
IanB
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Everything posted by IanB
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I am always impressed by these images - the catalogue, which I still have, was one of my first reference books. The fact that collectors back then 'dressed' in DJ's for a meeting is in stark contrast to some of the present generation I encounter. Ian Bottomley
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Peter, That brings back memories - I wrote the input from the Northern Branch as we then were. So many names of collectors past of fond memory pop out of the page. If you have others of these old programmes, see if there is one with a Christmas quiz compiled by dear old Vic Harris. That will amuse you. Ian Bottomley
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Piers, Sadly very few guns - unless has others stashed away, only 2. As for swords and fittings, they are there in such abundance and quality that all but defy belief. My favourite is a mint daisho koshirae in plain polished black saya with golld mon, tachibana and 9 stars, black bindings and all the mounts in shakudo of dragons in clouds by Omori Teruhide. Sounds ordinary, but never have a pair of swords screamed such consummate quality and refined taste to me - they were breath taking. I suspect the two mon may indicate they were made for a wedding present. Ian Bottomley
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Victor was one of life's great figures, full of knowledge and willing to share it. I have known him for what must be nearly 40 years and been thoroughly beaten by him many a time in the dojo. To Victor every bout was regarded as seriously as participating at Seki ga Hara. The transformation when he took off his glasses and put on his men was like mild-mannered Clark Kent becoming Superman. There are far too many anecdotes about him that sum up his unique view on life that it would be impossible to recount them all,but one involved a helmet with prominent rivets that I had traded with him for a yari. He had travelled to Leeds dojo for a practice, staying overnight in a hotel. I asked his wife the following morning if they had slept well to be told 'No' she replied,' he insisted on wearing the ***** helmet in bed all night' Totally unperturbed Victor merely noted that he wanted to feel the spirit of the samurai who had owned it. There will never be another Victor Ian Bottomley
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NMB members, To give you some idea of what I am dealing with, I have just recieved this personal message: Ian, you do not seem to have a problem with translating and distributing copyrighted texts on the forum. If you have a problem with me you can act like a man and contact me personally any time, instead of acting like a crybaby xxxx like Dave. What the hell has happened to you anyway???? Eric T https://www.pinteres.../worldantiques/
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Eric, I have repeatedly asked you not to publish my work and you persisted in doing so, and even published my complaints on your website., To excuse yourself you have repeatedly ascribed my complaints to some other un-named person whilst knowing full well that it was I who was objecting.. I have never given you permission to use my work and you have never had the common grace to ask for it. Why you constantly refer to Dave Thatcher is a mystery as he has nothing whatsoever to do with this matter. Ian Bottomley
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I think it important to inform members of NMB that Eric Tulin, who posts here on NMB as estcrh, has copied the text and images of an article I have written for members of the Samurai Armour Forum without either notifying me nor asking my permission and posted it on a website he runs under the name of http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/ In view of the fact that this article was clearly stated to be copyright it is nothing short of a flagrant act of theft of my intellectual property. This is not the first time Eric Tulin has done this - a whole section on his website headed 'The teachings of Ian Bottomley' contains numerous articles I have published, some of which has involved many years of research. Despite the fact that I have repeatedly demanded that he stops stealing my work he persists in doing so, even having the temerity to state that my protestations are written by someone else. Ian Bottomley
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Kama, Jingama, Kusari-gama, Kama-yari etc.
IanB replied to Bugyotsuji's topic in General Nihonto Related Discussion
Piers, When you have lived in penury for most of your life it is easy to dismiss things and walk away. My dear old dad was a supreme master of the 'I'm only a poor old pensioner' stunt and pulled off some amazing deals. However I try I am but an ant in his shadow. (quite poetic that) Ian Bottomley -
Kama, Jingama, Kusari-gama, Kama-yari etc.
IanB replied to Bugyotsuji's topic in General Nihonto Related Discussion
Piers, Years ago I was offered a strange yari I just could not afford to buy at the time. That had a blade that was a T shaped - equal arms at right angles to the shaft and straight along the top with the hamon running from end to end hence not a conversion job from a jumonji yari. It even had the saya which was in two parts that fitted from each side, one side fitting inside the other when joined. The shaft was about 2m with the usual lacquered upper part with copper mounts above the conventional cord hand-stop. Whether it had a signature I do not know since it was immediately put into the dealer's car when I admitted I couldn't afford the price. I remember thinking at the time it reminded me of the weird and wonderful weapons often depicted as being carried in a sack by Benkei in woodblock prints. Ian Bottomley -
Mr.Samsonsen, Your gun will be fitted with a spiral mainspring of brass on the inside of the lock, together with a horizontal sliding sear that is also operated by a small spiral spring. Once you get it apart it will be obvious how it all works. The lock is indeed held into the stock by tapered brass pins that fit into the wood, its front end being trapped under the band around the barrel and stock. These pins can be tapped out (gently) with a pin-punch through the holes on the opposite face of the stock. Note that one hole will not contain a pin - its purpose is to allow you to push out the lock-plate once the pins are all out. Take care that you don't chip the edge of the lock cavity doing this - just take it all very gently and all will be well. Ian Bottomley
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Piers, We wish you had been with us as well. To say we missed you would be an understatement. Ian Bottomley
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I hesitated on commenting for the simple reason that my first reaction was 'this is too good to be true' and that it needs some careful consideration. Before I comment, it is worth pointing out that however good the photos are it is impossible to reach definite conclusions without holding the object. I also hesitated because it would be wrong to cast doubts on another's treasure without definitive proof so please note I am not arriving at any definitive conclusions from these observations - they are just thoughts that strike me as worth comment. Firstly the embossing and the shaping of the bowl are superb but I find the washers of the zaboshi rather heavy and rather over-done. Normally they are made of flat sheet and marked with radiating lines done with a chisel. These seem to have been either shaped with a file or embossed. It is as if the maker is emphasising the 'boiler-plate' look. I don't think Ichiro is involved with this one as his work tended to have the surface covered in faint planishing marks rather than being totally smooth. I also find the slightly pitted surface finish a little too uniform. A russet helmet tends to develop any secondary rusting in patches leaving differently textured areas where it was cleaned off, especially in crevices which are difficult to get at.. Having said that I once owned a perfectly genuine helmet that had an almost identical texture to this that I concluded had been deliberately textured with acid before russeting so this may be the case here. What is not in dispute is that the cross-knots of the fukigayeshi are absolutely genuine - you cannot lace with rotting silk and there is clearly less fading where the braid crossed over itself. The uname toji is however totally intact and in fact looks new but that may be because of the dyes used. I would query why the fukigayeshi are black lacquered whereas the rest of the shikoro, except its interior, is textured gold lacquer. Similarly why has the fukigayeshi got cross-knots and uname toji but the shikoro has not - not even a mimi ito. Again it is clear the lining is genuine and old but why is the gold on the interior intact on top of the rivets where it would be rubbed, but is missing in the angles between the plates and around the rivets where it would be protected? Finally who was Yoshisuke? Apparently a relatively unknown Kyoto armour maker who Sasama says is known only because one helmet survives. Is this the helmet or is it some other? We don't know because Sasama doesn't say what type of helmet he is referring to - but I think he would have done so if it was the quality of this. If it was by Myochin Yoshisuke, surely someone with the skill this shows would have been better known and more of his work would have survived. So to summarise - a very fine piece of uchidashi work that raises a few nagging questions as to its age and / or it subsequent treatment, that seems to have been fitted with a rather more dubious shikoro, but is still a very nice thing to own. Ian Bottomley
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I see the whole inscription as: 伊賀守 藤原包光作 Iga (no) Kami Fujiwara Kanemitsu saku. Ian Bottomley
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Ben, There factors concerning the condition of the naginata at Leeds, and quite a few other fine blades in store. Firstly since its arrival in the country in the 19th century until 1995, it was housed in the Tower of London without a saya ( its pair belongs to the Victoria & Albert Museum and that too has no saya as have most of the yari given at the same time). The Tower may seem to be a glamorous location for the display of arms and armour, but a 950 year old castle is not exactly the easiest place in which to maintain a stable environment, especially one washed by the Thames. I have to say that ideal storage conditions are now being met, but the damage has already been done. Another factor is money. Our present government are passionate about austerity and polishing a naginata is not exactly high on their priority list when it comes to spending public money. The British Museum was fortunate in obtaining generous sponsors. It may be possible to raise money in the future and since the various blades are now stable, we must wait and see. Working on a museum teaches you to accept that you cannot do everything and that future generations may well achieve what you cannot. Ian Bottomley
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This must constitute the biggest load of corporate bullsh*t ever conceived by an ad agency !!! How you relate an orange plastic cross-shaped button to a 19th C. haramaki just defies belief. They really must be on something pretty potent. Ian Bottomley
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Piers, I think humidity may well play a large part. I was once in a major sword shop in Tokyo and was shown a very large shirasaya for a blade but the owner regretted being unable to show me the blade because of the humidity that day. As for papers, they simply records an opinion reached by people with (hopefully) considerable experience. I personally do not feel the need for having a blade go through shinsa - if I like the blade, I like it, irrespective of who made it and when. In the same way my favourite sword is in tasteful yet simple iron mounts decorated with snowflakes and an unsigned blade that I find absolutely beautiful, but probably made by nobody special. To me it has the look of a sword that a samurai took from his obi in the 19th century and placed it on a rack for future generations to love and admire. What more can you ask for? Ian Bottomley
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All, An interesting topic that begs a few comments. The standard Cambridge dictionary defines a collector as 'one who collects objects because they are valuable, interesting or beautiful', three attributes I think we would agree apply to nihonto. Collectors of toshogu on the other hand are exactly that, as they do not collect nihonto as such but components of them. I would include in the same category those who collect only blades since again they are not nihonto but simply a component of a sword, albeit the most important element. In my opinion, despite the fact that nihonto blades are designed to be removable from their mounts, I am saddened that so many collectors see no need to keep the koshirae together with the blade when they have the latter polished. Time and again on NMB I see a blade described as a 'katana' or 'tanto' when they are not, they are just blades, no more and no less. As for whether a 'collector' researches his blades, again we come down to semantics. In the vast majority of cases it is not research but simply identification by comparison with research already carried out by someone else and described or illustrated in books. It is true that this information could be collated and perhaps interpreted in a new way, but very few collectors do. So what it boils down to is back to the dictionary definition - a 'nihonto collector' is someone who accumulates swords because they find them beautiful, interesting or valuable in some other way - in short they like them and want to own them. Ian Bottomley
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All, The armour in question was one of the two given to King James I (and VI) and brought back by Captain Saris together with a tachi, a saddle and stirrups and some screens. This particular armour was placed in the Tower of London, the other in various Royal palaces, The latter is now on display in Leeds and retains all the original textiles but has lost the kuwagata dai. This one spent a long time at the Tower being described as Indian (the armour of the 'Great Mogul') and suffered pretty badly. By the 1970's it had lost its sleeves and leg armour and the lacing was getting tatty. I have only ever seen B/W images of it at that stage and someone had mounted a pair of oda gote and an haidate with it that didn't belong. As a result it was shipped to Japan for refurbishment and returned with a new kuwagata dai, and other helmet mounts as well as being completely relaced. Sadly it was a bit over-polished and lost most of the mon on the dou, but one survives on the side plate showing it was an armour belonging to a member of the Takeda family. It was far too small to have been Takeda Shingen's (he is portrayed as being rather corpulent) so it may well have belonged to his son -Takeda Katsuyori. Ian Bottomley
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Denis, When I worked for a living, some archaeologists who had been digging at Sandal castle near Wakefield brought some odd musket balls into the Museum. The castle had seen fighting in the Civil War and these finds were consistent with bore of the matchlocks and early flintlocks used in that conflict. What was puzzling the archaeologists was that these musket balls all had a flattened belt around them showing knife cuts. We came to the conclusion that the gunners carried a few of these balls they had prepared beforehand for when the fouling made loading a standard ball too difficult - the shaved off belt reducing the diameter sufficient for them to get them down the barrel and give them a few more shots. Ian Bottomley
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Piers, I read the two character inscription as 'superior forging' . Work-hardening by repeated hammering was also practised in Europe. Felix Werder, a Swiss gunmaker, hit on the idea for producing brass barrels which he claimed were superior to any others - keeping his technique a secret and charging the earth for his guns. In the days of muzzle loading brass barrels were less prone to damage by corrosion and could be kept loaded (hence their frequent use for blunderbuss) and in his case very thin and light weight and hence desirable. What he in fact was doing was casting the tubes and then repeatedly hammering them around a mandrel to break down the crystal structure and harden the metal. The research on a pair of his pistols has been done and published but I'm b*ggered if I am quoting full references on a simple observation As for the use of mon on export goods - of course they were! Some items were covered in them. The jingasa illustrated in the Galeno Collection p.128, looks like a page from a book on mon. This poor old thing has obviously had the treatment to attract a buyer. You should read the book by Mortimer Menpes of his time in Japan where he is befriended by a Japanese antique dealer. He describes all the tricks being perpetrated to produce stuff for the tourists. Ian Bottomley
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Like many I gave up on mon years ago having bought all manner of books on them. Almost all simply list the mon and make no references to who used them.The only book that does give names that I have is 'Seishi Kamon no Jiten' ISBN 4-87190-714-7. I think it worth repeating that the largest collection of mon in use during the Edo period was a draper's shop - the customers handing the generations of shop keepers drawings of their mon to be added to their new kimono. Over time the drawings had been thrown into a box that somehow survived. Sadly, the shop keepers didn't add the customer's names to the drawings so we get no nearer there. More relevant to our interests are the various battle screens that illustrate combatants with their heraldic flags camp curtains and so on. These have little labels saying who they represent. From these screens we can be fairly sure that the people pictured used a certain mon, but even that isn't all it could be - there were important commanders at Seki ga Hara whose mon we just do not know. Another source are the monsho books issued throughout the Edo period that illustrate the mon and other heraldic devices used by the daimyo. Again to add confusion some generations of daimyo families made changes. This was true of the Tokugawa whose early aoimon had fewer veins in the leaves than those used later (reference for Eric's information - told to me by the Deputy Head Priest at Nikko Toshogu Shrine verbally so no written evidence). Not a happy situation. There is a book I saw in Sendai Museum, whose title I do not know, that had been produced in the 1920's or 30's with vast amounts of information (I was enquiring after a certain mon and the curator kindly quoted a passage describing it). Since I have never seen another copy I cannot be more help on it. Ian Bottomley
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Geraint, I too have read this somewhere and that similar swords were also allowed for wear by the headman of a village as a symbol of their status. Sadly I cannot now quote a reference so treat the opinion with caution. Ian Bottomley.