The Modified Nambu Automatic Pistol Type A, or as we collectors in the US know it, the "Papa". The Papa Nambu was designed by the legendary Kijiro Nambu. Beginning manufacture at the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal in 1906, the Papa Nambu takes most of its design from the earlier "Grandpa" Nambu pistol. The Papa is essentially a scaled-up version of the Grandpa with a few minor changes and improvements in design. Major differences from the Grandpa, however, are a larger magazine capacity at seven rounds with a new aluminum baseplate as opposed to wood, a slightly larger trigger guard, a longer barrel, and the deletion of the shoulder stock slot.
The Tokyo arsenal would produce 4600 pieces until 1923. In 1909, Tokyo Gas and Electric (TGE) would also begin manufacture of the Papa Nambu pistol, making 5700 until they too stopped production in 1928. Tokyo-produced pistols will have the classic stacked cannon balls stamped above the chamber, and the TGE guns will have "TGE" inside a circle in the same location. There are some, but very few minor differences in the pistols between manufacturers. For a more in-depth analysis of these pistols, I would recommend Ian McCollum's video on Forgottenweapons.com, and Othias' breakdown at C&Rsenal on YouTube. The C&Rsenal video is included at the end of this article.
Mr. Nambu had hoped for an army contract on the Papa Nambu pistol and even marked all of the guns with "Army Type", on the left of the receiver. This contract never came to fruition for several reasons, one of which was cost, as these were very expensive for their time. They were available for private purchase, and some Japanese officers did purchase them. In 1909, the Japanese navy did adopt them and purchased them from both the Tokyo and TGE arsenals. Navy Papas will have an anchor stamped to the left of the serial number on the right side of the receiver.
The Papa Nambu features a grip safety located on the front of the grip, an adjustable rear sight that allows for ranges from 50, to an optimistic 500 meters, a rear lanyard swivel, and its iconic side-mounted mainspring. The mainspring is attached to the pistols bolt at the rear by way of the cocking knob. The cocking knob itself doesn’t lock to the bolt; instead, the two are locked together by the striker guide. The pistol is a manufacturing work of art, a true testament to the genius of Kijiro Nambu, and the machinists that managed to make it. The complicated machining required to manufacture the pistol would ultimately be its downfall in the eyes of the Japanese military. Its production cost and time as well as some of its intricate features made the pistol much too expensive for military adoption, and not well suited for rugged army service. Although the Imperial Japanese Navy did purchase some Papa Nambu pistols, they were never meant to be the primary naval sidearm. Instead, the Japanese navy used them as a measure to augment the number of pistols already in inventory.
Aside from being expensive, the Papa Nambu had a habit of breaking firing pin tips, this would also plague the later Type 14 Nambu pistols as well. The trigger guard, even after being enlarged from the earlier Grandpa Nambu was still considered too small, and using the pistol with gloves was practically impossible. The pistol also had openings under the grip safety and just under the lanyard swivel. These openings were required for machine operations during manufacture but could allow dirt and debris into the action. This was one major issue for the Japanese army during consideration and testing for army adoption.
The Papa Nambu is chambered in the Japanese 8x33mm bottleneck cartridge, better known as 8mm Nambu and standard 15-round packs of Japanese ammunition could be used. According to Teri Bryant at Nambuworld.com, 50-count boxes of 8mm Nambu were also available for a short period of time, and I am very grateful to have finally gotten my hands on an original example (Thanks Teri!).
These are incredibly cool pistols that aren’t all too common, and I’m very fortunate to have one in my collection. I’m hoping to be able to get to the range soon and do a full range report in the future. In the meanwhile, I’ll be replacing some of the original springs with new ones from Wolff gun springs to keep her in tip-top shooting condition.
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