Early Japanese Air gun manufacturing

[DWTrull]

I have developed a theory about early Japanese Air Rifles that were imported to the United States.

Lets start with a little history:

Japans industrial revolution occurred in the latter half of the 1800’s during the Meiji period. The emperor decided it was time to remodel Japan on a Western model. The goal was to make Japan a European-style empire that could compete in the increasingly global world. It was an era of conquerors and colonies and the Emperors deepest concern was that it might become a colony under the control of one of the great powers. This had been the fate of much of India and Southeast Asia, including China which yielded Hong Kong to Britain in 1842. The Japanese swore Tokyo and Kyoto would never share the same fate. Consequently, they believed that the country needed to modernize as rapidly as possible, building up its economic strength to reinforce its military and protect itself from invasion. So Japan hired over 3000 Western technical during this period to bring about Japans Industrial revolution. The result was an industrial revolution that lasted from roughly 1890 to 1930. Japan would build a diverse range of industries, from textiles to steel, to light industries.  Japan had the opportunity to hasten its   development by adopting technologies at their current best practice, also known as technological   convergence. In other words, Japan would emulate and imitate the best the West had to offer. This offered an enormous savings in time and resources for the economy.
 
So the take home bit of information from the short history lesson is that the Japanese developed a reputation of  taking proven technologies and copying it. From tin toys to air rifles to guitars and cars, the Japanese would copy and often time improve upon. A good example are the
Lawsuit guitars of the 1970s-80s. After a slow start in the 1960s, by the late 1970s, the Japanese began producing copies of American guitars such as Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker that were just as good as the American counterparts. These guitars were not built under license so they were given catchy English names. Some American companies responded with lawsuits, and others such as Fender responded by have some guitars built in Japan under license by Fender . These Guitars which were built under license were marketed under the Fender name.
 
Now that we have established the general Modus operandi , let's discuss Japanese air rifles.

It's been long known that the Japanese have produced some mighty fine airguns since the 1970s-80s. The Air Rifles from this period are invariably a copy of a proven Air Rifle such as the Crosman or Sheridan. Trademark Japanese brands such as Sharp, SKB, Howa, Taiyo Juki come to mind. The copies are usually exceptional and sometimes even better than the original. The Sheridan A and C have been copied, and the Crosman 160, 180, and 400 have been copied to my knowledge. Going back a little further In 1960s, a large number of cheap youth sized spring powered Japanese air rifles appeared made by the Shinbisha Air Rifle company, aka SAR. These were marked with various trade names according to what market they were destined for and varied slightly from one another in appearance. The Known tradenames for the Shinbisha produced rifles include Arrowhead, Winston, TSA, SAR, EIG, and TSA.

Now let's delve into the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. First of all, documentation is nonexistant. No Boxes, no instructions, no receipts and no advertisements!! Undoubtedly they were exported from Japan to the US  as a large number have been found here. The US was trying to rebuild Japans economy after the war and would encourage light industry such as toys and air rifles.
It has been established that Japan did mass produce some air rifles prior to the war. As usual, they were copies of proven western designs. The earliest I have heard of is the "Oziehs" a copy of the Crescent Break-open BB gun from around 1900. This rifle is in the Daisy Museum. Daisy's general manager had toured the orient in 1907 promoting their spring air powered  air rifles and it was a resounding success. China was to become a major export market for the next 30 years. So Western Air Rifles were not uncommon  in China or Japan prior to the war, and it wasn't long before Japan began marketing homegrown copies of western air guns. A 1931 Japanese ad clearly depicts a Dolla style spring piston pistol named the EAGLE and the two BB rifles in the Ad closely resembling an early Daisy model. 
A few year prior to the war, Japan entered into friendly agreements with Germany regarding trade and exchanging technology. Many German products were now being built under license in Japan. When German made products began being boycotted in the United States, German designed products, licensed and  manufactured in Japan could still slip under the radar and be sold in the US. I believe the "Made in Japan" labeled Spring Barreled JGA pistols is one of those German designs that was manufactured in Japan under license . When American importers could not get the German manufactured products, they resorted to getting the Japanese manufactured version built under license. These  air guns were built under a license agreement and  could be labeled JGA. The son of the original owner of a "Made in Japan" pistol confirms it is prewar.
It is my belief that the Japanese did not limit themselves to spring barrel pistols. I believe the Japanese also built some German designed Spring Air Rifles under license as well prior to the war. It is also known that Japan manufactured waisted pellets for air rifles before the war. These were marketed under the Keenfire name. Air Rifles of German design built under license in Japan would be labeled as Diana or Haenel, just like they did with the JGA. The Airguns manufactured under license are well built but not built to the high quality of the German original. Obviously cruder but very serviceable. They would have the German name stamped on them and usually have some Japanese characters stamped by the flat area near the rear sight. Otherwise these rifles would look at first glance like their German counterpart. Its only with a closer examination that the subtle difference become apparent, and obviously the Japanese Characters are a dead giveaway. Being legally licensed to manufacture these rifles, they can be marketed and sold as either  JGA, DIANA or HAENEL whichever the case may be. That's all the importers care about anyway. Regardless this only lasted a year or so before the war ended it. So in summary, Japanese built air rifles bearing only German tradenames were built under license just before the war.

When the war ended, the industrial capacity of both Germany and Japan was devastated.  Haenel ended up behind the Iron Curtain and all of Dianawerks equipment and trademark was award to a British company as war reparations, and would not resume Airgun manufacturing until September  1950. It appears other German factories also weren't making air rifles until 1950. This left a void that Japan happily filled. During the occupation, Japan began producing copies of prewar German air guns again. This time around, they were not built under license, and therefore did not use the German tradename. The JGA style Spring barrel pistol would now be marketed under a different name (LOC). Postwar Air Rifles manufactured utilizing the basic prewar German designs were now given all kinds of kooky names. These rifles were to be exported to help rebuild Japans economy. So many of these postwar occupation  era rifles ended up in the United States.  Examples of tradenames used on these postwar rifles include COMET, INDIAN, CROWN, CHAMPION, FUJI SPECIAL, OLYMPIA, PENGUIN, DUCK, RABBIT, CONDOR, KING DIANA, ASAHI, SAKABA and my favorite ATOM ROCKET!

[Goose]

That's fascinating stuff, Dave.  Thanks for posting it.

I remember when I was growing up in the sixties, Japanese imported toys were not considered to be of good quality.  Time changed that.

Be safe,

J~

[lefteyeshot]

Following.

[Pellet Fun]

Very good read. Thank you.

[Back_Roads]

 Very interesting read, something I may look into more myself now also. 

[LuetDave]

I have a Sharp Ace Hunter sold by Beeman in the late 80's around here somewhere, still new in the box.
That is supposed to be a really good quality Japanese product. It was part of a nice Vintage Beeman springer collection I bought.
I kept it because I collect Sheridans and it was supposed to be their answer to the Sheridan pumpers of the USA.
The Sheridan SuperGrade of Japan I heard at the time...  There is even a Williams Peep sight on it
David

[lefteyeshot]

I have a kittle Japanese break barrel. A Arrow Head .22. It's 36" long with a 13.5" barrel. Also I have a Japanese co2 rifle. A .177 E.I.G 1353. It's bolt action to load but to cock you pull a large knob on the back end of the receiver. Got an Air Venturi Inter Mount on it with a Umarex 2-9 x 32 scope. Good shooter.

[Goose]

I have a kittle Japanese break barrel. A Arrow Head .22. It's 36" long with a 13.5" barrel. Also I have a Japanese co2 rifle. A .177 E.I.G 1353. It's bolt action to load but to cock you pull a large knob on the back end of the receiver. Got an Air Venturi Inter Mount on it with a Umarex 2-9 x 32 scope. Good shooter.

That's cool!  Pictures?  Please?

Stay safe,

J~

[lefteyeshot]

I'm kinda' pic posting challenged. If you google Baker Air Guns and Japanese eig 1353 co2 air rifle you can still see the ad and picture. That's where I bought it.

[DWTrull]

I'd like to add a couple of addition points in support of the prewar vs postwar Japanese Airgun history.

This is in regards to patents and trademarks. First of all, there are two types of Patents, a utility Patent and a design patent. A utility patent covers how it work and functions, and a design patent covers the overall design and appearance. Since most airguns of the period were based on proven older designs, most manufacturers opted to use design patents to protect the design aspect of their product. Design patents offered nearly as much protection as a utility patent and was easier to apply for.

Now here's the rub, all utility patents are published, but Design patent for the most part are not, unless requested by the applicant. This is why you cannot find the patent on numerous airguns. Manufacturers routinely got design patents to prevent others from making exact copies of their guns or of specific design attributes. Design patents provide protection for 14 years and are not renewable. So after 14 years anyone can copy your air rifle. Good examples of this in the American airgun market revolves around Crosman Benjamin and Sheridan. Crosman got a design patent for the scissor pumping forearm in 1924. Around 14 years later in 1939, Benjamin copied the scissor forearm when it was legal to do so.  In 1933 Benjamin got a design patent for the bolt cocking action on the model 300. 14 years later in 1947, Crosman could legally copy the design now that the patent had expired. And as we all know, when Sheridan was in dire financial straits,  Sheridan legally copied the Benjamin as well.
 
Now Trademarks are different, because that can be renewed over and over. Trademarks protect the manufacturer from other manufacturers using your trade name to sell anything in the same field you are selling in.

So let's get back to  Prewar and Post war Japanese airgun.

All three of the prewar airguns in question would still be under design patent protection.

All three of the airguns in question utilized the trademark trade name of JGA, Haenel, and Diana.

Remember we have verified one of these airguns is prewar, the JGA. In order to produce these guns while they were still  under design patent protection, they must have been built under licence, which allowed them to use the JGA, DIANA and HAENEL tradename. To sell in the United States, you had to follow the rules.

Post war manufacturing  was a totally different scenario. All design patents had expired by this time, so the Japanese were free to legally copy German designs all they wanted too. Naming was a different story. Since these were no longer under license, the tradenames could not be used, and the Japanese used a number of different names to market the airguns under.

Just a quick aside, all the Japanese copy guns like the copies of the Sheridan model A, Model C, Crosman 160, 180 and 400 etc, occurred after the design patents expired. 

[Goose]

I'm kinda' pic posting challenged. If you google Baker Air Guns and Japanese eig 1353 co2 air rifle you can still see the ad and picture. That's where I bought it.

Thanks, Tim.  I'll look them up.

That's good info, Dave.

Ride on,

J~

[MDriskill]

Very interesting stuff! Thanks for posting.

We would love to see more complete photo essays of the guns attached to those trademarks in the OP!

 

[Agate47]

Dave,

Thanks for the great info. I bought an Indian S-450 (.177) in 1989 from the Sportsmans Club at Yokota Air Base in Japan. It is a very simple break-barrel springer, but shoots very accurately. It was my only air rifle for over 20 years, so it shot a lot of pellets in my garages.

Alas, this small diameter spring (about 15 mm), is very tired now. The closest substitute seems to be a Diana 16 spring, but it is finer wire and an inch or so shorter. I wish I could find a replacement.

Oh yeah, the marks on this Indian include "Made By Tokyo". Interesting turn of phrase.

Steve