Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very good original WWII Imperial Japanese Army aluminum water canteen, complete with its cotton web carrying harness and original Model B wooden stopper. The bottom retains Japanese production and inspection markings together with a date indicating Shōwa 17, or 1942, while the harness carries additional Japanese characters worthy of further research.

The canteen belongs to the Japanese Army pattern introduced during Shōwa 5, or 1930, commonly identified today as the Sho-5 canteen. This new pattern replaced the smaller earlier Japanese Army canteen with a substantially larger aluminum body holding approximately one liter of water. The basic body form remained in use throughout World War II, although numerous changes were made to its harness, stopper, attachment hardware, and manufacturing details as wartime material shortages increased.

The canteen is arsenal and maker marked on the bottom under the strap, and there is a date cartouche with a 17 inside, denoting Showa 17, or 1942. The web harness is in good condition, with the expected fading and wear from being in long service. This is a later version with the stopper retained by canvas, not leather, and the strap is still in good shape. There are some stamped Kanji characters on the harness.

The combination of the 1942 Shōwa 17 date, original aluminum Sho-5-pattern body, surviving wooden stopper, later cotton-web stopper retention system, complete carrying harness, and additional Japanese markings makes this a strong representative example of Imperial Japanese Army field equipment from the middle years of World War II. The dated body and evolving harness construction are particularly useful in illustrating the progressive material-saving changes made to Japanese personal equipment as the war continued.