IanB

Mark, Further to the above, I've just looked Morse up on Wikipedia. Seems he was Keeper of Pottery at Boston in 1890 and was Director of Peabody from1880 - 1914. This would account for the distribution of his collection. Ian

Mark, Yes, Salem in Ma. I went about 20 years ago and was given a chance to look at the material in the basement store. They have some staggering items, some collected by Edward Morse if memory serves. He went to Japan in 1877 and acquired shed-loads of stuff. I remember seeing paper ephemera from the Morse collection in the Edo Museum in Tokyo because little survived in Japan itself. The part-day I spent at the Peabody was all a bit of a rushed blur - I remember drawer after drawer of abumi, many helmets and parts of armours but only one superb mail and plate folding armour that was virtually complete. There were some staff weapons - some obviously bought brand new because the shafts were still totally clean. To be honest I can not remember much sword related material. I suspect there may be a tie-up with Boston and that any such material may have been transferred there. I don't know this for a fact - just speculating. Ian

Piers, Should you wish to come up to the wild and windswept north with its satanic mills, cloth caps, whippets and uncouth pigeon fanciers who say little except 'E by gun', I will be waiting for you [All that crap about the north was to reinforce prejudices]. Seriously, if you can make it do I can show you around. No, I'm not ahead of you, I have just been around longer. New thread: I have just failed to acquire a katana zutsu that appeared on ebay. It proved too rich for my slender purse. Now here is the question. What on earth were they really for. Yes, they are a case for storing a sword, and would obviously give it protection. Over the years I've seen a few, but with one exception, they have all been for katana. The exception is a complete set in the Peabody Museum, all done in bright blue raden with gold mon; it comprises matching cases for a daisho and a gun. Why don't you see more of these cases for short swords - didn't wakizashi need the same protection? I accept that one wore one's wakizashi at all times, but the same was true of the katana except indoors. Were these katana zutsu used to put the katana in when entering somewhere? Were they used when travelling? If so why wasn't the katana being worn? Was it for a second katana? I don't know the answers to these questions - does anyone? Ian

Piers, What a coincidence - I have a box almost exactly the same. I think the mounts on mine are just decorated with karakusa and a sort of nanako. Mine has retained two long and very heavy cords of red silk fitted to the rings on the front and back faces. I suppose they were to add an air of luxury because, like yours, there is a pair of staples for a lock. Mine is lined inside with white paper flecked with gold and has gilt rings fitted to the base to tie whatever was being carried from moving about. I use it to store an armour in. Ian Bottomley

All, The image Reinhard has posted is very, very significant as is the point that it was blades the Japanese were exporting to China. Note the shape of the hilt and especially that of the Chinese equivalent of the fuchi. It is rectangular, exactly the right shape to snuggle up to the 'seppa dai' of so many namban tsuba. Also the decoration on the blade, in the place that would be occupied by an habaki on a Japanese one, means that the lower face of the tsuba will be visible right up to the hole for the tang - hence the decoration on these rectangular 'seppa dai'. As for the concave, convex (or should that really be 'dished' ) tsuba. Quite often dao have such a tsuba, with the concave side towards the blade acting as a cover, so to speak, over the mouth of the scabbard. I have an image in maind of one in the Armouries collection, in brass, consisting of a flat plate that has the outer edges turned down at about 60 degrees - in fact it looks like a small, upside down pie dish with sloping sides. That one isn't decorated but it is a very utilitarian sword. The tsuba illustrated by Barry is of this type, Highly decorated on top, visible when the sword is being worn, and notionally decorated underneath, only visible when worn. Ian B

Piers, Did you know the British Old Age Pension is partly because of him? Seems like during the 19th / early 20th century the British government allocated sufficient money to the Royal Navy to keep a fleet in being at least as big as the next two added together. At that time it was the French and Russian fleets. When the Russian fleet was pasted, their was then a fairly substantial surplus of cash which was distrubuted to the old. Ian

Nice touch that. Offer junk with a bit of paper run off on a computer as proof its a .....What? Ian B

All, Fully agree that the basic inspiration of these guards is based on small-sword hilts, but I still think Reinhard's second one is a genuine European hilt. Look how the cutting of the hitsu ana has so weakened it that it has broken. It was clearly totally symmetrical and the conversion has simple cut through the deign. Note also how the nakago ana has been extended top and bottom, again cutting away part of the design. If you look carefully, what is left indicated that the original tang was approximately square. I think the VOC monogram is nothing more than a 'foreign' design element, in the same way that the leather used by Louis Vuitton is decorated with pseudo kamon. In earlier times crucifixes and sacred monograms were used in the same way, but by the time these were being made, that was a definite NO NO but VOC was probably safe enough. Ian

All, These are stunning examples but look closely. The first tsuba posted by Reinhard looks superficially like a shell-guard from a small-sword until you examine the inhabitants of the scrollwork - dragons! Not a European motif but a Chinese or Japanese one. Can I see a stylised bat at the base of that tsuba? This one was made in the Far East using some European motifs like the VOC monogram. The second however is, I think, a genuine shell-guard inhabited by nudes and mythological birds as it should be. Note the different treatment of the tendrils. The Europeans were content to just drill holes and chisel the metal so that the appear to pass under and over each other. The Orientals actually took much more care to make them look as if they really do cross each other - and we know they actually undercut the odd one on either side. The tsuba Ford illustrates is Very interesting. Again we have dragons and the carefully cut tendrils, but how many namban tsuba were done in a copper alloy? I don't think I have ever seen one before. I'm also curious about the symbols above and below the nakago ana - crosses in circles with dots in the angles - what inspired them? They are ringing bells but nothing is coming through at the moment - need much more coffee. Ford, what you don't want is a genuine VOC sword. A gent about a mile from me has one, issued in Amsterdam about 1650. Wretched thing but quite rare. The Armouries has a Malayan spear with the blade made from a similar VOC sword. They are a bit like a naval cutlass but have the monogram on the blade and a letter to indicate the port of issue. Ian

Ford, I bow to your knowledge and expertise. I was musing earlier (yes its off topic I know) about replica and replacement parts, cocks and frizzens etc, for antique guns. Years ago, they were crude almost to the point where it was almost worth hacking them from solid. I bought some recently and they were so good that even the engraving was there. They also now do delicate frizzen springs in carbon steel that only need a bit of polishing and tempering. Wow - progress. Ian

Colin, The maker of this glorious fake, to whom I take my hat off, used a screw thread inside the shaft of the mace to hold it together. The real ones were hammer welded. By measuring the diameter and turns per inch of the thread, from the X-rays, it matched reasonably well to the standard laid down by Joseph Whitworth in 1841 and used in the UK until the metric system was forced on us. Nick, yes I absolutely agree with both Ford and yourself that the corrosion on the tsuba could easily be obtained given a relatively short period of time. I am told, by a superb maker of Scottish basket hilted swords, that horse manure is about as good as anything in this respect. However, corrosion is a factor to consider - in isolation its not proof. Every feature must be examined and considered. Without the tsuba in hand, and in some cases even with it, all one can say is that 'in my opinion' etc. As I said, without metallurgic analysis one cannot be definite. Ford, I take your point and agree in many areas with what you say. The problem is we don't really know what was going on. I have found evidence of casting on a fine tsuba, in the Royal Armouries collection - tiny beads of metal in the angles from bubbles in the investment. The trouble is, when was that tsuba made. I don't know. To all intents and purposes it was Edo period but since no Europeans were shipping them to Europe then, it could be Meiji or later. I came across an interesting point in a copy of Bushido magazine (of fond memory) a while ago with regard to Goto menuki by Kawaguchi Noboru (Vol1 no3). He states that the Goto cast the menuki and that the moulds from Yujo onward have been kept. Again, an obvious way to make them, yet so many insist they were repousse. In an exhibition catalogue I have called Katchu, abumi, tosogu of Kaga, there are casts taken from such moulds. Ian.

Ford, I have been looking for, and at, both real and fakes for many years. What I was trying to say was two things: Modern fakes (let us say made within the last 40 years) are usually either very, very good, imitating the finest originals and hence commanding high prices, or they imitate low-end originals and hence have to be made very cheaply because they fetch little. In addition I was pointing out that in Edo period Japan the originals came in all grades and similar constraints applied. Some tsuba were superbly made, others were pot-boilers for those with less money. In the first case the artist spent a considerable time on them, in the latter case they had to be made as easily and cheaply as possible. It is my opinion that this tsuba is one of the latter - genuine but cheaply made. Some time ago the Royal Armouries acquired a 16th C mace covered in the most exquisite gold overlay. It was bought as a fake but the more I looked the more I became convinced it was genuine. It had scenes of sieges, minutely done in different coloured golds. The highlights were convincingly rubbed, the corrosion was where it should have been and even under a microscope there was absolutely nothing to suggest it was other than genuine and of the period. However, when X-rayed an internal whitworth thread gave it away. Ian

Gentlemen, gentlemen, Consider what is happening here. Its a tsuba that appears to have had a hard life. As for when it was made, it is clearly old - the corrosion that has built up has not been applied by a modern faker with some chemical gunk. As for the signature, think how many blades are gimei yet we don't consign them to the scrap box. We either have it removed or regard it as an interesting feature of the blade's history. Is it cast or is it not? Without cutting it to bits and carrying out a careful study of its metallurgy I doubt we will ever know. Imagine you have a flat circular plate of iron in front of you. You also have a simple archimedian drill with spear bits, a piercing saw of some form, chisels and a few files. Now make that tsuba. How long do you think it would take to even drill a hole through that plate just to get the saw blade through. Then start sawing, chiselling and finally filing and smoothing. How long to do that - weeks probably. This would be fine if you were a craftsman whose work commanded a high price, but a back-street fittings maker struggling to earn a crust couldn't afford to do that. No, you cast it and de-carborise it then you work it up with chisels and files. We know they did this with tetsubin so why not tsuba. The idea that all 'artists' had their work dragged from their very soul is romantic, but I suspect far from the truth. Yes, there were artist / craftsmen who put their heart and soul into their work and created masterpieces, but to many it was more important to put rice in their families food bowls. After all, when you have already made many hundreds of tsuba in your working life it isn't that much different from putting the body panels on a car travelling along Honda's production line. I am sitting looking at a high class armour at the moment. The shoulder guards have been made from an old do - the plates have been flattened, trimmed to length, relacquered and relaced. How do I know? Well when they got to the plates from the waist section they were curved when flattened them out, so they cut them in half and rejoined them with rivets so that the plate ended up with two shallow bumps not one big one. It worked, it isn't too noticeable. Why go to all the trouble of drilling hundred of holes in a new plate when you have one already drilled in the corner of the workshop. It would be a wonderful world if all of us could acquire nothing but National Treasures, but reality is different. Let us recognise that in the field of Japanese arms and armour, items were produced in all grades - all are relevant and add to the overall picture of what was happening in that distant past. Ian Bottomley

Nick, Although I am almost old enough, memory fades . Seriously, it has to be the 1590's -the Korean invasions, or the waka. Let us say the start of the Tokugawa era as a reasonable date. Ian

Piers, Here I must disagree with you. There is nothing European at all about these tsuba. The style of decoration that involves a mass of tendrils occupied by dragons, tama etc is Chinese / Tibetan - see Stone's Glossary about Buddhist pen cases and Tibetan saddles. By chance I gave a talk at our last ToKen meeting on this very subject. I've deleted the pics now, but one of our members has a namban tsuba which originally had a square hole bordered by a raised rim. This has been extended by cutting top and bottom to take a Japanese tang. Originally it was fitted to a tau-kien, a kind of Chinese jitte with a sword-like hilt and a tsuba. How did it get to Japan? My guess has always been the Korean invasions - a bit of war loot worn by a Japanese to show he had been in the wars. This leads on nicely to those namban tsuba with elongated rectangular seppa dai decorated with waves or bars and the like. A Japanese craftsman would know this decoration would be hidden by the seppa, as would the tendrils to either side. However, on a Chinese dao, it would be visible since those swords have no seppa, the tsuba just resting on the machi. Some of this type have hitsu ana. Were they made in Japan or China? In some cases they appear to have been cut into the design and the rims added. In other cases it is almost as if a Chinese agent in Japan, who ordered them from his Chinese suppliers, specified hitsu ana, some of which just float amid the tendrils. Note how most of these tsuba are rather small for wakizashi. Had they been made in Japan I would have expected an equal number of katana size as well. My talk involved linking this trade to that of sawasa for the Dutch. This trade included smallswords with hilts that have exactly the same tendrils and dragons. Finally we get tsuba with regular seppa dai like that here, and by this time I suspect they are being made in Japan in that style. Its still a bit of a mystery area, but I am sure China is the key to this. Ian Bottomley

Piers, No. That is news to me but does not entirely surprise me. Don't forget that until relatively recently, antique guns were subject to severe legislation. It is amazing how many old guns sprang out of the woodwork the moment the regulations were relaxed. There are bound to be all manner of items in private hands that have yet to be brought to the attention of obsessives like me. All we can do is lay down the groundwork and hope that someone who comes after will add to our efforts as new information comes to light. BTW when are you planning to come to Europe? Ian

Piers, A good number of the missing hinawa ju are hidden all around you. After the establishment of pax Tokugawa there was the conflicting need to maintain the various armies and the tradition of bushido, whilst at the same time making sure that nobody could build up a sufficient power base to topple the establishment - hence such innovations as the san kin kotai. In furtherance of this strategy, the Tokugawa rounded up all the gunmakers from the various han and moved them to Nagahama (except those of Sakai who were already under Tokugawa control). For a while they could continue to fill orders but had to travel to Edo, to the Teppo Bugyo, to get their order authorised. By the early 1700's trade had all but dried up, as planned, and the Tokugawa even gave out pensions and subsidies to the gunmakers to stop them dashing off back to the Han where they might get work. Such orders as were placed were almost all from the Tokugawa and were minimal. Those guns that survived, and no doubt many were deliberately scrapped, were refurbished and decorated to became symbols of wealth and power to carry in processions. Very few original guns would have had decorated barrels, or lacquered stocks, yet so many today have. Ian

Piers, Recent finds in Hataka Bay has actually found some of these tetsu-bo. Some at least are thick pottery filled with powder and lumps of iron to act as shrapnel. Ian

Yes, all manner of theories are about as to who were the Portuguese who arrived on Tanegashima and who made the first guns there. I had the name Yasuita Kinbei Kiyosada as the swordsmith and Shinokawa Shoshiro as the guy who was taught how to make gunpowder from another of the ship’s crew. Much of this story was written by a Buddhist monk, Nampo Bunshi, in a book called ‘Teppo ki’ . Bunshi writes as if he was a eyewitness, and indeed he may have been present as a child, but he did not write it down until some 50 years after the events and it was not published until 1649. There was an earlier gun in Osaka that is supposed to have arrived from China in 1510. The design for this was said to have been passed on to Hojo Ujitsuna and Murakami Yoshikiyo is supposed to have had a few guns of this type that were used at the battle of Udehara in 1548. Like so many of these problems, there is much confusion and many claims to have been the first to do this or that. While I was working on this topic I looked into the earliest known snapping matchlock mechanism (it appears in a drawing in a manuscript done by a German gunner from the Palatinate on the Rhine around 1480). I came to the conclusion it isn't a gun lock at all. The way the bits worked suggest it is some species of crossbow mechanism or the like - certainly not a gun lock. Confused? I am Ian

Piers, Koichi San, Yes that is the Tanegashima style I referred to above. They have that distinctive stock shape and have the lock retained by a screw through the back of the stock rather than tapered pins. They all seem to have an internal spiral spring and a rather odd serpentine that has a boss near the base. I'm sure this isn't a Goan gun. Those in Nagoya are much more likely to be. Ian Bottomley

Carlo, What information I have about the Goa arsenal and its production came from Daehnhardt R.;The Bewitched gun,Texto Editora,Portugal,1994. It is written in both Portuguese and English so it is no problem to read. I would imagine that the production of 'guns' in the Goa arsenal would be mainly cannon rather than handguns since the Portuguese would be concentrating on equipping their ships. They did however make handguns and it was these that were sent to Portugal to the king since the Viceroy mentions 'screwed breechplugs'. Having X-rayed a few Indian matchlocks it comes as a bit of a shock to find that the breechplugs of some barrels were little more than a lump of iron bashed into the end They may have been hammer welded in place, but not obviously so. Piers, So the namban zutsu is not the Tanegashima style of gun I was thinking of. I have never seen one of the type illustrated in the flesh although I have seen pictures of them. I wonder what the 'namban' feature really is. As far as I can see there is nothing special about it, other than the straight stock and the odd serpentine shape. The shape looks as if it would have been difficult to hold, although you get the same straight stocks on a lot of early European wheelock pistols. Some illustrations show cavalry holding these pistols in left hand, with the fingers around the butt, and the thumb through the trigger guard. In the photo of the namban pistol there is a strange hook behind the foresight. What can that have been for? Ian

Piers, Both guns are well illustrated in Nagoya's catalogue 'Military Accessories of a Daimyo House - Treasures from the Tokugawa Art Museum No.10' pages 66,67. Is the gun you refer to as namban zutsu the same as 'Tanegashima zutsu'? I tried for years to buy one for the Royal Armouries, but failed, because they are the only Japanese guns that retained the Portuguese / Goan screw through the stock to hold the lock in. They also retain a more European style of stock shape. Ian

Carlo, I have spent a lot of time on researching early hand guns in Japan. The Portuguese captured Goa in 1510 where there was already a considerable arsenal making guns. Within a few years, they were making snapping matchlocks, under German overseers, that the Portuguese thought were so good they sent a Goan gunmaker to the Portuguese King. I have already mentioned the two guns in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya which are almost certainly of Indian manufacture. One has a crucifix on the barrel and the other a Madonna and child in koftgari. These are very early pieces and have locks that differ hardly at all from Japanese locks - one with an internal spring and one with an external one. Since the Portuguese did not copy Japanese guns, it follows that these guns, or others like them, must have been the models the Japanese copied. The only significant changes they made to these models was to simplify the lockplate shape, fasten the external spring to it rather than have it on a separate plate and to replace screws by tapered pins. Other changes are cosmetic, such as simplifying the ornately shaped sights and triggers that on the originals show very obvious Indian influences. Since these Indian inspired details do not occur on any other Japanese guns that I know of, I think we can be certain that the Portuguese did not import many, if any, Goan made weapons to Japan. Interestingly, the situation is the same in China. There are Chinese illustrations that show guns with the same Indian shaped lockplates, but again, I do not know of any Chinese made guns with these features. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Carlo, The terminology of these 'helmets' is a bit confusing. They are not chochin kabuto. These are the ones made up from a series of separate rings laced together that collapse into each other - hence like a lantern. I suppose 'tatami kabuto' is just about acceptable, because they do fold, but I would normally describe them as hitai ate since they are a development of the old happuri. Tatami kabuto is more of a generic term rather than describing a specific style. As for the Indian / Islamic influence, it did occur. I have a helmet, probably made by the Haruta, that was fitted with a nasal bar like an Indo / Persian helmet. The nasal itself has been removed but the attachment fittings have left their mark. It may have been inspired by a 'Dutch Pot' in the 17th century but I think the bowl is earlier and dates from the Momoyama. I see no problem in a helmet having come from Goa with the Portuguese, Dutch or even the English. Obviously some armourer thought he would give the idea a try. Since it was subsequently removed it cannot have been considered a success. Ian Bottomley

Piers, No, fukigayeshi have nothing to do with ears. They originated as prolongations of the upper rows of the shikoro of late Heian helmets and were face-protectors. They were massive and stuck out at right angles on either side of the face. By turning the head slightly, they would stop an arrow hitting the face. Thereafter they became slightly smaller and, by the Muromachi, were bent right back and lay almost flat on the shikoro. With the introduction of plate shikoro they had no use at all except to display the kamon. There are plenty of helmets where there are no fukigayeshi or they are reduced to vestigal tabs. Ian