Intriguing! Meiji 29, yes, 1896, but the character after the nine is not year. (And I would have expected the character "year" to follow if a date.) It looks very similar to the modern character "kei" of keisatsu (police), but is not an exact match. On the other hand, a hundred years ago, characters were not used as precisely as they are now, so it may be a variant. I don't think it is a geographic location tho… That's the first five characters there, reading left to right. My guess is police, or maybe guard, of some sort, is the fifth character. Followed by "one," as the sixth character in the sequence.
The remaining three characters in the first pic I suspect are meant to be read by flipping them, by which I mean I think the perspective in the picture is upside down. I think that based on the way the "three" and the "one" look, because you can sorta see how they would look if they'd been drawn with a brush. If so, the order would be three, four, zero[?!]. Except, I am confused because there is no character for zero in kanji/characters… Maybe what looks like a "zero" is just a symbol, a round "hole" punched in there? Or, maybe the use of Arabic zero was an innovation in the late 19th century, but if so, not one I have come across before… It confuses me. But I guess the series is some sort of registration number.
The two simple characters repeated next to the Arabic 23 are old characters as well. They look like "tsuchi," which means earth, or dirt, except for the two little strokes at the top of each character.... Or, "Turkey," as in the country, but that seems highly improbable. Here I think they must mean something different, but what, I dunno. My guess is that this sequence is also a registration number, or a way of tracking the gun for rework, or something like that.
But, fellas, I really don't know. I am just guessing here. I read Japanese, as in newspapers or books, but I am unfamiliar with old Japanese marked firearms, having never studied them, and don't know the conventions used. I will ask an older Japanese guy I know, a retired admiral, and see what I can turn up.
I'll post again if I can learn more.
-----
Jim, I looked at an old gun, well pix of a gun, like you mention about a year ago. In that case the Japanese did refer to a prefecture and a registration number. So you heard correctly. Perhaps it was the case that civilian guns were registered that way, but military and police guns were not? (Nowadays, no handguns for civilians, at all, and long guns are very, very, difficult, but not impossible. Surely more trouble than I am willing to put up with tho!
)
