One I fell off the wagon for... never seen one up close until this one, but, I touched it, so I had to buy it.
It's a Japanese Type 26, the first modern revolver manufactured by Japan, accepted in 1893 by the Imperial Army. These served in just about every modern war Japan was involved in, the Russo-Japanese, Second Sino-Japanese, WW1 and WW2. Only an est. 59,000 were made, so who knows how many remain. It's caliber is 9mm Japanese...basically a 9x23mm rimmed round, it's just under a .38 S&W in ballistics. It's also one that probably won't be fired....as the ammo is pretty pricey boutique stuff(when it's even made). Also....the cylinder doesn't lock like our modern ones do, it pretty much free wheels until it's just ready to drop the hammer, then it locks the cylinder........which as I understand is normal in it's design.
It's an interesting pistol... you can see little bit's of another well known top break design in it.... S&W Model 3, which Japan was using at the time... One really interesting thing, pull the trigger guard back and out, releases a hinged side cover to the inner workings.. I can not imagine this being a good idea in the field.