King George V’s appointment to the rank of Field Marshal of the Imperial Japanese Army (gensui rikugun-taishō) followed the appointment of the Emperor Taishō as a Field Marshal in the British Army on 1 January 1918. The badge and sword were presented to the king by Prince Higashi-Fushimi Yorihito, who travelled especially to Britain to make the presentation on behalf of the emperor. The prince’s arrival on 28 October was marked with appropriate ceremony, and the king and the Duke of Connaught met him at Paddington Station. The king described the investiture the following day in his diary: ‘At 10.0 Prince Yorihito presented me with the sword & badge of a Japanese Field Marshal in the throne room, a nice little ceremony, very well carried out.’ Following the presentation, the prince was decorated with the Royal Victorian Chain, one of only three Japanese recipients.

The oval badge depicts two crossed ensigns of the Imperial Japanese army and navy, the proper left edged in purple, beneath a spray of paulownia flowers topped with the imperial chrysanthemum mon. Following the rank’s institution in 1872, it was awarded to only 18 individuals; of these, King George V was the only foreign recipient.

Text adapted from Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)