diff --git a/numpy/core/src/multiarray/descriptor.c b/numpy/core/src/multiarray/descriptor.c
index 8b55c9fbd79f..3d93e801a256 100644
--- a/numpy/core/src/multiarray/descriptor.c
+++ b/numpy/core/src/multiarray/descriptor.c
@@ -2369,11 +2369,8 @@ arraydescr_setstate(PyArray_Descr *self, PyObject *args)
 {
     int elsize = -1, alignment = -1;
     int version = 4;
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-    int endian;
-#else
     char endian;
-#endif
+    PyObject *endian_obj;
     PyObject *subarray, *fields, *names = NULL, *metadata=NULL;
     int incref_names = 1;
     int int_dtypeflags = 0;
@@ -2390,68 +2387,39 @@ arraydescr_setstate(PyArray_Descr *self, PyObject *args)
     }
     switch (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args,0))) {
     case 9:
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(iCOOOiiiO)"
-#else
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(icOOOiiiO)"
-#endif
-        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, _ARGSTR_, &version, &endian,
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(iOOOOiiiO)", &version, &endian_obj,
                     &subarray, &names, &fields, &elsize,
                     &alignment, &int_dtypeflags, &metadata)) {
+            PyErr_Clear();
             return NULL;
-#undef _ARGSTR_
         }
         break;
     case 8:
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(iCOOOiii)"
-#else
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(icOOOiii)"
-#endif
-        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, _ARGSTR_, &version, &endian,
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(iOOOOiii)", &version, &endian_obj,
                     &subarray, &names, &fields, &elsize,
                     &alignment, &int_dtypeflags)) {
             return NULL;
-#undef _ARGSTR_
         }
         break;
     case 7:
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(iCOOOii)"
-#else
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(icOOOii)"
-#endif
-        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, _ARGSTR_, &version, &endian,
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(iOOOOii)", &version, &endian_obj,
                     &subarray, &names, &fields, &elsize,
                     &alignment)) {
             return NULL;
-#undef _ARGSTR_
         }
         break;
     case 6:
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(iCOOii)"
-#else
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(icOOii)"
-#endif
-        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, _ARGSTR_, &version,
-                    &endian, &subarray, &fields,
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(iOOOii)", &version,
+                    &endian_obj, &subarray, &fields,
                     &elsize, &alignment)) {
-            PyErr_Clear();
-#undef _ARGSTR_
+            return NULL;
         }
         break;
     case 5:
         version = 0;
-#if defined(NPY_PY3K)
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(COOii)"
-#else
-#define _ARGSTR_ "(cOOii)"
-#endif
-        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, _ARGSTR_,
-                    &endian, &subarray, &fields, &elsize,
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(OOOii)",
+                    &endian_obj, &subarray, &fields, &elsize,
                     &alignment)) {
-#undef _ARGSTR_
             return NULL;
         }
         break;
@@ -2494,6 +2462,38 @@ arraydescr_setstate(PyArray_Descr *self, PyObject *args)
         }
     }
 
+    /* Parse endian */
+    if (PyUnicode_Check(endian_obj) || PyBytes_Check(endian_obj)) {
+        PyObject *tmp = NULL;
+        char *str;
+        Py_ssize_t len;
+
+        if (PyUnicode_Check(endian_obj)) {
+            tmp = PyUnicode_AsASCIIString(endian_obj);
+            if (tmp == NULL) {
+                return NULL;
+            }
+            endian_obj = tmp;
+        }
+
+        if (PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(endian_obj, &str, &len) == -1) {
+            Py_XDECREF(tmp);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        if (len != 1) {
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
+                            "endian is not 1-char string in Numpy dtype unpickling");
+            Py_XDECREF(tmp);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        endian = str[0];
+        Py_XDECREF(tmp);
+    }
+    else {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
+                        "endian is not a string in Numpy dtype unpickling");
+        return NULL;
+    }
 
     if ((fields == Py_None && names != Py_None) ||
         (names == Py_None && fields != Py_None)) {
diff --git a/numpy/core/tests/test_regression.py b/numpy/core/tests/test_regression.py
index ed187ce15737..a83713a7562f 100644
--- a/numpy/core/tests/test_regression.py
+++ b/numpy/core/tests/test_regression.py
@@ -398,6 +398,29 @@ def __getitem__(self, key):
 
         assert_raises(KeyError, np.lexsort, BuggySequence())
 
+    def test_pickle_py2_bytes_encoding(self):
+        # Check that arrays and scalars pickled on Py2 are
+        # unpickleable on Py3 using encoding='bytes'
+
+        test_data = [
+            # (original, py2_pickle)
+            (np.unicode_('\u6f2c'),
+             asbytes("cnumpy.core.multiarray\nscalar\np0\n(cnumpy\ndtype\np1\n"
+                     "(S'U1'\np2\nI0\nI1\ntp3\nRp4\n(I3\nS'<'\np5\nNNNI4\nI4\n"
+                     "I0\ntp6\nbS',o\\x00\\x00'\np7\ntp8\nRp9\n.")),
+
+            (np.array([9e123], dtype=np.float64),
+             asbytes("cnumpy.core.multiarray\n_reconstruct\np0\n(cnumpy\nndarray\n"
+                     "p1\n(I0\ntp2\nS'b'\np3\ntp4\nRp5\n(I1\n(I1\ntp6\ncnumpy\ndtype\n"
+                     "p7\n(S'f8'\np8\nI0\nI1\ntp9\nRp10\n(I3\nS'<'\np11\nNNNI-1\nI-1\n"
+                     "I0\ntp12\nbI00\nS'O\\x81\\xb7Z\\xaa:\\xabY'\np13\ntp14\nb.")),
+        ]
+
+        if sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 4):
+            # encoding='bytes' was added in Py3.4
+            for original, data in test_data:
+                result = pickle.loads(data, encoding='bytes')
+                assert_equal(result, original)
 
     def test_pickle_dtype(self,level=rlevel):
         """Ticket #251"""