IanB

I cannot see what is exciting about looking at lights, whether they are red or any other colour. Added to that there are coffee shops in other places so that isn't exciting either. What there is however is the Argentinian Steak House - best steaks I've ever had anywhere. There used to be a guy who sold tsuba at the top of Neu Spiegalstraat but it is a few years since I was there. I know there is little in the Rijiksmuseum other than some fine lacquer and objects from Dejima. Ian Bottomley

It certainly has a lot of holes and the gold paint has survived remarkably well for 70 years. You can deduce it was designed for a yoroi doshi from the nakago ana. A good try. Ian Bottomley

K. Mark, The whole wakizashi business has fascinated me for a while. As you say, the original wear for the military was the tachi / tanto combination, the latter being called katana in the Heian (See Sasama; Nihon Katchu Bugu Jiten, p. 34). Moving forward in time we have the portrait of Honda Tadakatsu wearing his black armour with the antler helmet (Tachisaka Shrine) which shows he has added an uchigatana, worn rather surprisingly edge down. It is impossible to say how long his uchigatana was but it is considerably shorter than the tachi. Moving even further forward we have numerous photographs of samurai, not invariably but usually, wearing some form of tanto with their katanas. Photos of them wearing a katana / wakizashi combination are surprisingly scarce, unless it is a picture of some high ranking person who is wearing a daisho. There were Tokugawa laws passed limiting the length of wakizashi and we know that various classes of the non-military were only permitted to wear a short sword, so, the question arises, how many of the many thousands of wakizashi we encounter were actually worn by samurai? Ian Bottomley

Eric, Yes, I am sure these are part of a pack harness. They seem to have generally been covered in red lacquered leather decorated with gold. They no doubt needed to be sturdy for the task. I note that much of the pack equipment is very stereotyped in style and I wonder whether this was because so many pack animals and their gear were based at the post stations along the roads and hence were essentially 'official' transportation, being hired for carrying loads between the stations. Ian

Gents, I have been into work and photographed the display. I also have added our horse armour (which has come out very badly because it is behind glass) and our display of the harness given as a diplomatic gift to Queen Victoria. IAN

Ron, Well done. I am so pleased everything worked out for you. You now have a delightful set. Ian

Piers, Thank you for the reference - delightful objects. Interesting how the mane has been tied off into a series of tufts. When I was a lad (and dear old Queen Victoria was on the throne ) a local brewery used to dress its dray horses in exactly the same way. Somewhere I have an engraving from Engelbert Kaempfer's book on Japan that shows a 'commander' on a horse with the mane done the same way. I'll be off to work in a few minutes and will take pics of the horse harness. Ian

Henk-Jan, In my last post I meant to add an image of the padded cover for my saddle. Here it is: Ian

John, I will address the matter of access asap. Sadly, nobody felt they wished to take on the task of editing the Society's newsletter and whilst I try and write up the events of each meeting, I am the first to admit my scribblings fall far short of our past productions. Ian

Eric, going back to the red lacquered leather cover, notice how the two halves are sewn together so that the whole forms a humped shape - ideal for covering a load on a pack saddle when raining. The other cloth you show might well be a bakin or it could have gone under a regular saddle. I note that modern riders in Japan have to use layer upon layer of cushioning since the legs of the saddles are the wrong angle to fit modern horses. Piers, Just before I left full-time employment at the Museum, I organised a figure in the Oriental Gallery of a samurai in armour on a horse with the full harness. Although the horse equipment is modern, from a company in Soma, the man's armour is from the collection and is real. The quality of the replica harness is staggering and is virtually indistinguishable from an old Edo set. I did order a fibre-glass saddle for that assembly, but the company actually sent a real old saddle beautifully lacquered with cranes. I am going in on Thursday and will get some good pictures. Henk-Jan, The answer to your questing is yes. With my set is a padded cover that fits over the saddle both to protect the lacquer and to give the rider rather more comfort than is afforded by the little leather pad. In the case of my outfit, the pad is covered with blue velvet, birodo, but I have seen them covered with e gawa. The little leather pad (shita saki) really has the function of covering the hemp bindings that hold the two fore and aft parts of the saddle tree (igi) together and presumably stopping them from making an indelible impression on the rider's anatomy. On damaged example I have seen was in fact made from layers of wood veneer covered with the leather. Ian

John, Far from being in limbo, the Northern ToKen Society continues to hold interesting and well attended meetings - albeit in a new venue. Should any reader of this Board wish to come along and attend, we will be assembling at the Britannia Manchester Airport Hotel, Palatine Road, M22 4FH, on August 2nd at around 7.30 p.m. Ian Bottomley

Here are what I think are more decorative saddle-rings, and the aori. The BAKIN is of rasha embroidered in gold and coloured threads. the shishi have glass eyes and rather seductive eyelashes in blue. Also here is a rein of printed cotton and one of the two stable-ropes which I measured and are about 25' long. I haven't bothered with the riding whip but it is baleen bound with rattan in yellow. So folks there you have it. Ian

Now the saddle which is all gold lacquered. What looks like a silver rim is in fact silver lacquer which has not tarnished. It has a cute little stand that folds up by removing the two stretchers underneath. Then there are the stirrups of iron with flush inlay of brass and some silver overlay.

This harness has an alternate bridle attached to the bit that is made from metallic gold rope. Also here is the san shaku gawa, which is clearly from another harness since the kamon are different, and a halter made of hard twisted silk with a braided brow-band. The 'button' which fastens this halter is in fact a coin. Finally in this batch are two tassels of yak hair that hang on the arms of the bit.

All, Here we go. This is going to take quite a few posts and I hope Brian will forgive me. I will start off with the regular harness parts: The breast strap - the MUNAGAI - there are two types. Those with a tassel at each end is used with a shorter strap with a loop at each end that goes through the saddle rings. These are called Edo period type. This one is the military type with a loop on one strap and a tassel on the other. The crupper strap - the SHIRIGAI with a tassel at each end. These tie to the rear saddle rings and are then crossed over to the other side where they hang down. The bridle - OMOGAI. This ties to big leather loops fastened to the bit.

All, I have looked up my translation of the 'crupper cover' and it is called BAKIN. These seem to be very much an Edo period thing. Some, like the net-and-fringe example illustrated above seem to have replaced the shirigai, whilst others were fabric covers, often with kamon that were worn on top of a regular shirigai. There was also a bag that covered the tail and kept it clean called an o fukuro. What appears to be an under-cloth for the saddle above can't be. Firstly it is leather and secondly the kamon would be covered by the saddle. I think this is a rain cover to go over a pack saddle with its load. All of this kind of decorative harness seems to have been made for the daimyo gyoretsu. I will now go upstairs and disgorge my harness and take some pictures. Watch this space. Ian

All, I will, over the next few days get off my backside and photograph all of the parts of my harness since I think it is complete. It came in two large storage boxes, originally I was told from Kyushu. It not only has the harness as such, but a separate halter and two of the great hemp ropes that were used to tie the poor animals to a beam above their stalls to stop them lying down. These latter perplexed me for quite a while, primarily because they are very thick, of green dyed hemp with tassels at each end. They were obviously not leading ropes, being more appropriate for mooring something like the Titanic. The solution came when I saw them in use on a screen showing a stable of famous horses. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Eric, I had shio de (shiho de?) as well for the rings. These in fact are just about the most important parts since much of the rest of the harness is fastened to them. With my set the rings, or rather U shaped tubes, are gold lacquered with ornate silvered ends. But also in the box are four roundels, about 4" across, embossed on the front with the shippo design and fitted to cords. They seem to have been gilded at one time but are now more or less plain copper. These may be alternates for the U shaped ones or maybe were tied on as extras to allow more harness elements to be added. I say this because my set includes a bum-cover that ties to the regular harness and to the saddle. It is very thickly padded and would have given the horse the most outrageous shape. I did find a name for those as well but off hand it escapes me. Ian

Eric, I cannot do that at the moment since the organisers of the exhibition have paid me for the work and until it is published it would seem wrong. I suspect that there were different names for various parts in different areas of Japan and at different times. I have a complete harness and noted those pads are impressed with a large maker's stamp in the leather of the lower one that is covered when they are together. This suggests to me that there was a specialist maker of such parts. Presumably they finished the outer layer of leather to the design of the saddle and other elements. Have you noticed how the dates on saddles always seem to be around Genroku or just before? Ian B

Eric, By sheer coincidence I have, over the last few weeks, 'put to bed' an essay / article on horses and their equipment for the catalogue of an important exhibition due to take place soon. Since I had never seen any details, or the naming of parts of harnesses and saddles in English, I had to set to find out what they were and translate them. By chance, I ended up with a similar drawing to the one on this site as well as one showing the parts of a saddle. On the whole the terminology I discovered agrees, although there are a couple of minor differences. Ian Bottomley

Mr. Sinclair, Yes the two pairs of suneate belong to an armour in my collection. I must agree that it is unusual to find exchange pieces, apart from with very lavish daimyo quality armours. I assume the Bishamon or tsutsu suneate were for riding and the shino suneate for use on foot. The armour is also interesting in having what seems to be a late Muromachi or Momoyama akoda nari bachi that has had a new mabezashi permanently attached, and is signed by 'Miochin Iyetsugu' in large kanji on the backplate. Again I assume he was the one who replaced the original mabezashi and o-harai date with the new peak. The rest is more or less conventional - hon kozane kebiki ni mai dou, kebiki ko sode in kirritsuke kozane, kirritsuke kozane haidate and oda gote. Ian B

Here is a mask with the tare attached by leather, komori zuke, that is sugake laced. Also attached is one each of two pair of suneate with totally different kikko that beong to the same armour. Ian Bottomley

Mr. Sinclair, I am not aware anyone has described the armour as a matching 'set', in the sense that it was all made at the same time and came from the same workshop. You are correct in saying that there are inconsistencies between the various elements, particularly the san gu as you state. You might also have pointed out that the tare of the mask has a mimi ito in takaboku ito, which occurs nowhere else on the armour. And yes, I have seen plenty of mis-matched masks attached to a tare by a leather band, but if you look closely at this one you will see that the kebiki lacing of the tare is laced to the leather as it should be and I see nothing to suggest the mask and tare are not in the same condition as they left the armourer's hands - but not originally as belonging to some other parts of this armour. Ian Bottomley

Anthony, Yes, that is shohei gawa, one of the most common patterns. Ian

Anthony, Yes, that is shohei gawa, one of the most common patterns. Ian