We got what I believe is an Arisaka type 38 rifle. It's in EXCELLENT condition (emphasis on excellent, it looks like it was made yesterday.) and it has something written on it (in Japanese) and what I believe to be I guess a seal that was taken off (so, it could have been made in WWII?) Would this gun be safe to shoot? Or not?
If it is authentic then the seal you mentioned looked like this:
The chrysanthemum was either stamped on the receiver or the rifle themselves to indicate the rifle belonged to the Emporer since the chrysanthemum was the symbol for the Emporer. Rifles that were surrendered often had the chrysanthemum ground off by the Japanese soldier as a face saving gesture before surrendering. The type was often stamped on the receiver using the Japanese character
(shiki = Type) followed by Japanese numerals.
There were also a small number of Type 38 rifles that had two concentric circles
instead of a chrysanthemum and in some cases, normal Type 38 rifles had the chrysanthemum removed and replaced with the concentric circles. Not sure what the circles represented but historians believe they were issued to special units like the Kempei Tai (secret police), military police, prison guards, and embassy guards.
There were also markings from the arsenal that either produced the rifle or supervised the subcontractor. You'll see these markings on the left side of the receiver at the end of the serial numbers. One symbol means the rifle came from the arsenal that produced it, two symbols meant that the rifle came from a subcontractor. In this case, the first symbol identifies the arsenal and the second symbol identifies the subcontractor.
Koishikawa Arsenal (until 1935)
Kokura Arsenal (after 1935 when name changed)
Nagoya Arsenal
Jinsen Arsenal
Mukden Arsenal
Toyo Kogyo
Tokyo Juki Kogyo
Tokyo Juki Kogyo
Howa Jyuko
Izawa Jyuko
Rifles that were removed from military service and given to other countries or to schools would have the chrysanthemum overstamped with the symbol for the Koishikawa or Kokura Arsenal in addition to having this symbol
on top of the receiver between the chrysanthemum and the type designation characters.
I have an Arisaka Type 38 too! My Grandpa gave it to me, and it too has something in Japanese written on it. My Grandpa said it says "Death to Americans" (Was used in WWII), but I'm not sure if he was telling one of his lies again (like how he got it off a Japanese soldier after a bayonet charge. My grandpa was in the Navy and the war ended before his ship got into combat)
Most likely your granddad was having some fun with you. Most likely Japanese symbols he saw were just the symbols used to denote Type and model along with the arsenal that manufactured it. If you still have it and check for the chrysanthemum symbol to see if it still has it on the rifle. If it does, then that's more than likely a captured rifle as opposed to one surrendered by the Japanese soldier.
Sourceack-ack
