14th c. Sh?hei Period Japanese Sankaku Yari Spear Polearm Weapon. Dimensions: Total length: 67", Visible Blade: 16.5", Wood Pole 51.5". In particular, this weapon is equipped with a hira sankaku type of yari, comprised of a pointed spike-like straight blade with a triangular, isosceles-shaped cross-section. Attached to the Yari is a very old label containing the following information: "Spear Made in: Higo Kumamoto Ken; Name: No Name; Age: Sh? Hei 600 years old". Both Higo and Kumamoto refer to the Higo Province (???, Higo no Kuni), an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Ky?sh?. Important Provenance: Presented to Distinguished Marine Colonel James Ogden Brauer when in China as a member of the historic China Marines (4th Marine Regiment) stationed in Shanghai, China from 1927 to 1941. The Marines were sent to protect American citizens and their property in the Shanghai International Settlement during the Chinese Revolution and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Those Marines stationed at the embassy in Peking and the consulate in Tientsin became known as the North China Marines. Brauer was one of 66 officers sent to China in 1927. The regiment, under the command of Colonel Charles S. Hill, sailed from San Diego in the naval transport named Chaumont on February 3, 1927. See Hold HIGH THE TORCH A History of the 4th Regiment, by Kenneth W. Condit, Chapter 5, Published Washington D.C., 1960. The two photographs are of Colonel Brauer in Shanghai, China in 1927. The first photograph is of Brauer leading his men in a parade march through the Shanghai Settlement (Front, right). The march was the first time the troops paraded into the Settlement. Condit stated that it was "on 5 March [1927] the regiment made a practice march through the Settlement." Condit, p. 133. The second photograph is also of Brauer in Shanghai (facing the camera). Ownership of Colonel Brauer's Japanese Weapon(s) transferred by descent to his daughter and then granddaughter who now owns the weapons.