manufactured to a high degree of craftsmanship with a focus on durability and the Type 26 fulfilled its intended role as well as the Japanese could have hoped for over fifty years.