To quote an opinion by the Smithsonian regarding my artifact :
"I have passed the photos around among our Chinese and Japanese specialists. We do not typically collect in the area of late 19th and early 20th century metalware. While your proposed dating to this period may be accurate, the general opinion here is that this work is likely Chinese, not Japanese."
in regards to an ancient Asian antique that I own. I only recently did my research on this trinket and believe it to be a part of Meiji Japanese history. The hallmark is unique to this time period.