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Japan. Sake Bowl of the Firefighting Unit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
During the Meiji era, samurai firefighters disappeared, and the brigades were integrated into the police, while volunteer groups came under prefectural control.
Despite these reforms, firefighting services remained inefficient. It was not until 1939, on the eve of the Pacific War, that the government reorganized volunteer firefighters into civil defense groups (keibō dan) and expanded the professional brigades.
This lacquered wooden sake bowl dates from the 1930s, during the Shōwa period.
