Description
You are bidding on a RARE example of a WW2 Imperial Japanese Navy Landing Force Rikusenbo Wool Field / Combat Cap! Worn by Japanese Naval personnel, this pattern of field cap was developed for practical land service and combat use, replacing less suitable traditional naval headgear when operating ashore.
The Imperial Japanese Navy experimented extensively with field caps during the 1930s, particularly for the Navy Gunnery School, Shanghai Special Landing Forces and naval guard units. The Navy formally standardized a combat-cap pattern in November 1937, during the China Incident, ultimately adopting a form closely related to the Army field cap. Contemporary and surviving examples from this period are encountered in green or brown-green wool and were used by Navy personnel serving ashore, including naval landing, guard, engineering, air-base and other land-based formations. Although these caps are frequently associated with the Special Naval Landing Forces, the cap style itself was not restricted exclusively to SNLF personnel. Early surviving Navy field caps are known with paired metal ventilation eyelets, while later wartime variations simplified or eliminated these features. Documented examples dated as early as 1937 show this distinctive two-eyelet-per-side construction.
Made of a coarse brown-green wool material, this cap is in EXCELLENT used condition!There is some expected age, light surface wear, and minor discoloration consistent with wartime use and storage, but nothing that detracts. The body retains excellent overall shape with NO holes, tears, repairs, or other structural damage. The visor also remains completely intact and displays a noticeable period bend (most likely resulting either from storage or being shaped through actual wear). Four metal ventilation eyelets, two on each side, are also present. The tan cloth interior lining is also completely and retains a red Imperial Japanese Navy issue/depot stampinternally. The original front Navy insignia is no longer present, with evidence of its former attachment remaining to the front of the cap. Everything present is 100% ORIGINAL, wartime manufacture, making this a VERY NICE and increasingly difficult-to-find early Imperial Japanese Navy field cap associated with the China Incident and the Navy’s pre-Pacific War development of specialized land-combat equipment! PERFECT for any collection or display!
