What Would you Do?

[juoneen]

I have an idea...Since you know the name of the owner...Why not see if you can find relatives from japan, and see if they recall what he or they put into it. Just a thought.

[Jean-Loup]

Start by getting it X-rayed. I managed to get that done in France for free for some ground dug wallets I found.Maybe you can also get a microcamera inserted between the threads as well?

Opening it would defenetly destroy it.

JL

[Budo45]

question is what does it feel like is in side it? me id have to find out if its just paper id leave it be. does restiching kill the value that much?

[Staldion]

More than the beautiful design of this item, the question about what charms were put inside by the soldier family make it really special an attractive. The only person who know what is inside were the soldier and a close parent, your are the keeper of this intime secret now. Open it would be very intrusive, you get a part of the soul of this imperial japanese soldier, would be pointless to hurt it.

[Stu W]

I belive the pube's comment refers to the use of femail pubes as a good luck charm. I remember hearing about this but i'm not 100% sure on if it's an old wives tail or not.

I asked a Japanese friend about this and their reply was a resounding "No", accompanying a look of disgust. However, she is not a veteran so I'm going to ask MikeB to comment on this thread. Maybe he has run across the theory before and can put it to rest or in a context.

Regards,
Stu

[RodneyO]

"Bachi (bad luck)"..that's what we say here in Hawaii.... like never take lava rocks or anything out of a Heiau. It's a nice piece of Japanese militaria history, I would just leave it alone....don't want Bachi!!

[john mack]

belt

Open it ! You will not be satisfied until you know what is in it , you might even find the owners name in it and where it came from. Just put everything back after you have checked it all out and seal it up . I might be called foolish but thats what i would do . At least you might have some idea of its origins .

[S. McKibben]

His Name is Ida Yashukiro Wakayama,he was from Umikusa Prefective,****su #356

[john mack]

Ah

I neglected to read the full thread . I would still open it ! But thats just me , i have a need to know the unknown so i would not be able to be so restrained .

[NLF]

Leave it as it is

[MikeB]

What would you do?

Ah yes! Whether to open the haramaki or not...? Now, that is the question. I had similar reflections when I posed a like scenario here on this Forum many moons ago (well, maybe a year or two ago!) The answers being shared here are similar to the ones voiced back then.
Many senninbari or haramaki have a pouch in the center of the wrap where personal belongings might be stored. They run the gamut from the items that others have spoken about here. The senninbari was given as a good luck item of protection. The added things that were placed in the pouch or sewn inside the inner layers almost always turn out to be good luck charms of one kind or another. These may take the form of wooden plaques or paper ofuda. On the rare ocassion there might be photos, small flags, small dolls, prayer beads, seeds, beans, or shrine medals, etc. All were placed as additional items of good luck that had meaning within the culture generally or within the specific context of the person making the belt and the loved one waiting to receive it. Some of the ofuda found inside (but not usually) may actually be named to the person who owned the belt. The priest or monk may have actually taken the time to create an ofuda that was person specific. Most were pre fabricated and un-named but some were made on the spot and the owner's name placed in ink on the outside of the paper. This was then wrapped up neatly for insertion inside the one thousand stitch belt. Other paper charms may actually have unit information on them even though this was against regulations. This too is the extremly rare case (almost never seen.)
Some belts may have a pack of charms sealed inside the belt. Examples like this may be viewed in my book on pages 206-208. When viewing these pages, it is easy to see how tempting it might be to want to go "treasure hunting" and find out what lies inside! The examples I presented in the book came from senninbari examples in my collection where the belts had been partially unstitched or where the stitches had separated from age. It was easy to take these apart and then use them as examples to show fellow historians and collectors. One very rare example displayed appears in my book on page 227. Here a letter was written by the soldier-owner and sealed inside the belt. The contents expressed his desire that should he die, money would be provided to the person who shipped his body from the field in China, back to Japan. After awhile and with experience, you can tend to guess what is "probably" sewn inside the haramaki. Often holding the piece up to bright light will reveal the contents.
As for hair being sewn into the belt, that too occured. It seems to have been only on rare occasions, however, as I only have three examples out of many hundred collected. I have examined perhaps a dozen over the years. One example I own was a bring back from Iwo Jima by a Marine who also returned with a sword and good luck flag. This senninbari is one of the most elaborate I have seen.
Hair placed in belts may be traced to very old folk legends from Okinawa. This fact was covered in my book on page 204. Female deities known as onarigami would give their brothers good luck items of hair sealed in small bags to protect them during journeys far away. It was supposed to insure their safe return. If you look at the hair found in World War Two senninbari, it is normally quite long. Some belts with hair are sealed inbetween layers of material but the hair may be seen poking through the cloth. When you try to examine it more closely by pulling it through the material, it normally breaks off and you end up with "the short end of the straw" example in your hand. Perhaps this is why the myth of pubic hair in the belts is still being passed around, I don't know. In my opinion, this story is more than likely only myth. Based on conversations with Japanese veterans, and hearing some of the stories from the women who made the senninbari back in Japan, I would heavily doubt that many, if any one-thousand stitch belts contained pubic hair. The Japanese were quite modest and such outward sexual behavior would have been improper. Can you imagine one woman holding another's senninbari in order to place a stitch, while at the same time feeling a lump of pubic hair inside the material, between her fingers! Doubt it... Likewise, Japanese soldiers were often so modest that it is nearly impossible to find photographic images of them with shirts off sporting senninbari.
As a final thought, I might think about this point.... If I were a collector and I was looking for a nice senninbari, complete with charms, I might be interested in the example being discussed here. However, if it was opened, how would I know the charms were the ones that came with the actual belt in my hands? Perhaps someone wanted to "trick out" their haramaki and found some ofuda on Ebay and simply put them inside the cracked open layers of cloth. Let's also suppose that you opened the belt because you had to "feel the thrill." Once done, you decide to sew it back up. Next someone inspects your authentic World War Two relic and asks you about those new, non-matching stitches found down one side of the belt.....?? Hum..... You quickly find yourself relating the story about how you had to look inside and ....... You get the picture. On the other hand, if you have to look inside the senninbari and you don't care about any of these finer points of collecting, then go ahead and open it up. Just a few random thoughts that I hope help in the discussion... MikeB

[mcmike]

Open it. There might be candy inside.

[S. McKibben]

Thank you very much guys.Mike you give alot of great points.The reason I bought this one is because of the contents being original and untouched.I was originally looking for a comfort bag with all the original contents but have had no luck then this one came to surface I jumped all over it.As long as I own it I think it will remain untouched.Being that its named makes it easy to leave it alone.If it was not named then would probley open it to see if I could find a name.Its really hard not to open it just because of the unknown.

As far as contents,it fells like papers kinda crinklie and some kind of cloth(flag maybe)in the midddle.There is nothing hard or unbendable inside.

Shaun

[RussellM]

Excellent info Mike, and well thought through. You make some valid points, especially if and when it comes to re-sale. I'd love to own an un-touched and complete example like this one, and speculating on the contents is half the thrill of having such an item.

Regards

Russ

[Edokko]

The address reads 356 Shiotsu Village, Kaiso County, Wakayama Prefecture (和歌山縣海草郡塩津村三五六番).
Great condition senninbari, and Mike says it all, don't open it, not worth damaging the authenticity of this piece of history, just to find out there were a few amulets inside, which are not any more valuable by itself. The true collector/caretaker value lay in it's original condition and the mystery of the contents.