I saw a barrel of Arisakas with the chrysanthemum stamp in a gun store back in the ‘90s. They were all in good shape and going for less than $100. I passed by because I figured I’d never find ammunition for them.
Because the ammo is pretty uncommon, you can actually find it now. 9MM, not so much. Go figure.
I own one that I refinished. The ammo is refered to as the 7mm Jap round Only available from Graff and sons. Costs $1.85 a round but man is that rifle accurate!
And fun to shoot. You should have bought one.
If it had the chrysanthemum stamp on it then it was a war trophy. After the war, thousands of Arisakas were sold as war surplus in the US with the chrysanthemum stamp ground off as it was the “property” of the Emperor.
I had an old guy at church one Sunday before church say, come out here I want to show you something in my van. He opened the rear hatch and tossed back a blanket and a dozen rifles and shotguns were laying there and he said you want to buy them for $1200? I looked at a few and said how about $1000? Done! One of them was an Arisaka with Chrysanthemum stamp intact, hard to find now. He had several double barrel .12 gauges in the bunch. I was happy and his wife was happy he was thinning out his collection he liked to take all of them out and spread them about her kitchen and dining room for days to clean them lol!