The chocolate bronze medal was in a century old black enameled kiri wood box.  Resting in a faded red velvet bed, the obverse shows the Imperial Mon (or crest), a Chrysanthemum, superimposed between two “Rising Sun” flags of the Japanese Empire.  The medal is suspended by a bar from a ribbon of light green with a lighter, almost white green stripe down the center.  On the reverse of the medal in four Japanese characters is the title, “Commemorative medal for service in the war.”  The inscription around the edge of the obverse reads, “Meiji twenty seventh through eighth years” or 1894 – 1895 in the Julian calendar.  The medal commemorates the Sino-Japanese War.

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