Pre-order your copy of Tobacco of the Emperor today!
I’m excited to announce an additional new book form Headstamp Publishing: Tobacco of the Emperor, by Patrick Phillips. This is a guide to Japanese cigarettes and related material form the turn of the century until the endow World War Two. Beautifully photographed by James Rupley, it covers:
– General history of tobacco in Japan
– Tobacco in the Japanese military
– Japanese cigarette brands and packaging, and how they changed over time
– Related accessories like pipes, matches, cigarette cases, and lighters
– Foreign cigarettes used by the Japanese from China, Indonesia, Thailand, and elsewhere
We are making this book available for preorder in our ongoing Kickstarter for Clockwork Basilisk. You can order it as a standalone pledge or an add-on item. We are also offering a Japanese bundle of both our Tobacco and Swords books, along with six exclusive extras items – patches, bookmarks, and ex Libris labels for both books. Check it out here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/clockwork-basilisk?ref=7opr2k
How to edit your Kickstarter pledge:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/clockwork-basilisk/posts/3672215
Want to cancel your earlier preorder of Swords of the Emperor to get the Japanese bundle? end us a note here with your name, email, and order number and we will cancel and refund it: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/contact
So what will Ian’s next book be? “The Toilet Paper of the Emperor”?
Okay folks. Chill. No hate messages, please. I am not trashing the author for writing the book or Ian for publishing it. I am making a joke to make a point.
There is a line that goes: the amateurs debate tactics, the professionals discuss logistics. It takes more than providing an army with guns and bullets to conduct a war. One big thing that needs to be taken care of is troop morale. Providing the simple creature comforts, that civilians take for granted, can go a long way to keep the troop fighting.
A serious suggestion for a book is “The Booze of the Emperor”. Besides tobacco, I gotta believe that the Japanese army kept their soldiers supplied with saki and beer. Ian needs to look for someone who knows about this sort of thing and get a book on it cranked out.
Was it not Queen Mary who at christmas 1914 provided british overseas troops with a tin box containing chocolate cigarettes etc with her own money
The joke was she forgot the french letters(condoms) especially as most troops were in France
A princess Mary, though named after her mother the Queen.
https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202106the-mary-tin/
Before that, in 1900, Victoria sent chocolate to the troops in South Africa. I’ve got my granddad’s.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-44757386
Great story. So Princess Mary’s idea was not original. So now I have to wonder if Victoria’s idea was original and she also copied an older effort.
Honestly, I find this subject fascinating, and have already ordered my bundle this morning. As a (former) smoker I bought packs of local cigarettes in almost every country I visited during my Army career. Looking forward to it!!
Good catch I saw Mary and thought it was the Queen
The boxes and contents used to sell for about 20 francs at gunshows here in France. I never bought one and regret it now as I have not seen one in years
The tins are available, but pretty pricey.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=princess+mary+1914+christmas+tin&_sop=12&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5337839255&customid=&toolid=10001
A question for Ian and Patrick? Where did Japan get the tobacco during the war? What country grew tobacco that was willing to trade with Japan?
Perhaps they cultivated tobacco themselves? There are several tobacco plants that would grow in Japanese climate, even the most popular one [i]Nicotiana tabacum[/i]. At least today tobacco is cultivated in Japan according to Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivation_of_tobacco
Since production was, at least in part, under the military, did Japan market tobacco to raise funds in occupied countries?
According to Steven Karch’s book: ‘A brief history of cocaine : from Inca monarchs to Cali cartels : 500 years of cocaine dealing,’ Japan was the largest producer of cocaine in the world through the 20s and 30s, raising funds for the military by selling to the Chinese.
The french military was still providing cheap cigarettes to soldiers in the 70’s
They were specially packaged and tasted horrible. The tobacco was the worst quality and we still produced good tobacco then
There was an Arab student in grad school with me. He smoked French cigarettes and they where awful smelling. An acquired taste I suppose.
IMHO, publishing a book about tobacco products devalues the Headstamp brand.
When I saw the title of the book, I too thought that is was an odd topic for Headstamp. But if you are going to publish books on the firearms the soldiers in the field use, publishing a book about the conditions that the soldiers endured when using the firearms is not too far off in the weeds.
Actually there was an old french slang term for north african arabs who were known as PETITE GRIS after the tobacco they smoked
But if you used it today get ready to run
as someone that smokes cigars this is the most interesting book I think that head stamp publishing is working on so far