Damaged IJA Helmet with Canvas Liner, Translation Help Needed

[LetsGo82nd]

Thought I would share this damaged IJA Type 90 with a 1939 dated canvas liner system (I think most if not all of these canvas liners are dated 1939). I am not really sure if this helmet has battle damage or if it suffered from some GI target practice? The helmet has a variety of markings on it which I can hopefully get translated. The shell is a size large and appears to have a lot number stamped along the rear skirt by the size and factory stampings. Is there any significance to these numbers, I haven't seen them on very many helmets? I remember this being discussed previously but can not remember the conclusions that were drawn about them. When I got this helmet the Army star was missing so I added one for the photo shoot that matched up pretty well. Any additional information is greatly appreciated. -Jeremy

[LetsGo82nd]

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[Paul G]

Thats a great Looking helmet Jeremy.

PG-

[Papa Nambu]

The 2 rows of smaller letters are in hiragana on the first line, this would normally be written right to left in those days, so it says "Seroho" and katakana on the second line, and assuming they are also going right to left they read "Nakamo(ri?)" that may be a unit name.

The larger letters are katakana and appear to go left to right. They have "Seroho" again, but this time "Seroho Hayashi".

"Seroho" doesn't seem like a normal Japanese name, so I really don't know what to make of it. Maybe it's supposed to go the other way and be "Horose" which really doesn't work either. Plus that would mean the other names go the other way as well, which wouldn't make sense as Nakamori & Hayashi are common Japanese names.

The small 大 marking is the kanji for "large" and is the size marking.

[GeorgeP]

It might be my screen but that damage sure looks recent. Is there oxidation around the entry exit hole edges? Maybe it looks really different in hand.

Tom

[LetsGo82nd]

The 2 rows of smaller letters are in hiragana on the first line, this would normally be written right to left in those days, so it says "Seroho" and katakana on the second line, and assuming they are also going right to left they read "Nakamo(ri?)" that may be a unit name.

The larger letters are katakana and appear to go left to right. They have "Seroho" again, but this time "Seroho Hayashi".

"Seroho" doesn't seem like a normal Japanese name, so I really don't know what to make of it. Maybe it's supposed to go the other way and be "Horose" which really doesn't work either. Plus that would mean the other names go the other way as well, which wouldn't make sense as Nakamori & Hayashi are common Japanese names.

The small 大 marking is the kanji for "large" and is the size marking.

Thank you very much for taking the time to translate those for me. It would be very interesting to be able to ID the helmet to at least a unit and perhaps even a soldier. Thanks again.

Jeremy

[LetsGo82nd]

It might be my screen but that damage sure looks recent. Is there oxidation around the entry exit hole edges? Maybe it looks really different in hand.

Tom

I will take some closeups of the damaged areas this evening and post them up. -Jeremy