Scored this rare little guy on Gunbroker at a very cheap price and it just arrived tonight. Although this carbine looks like something out of Bubba's workshop (and I think that's what the seller thought too) everything you see here is WWII era Japanese craftsmanship!
This started life as an early first variation Tokyo Type 44 carbine. It saw so much hard use and service that it was pulled from the field and converted to a Type 38 configuration before being issued to a Youth training center. These early war Youth centers (Seinen Kuren-jo 青年訓練所) preceded the Youth School (Seinen Gakko 青年学校), and were very short-lived. These are much more scarce than the fairly common "School marked" Arisakas (from the Youth Schools), easily distinguishable by the 文 ("education") kanji added to the top of the receiver near the type markings.
The features changed during the conversion were:
1.) Bayonet assembly and housing removed
2.) New, unique front and rear barrel bands added
3.) Bayonet channel filled with wood plug
4.) Rear sling swivel filled with plug and relocated to the bottom of the stock like a T38
5.) "S" prefix added to serial number
6.) 青 (sei - meaning Youth) kanji added to the top of the receiver
7.) Mum canceled with the Tokyo/Kokura stacked cannonball stamp (to show it has been removed from normal military service)
8.) New front sight
Also neat on this one and consistent with the extensive service it saw, the left side of the stock at the finger groove is VERY worn from years of wear due to being slung over the back of a cavalry soldier. This feature is seen fairly often on these earlier first variation T44's. I can find evidence of about 5 of these "Seinen" rifles that have been reported (may be a little more, but only 2 are listed in Frank Allan's T38 Arisaka book), so definitely a seldom seem Arisaka variation!
This started life as an early first variation Tokyo Type 44 carbine. It saw so much hard use and service that it was pulled from the field and converted to a Type 38 configuration before being issued to a Youth training center. These early war Youth centers (Seinen Kuren-jo 青年訓練所) preceded the Youth School (Seinen Gakko 青年学校), and were very short-lived. These are much more scarce than the fairly common "School marked" Arisakas (from the Youth Schools), easily distinguishable by the 文 ("education") kanji added to the top of the receiver near the type markings.
The features changed during the conversion were:
1.) Bayonet assembly and housing removed
2.) New, unique front and rear barrel bands added
3.) Bayonet channel filled with wood plug
4.) Rear sling swivel filled with plug and relocated to the bottom of the stock like a T38
5.) "S" prefix added to serial number
6.) 青 (sei - meaning Youth) kanji added to the top of the receiver
7.) Mum canceled with the Tokyo/Kokura stacked cannonball stamp (to show it has been removed from normal military service)
8.) New front sight
Also neat on this one and consistent with the extensive service it saw, the left side of the stock at the finger groove is VERY worn from years of wear due to being slung over the back of a cavalry soldier. This feature is seen fairly often on these earlier first variation T44's. I can find evidence of about 5 of these "Seinen" rifles that have been reported (may be a little more, but only 2 are listed in Frank Allan's T38 Arisaka book), so definitely a seldom seem Arisaka variation!
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