With Japan opening to Western influence from the 1860’s onward, the Imperial Army used a wide variety of different firearms sourced and imported from various countries. As handgun they used the .44 Smith & Wesson Russian and the Model 3 revolvers, but in 1877 it was decided to develop their own revolver in a smaller caliber than the 44 Russian. During 1894 the Imperial Japanese Army Tokyo Arsenal came up the Type 26 Revolver, named for the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Meiji, although it was only officially adopted in 1895. It was produced into the 1930’s but saw service until the end of WW2. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 127).

The first specimen by MIDWAY is a dummy load with the case knurl, the second one is a loaded round