IanB

Stephen and Javi, Thank you so much for the offer. I will scan in the relevant pieces of text this evening. Ian

All, For many years I have been researching the diplomatic gifts of Japanese arms and armour to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. I have by and large sorted out who received what and the subsequent movements of the gifts between various royal courts. Most of the armours were given to the Spanish throne, by the Tensho and Keicho missions. By the good graces of A. Del Campo, curator of the Real Armeria in Madrid, I have a copy of an inventory of 1585 that describes two of the armours and a copy of an instruction to transfer an armour from King Philip II's Treasure House to the Real Armeria. Both are in manuscript, written by clerks who used abbreviations and specialist terms. They also had the annoying habit of running words together which has proved confusing to a non Spanish reader like me. I have by and large translated the descriptions in the two documents, but several words and phrases so far defy all attempts at elucidation. Is there any member of this group, with a sufficient understanding of Spanish, who might be prepared to help me out? There are only a few words and one sentence that are really causing me trouble. Ian Bottomley

Milt, A crest on the back of the helmet is called ushiro date. (and just for the record, waki date on the sides and kashira date on top). The nonsese about the tehen being to let 'spirits' in or out seems to be a rather fanciful later idea. During the Heian period helmets had no real lining, the inside being smoothed with filler and then had leather pasted on. When wearing them, a soft eboshi type cap was worn, the excess being pulled up through, what was then, a large tehen. To make it more decorative the hole was surrounded by an ornamental mount and this continued to be fitted long after real linings came in, although the hole itself had become much smaller. Most regular helmets have four little eyelets spaced around the bowl with loops of braid in them. Again a relic from the Heian period. Helmets at that time having substantial loops of leather inside, knotted outside, about half way up the bowl, to which the helmet cord fastened. Since Heian and later helmets had standing rivets, these knots were protected from being cut. When helmets were made without standing rivets, four were still fitted above these vestigial loops. Finally there is the ring on the back. Originally to take a small identification flag, kasa jirushi, so those following knew who you were. Later the flag was replaced by a small tasselled bow to stop the ring jingling. Why the ring? To carry the bow. Why the bow? to keep the ring from making a noise. Wonderful circular logic here. Ian

Dan, Your tanto looks delightful - congatulations. I am pleased to see that you have not had the gimei removed. It is part of the blade's history and should be preserved. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Yes, the shoulder-strap fastenings are very prone to stretching or breaking when an armour is mounted on a stand, because the do itself is not supported, as it is supposed to be, by the hips. Another couple of tips for long-time display is to do away with the 'mushroom' on top of the stand and cut a piece of plywood or similar that fits against the koshimaki of the helmet. You have to cut notches in the periphery to allow for the helmet cord. This stops the ukebari getting damaged by the weight of the helmet being concentrated in a small area. Finally, and I do this for armours with weak lacing, run a linen thread behind the mimi ito of the gessan and sode, passing it through the holes under the braid. This takes all the weight and is invisible. If you do this kind of thing you can leave the armour mounted indefinitely, covered with a cloth. This causes far less damage than mounting and dismounting it and packing it in a box. Ian

Piers, Over the years I have evolved various ideas on displaying armour. Better than newspaper, is to make up a pair of padded 'arms' from cloth stuffed with wadding or the like. These should extend to just below the wrist so the fastenings there have something to fasten around. For my best armours I fit velcro at the top of these and to the ends of the cross-bar of the stand. When I have fitted the sleeves to the do, I then press the velcro together and it takes the weight off the kote fastenings. I also fasten a couple of struts to the main upright of the stand, at the level of the lower edge of the do, for it to sit on. These are hidden by the yurugi ito yet supports the whole weight of the do and take the strain off the shoulder fastenings. Finally, make up a couple of padded cushions, about 10" square, and tuck them under the fabric of the haidate where it comes in contact with the armour box. These stop the corners of the box damaging the fabric. Nice armour Ian

Shan, If you can see Munesuke, he is supposed to have lived 1642 - 1735. He was one of the Miochins who established their fake genealogy stretching back to 'times immoral' and issuing certificates of authenticity for pieces of armour supposedly made by his distant ancestors. In fairness he did some good work, being especially noted for his embossing of pieces of armour. Whether he made tsuba is open to question. Ian Bottomley

Shan, The Miochin normally used Ki after their name and most were called Mune.. something. I agree with Milt its starts with Miochin and has Mune.. in it but it does not look like Ki to me. I think the last kanji is too far gone to ever read it. Ian bottomley

Charels, Hilts fitted with the central collar are not that uncommon. It is known as a dogane. Rather less common are metal plates that cover the faces of the hilt. Stone in his famous Glossary.... shows a pair of iron plates rather tastefully decorated. I have also seen somewhere an imitation of same done in gold. Ian Bottomley

John & Piers, Yes, I still wander in occasionally and do the odd bit. Last Monday I had a cleaning and oiling session on the blades in shirasaya. I am also waiting for some braid coming from Japan then I can embark on relacing one of the gift armours to King Philip III of Spain that was incorrectly put together in the 19th century. I also have a couple of seminars coming up in the New Year. Congrats by the way on your new chapeau Piers. I am rather envious. It is rather grand for a common gunner. With the pound sterling rapidly approaching parity with the cowrie shell I cannot see me buying much over the next few years. On the subject of common gunners, I was musing last night on the change in mindset the gun imposed on the military class. When it first appeared it was very much the 'must have', 'to die for' battlefield accessory. This soon changed however when it was found that the most noble bushi, famed throughout the Kansei for his skill with the sword, could be dropped at 50 yards by a rice thresher's apprentice. Despite this, commanders realised that without the use of the gun, establishing a sufficiently large power base from which to take over Kyoto and then the rest of the country would be impossible. Conventional armies had been trying for decades, but no matter how successful, they ultimately had a reverse and some other contender would take centre stage for a while. The answer of course was the ashigaru who previously had been simply naginata fodder used to swell the army's ranks. We see this at Nagashino where these expensive weapons were actually being issued to the 'other ranks'. In addition they also had to be properly equipped with armour, swords and so on. They had become in effect the main attack troops, the function of the samurai being now to defend and support them (at least in the initial stages of the engagement). They were also a group the commander could control and order about on the battlefield. The higher ranking samurai tended to fight, to some extent at least, as individuals supported by their personal retainers. The gunners, and other ashigaru units could be used en masse, directed and controlled by their officers. So, these lowly creatures rose from being a despised rabble to a very valuable asset in an army. An asset that had to be equipped, trained and protected by the higher ranks - hence the change in mindset. Wow Ian

John, You should be aware that it is only a trivial introduction to swords written for the average visitor to the Armouries Museum. Please don't expect any revelations in it. Just log onto the Royal Armouries Museum website and look under publications. Sadly it is one of those jobs that went a bit out of control. I had written a basic text when I developed stomach cancer and was out of the frame for a while. I did manage to supervise some of the images but essentially by the time I was recovered it was over and done with. Still what the heck. I have now done the final part of the trilogy, on guns, bows and spears. It will probably be a while before it is published, but I like what I did on guns - that came out well. Ian

John, I knew it ! When ever you say something never ... up pops the exception that proves you wrong. Could you post that image when you get the book? I have a sneaky feeling that what is illustrated is part of an old kendo armour to which have been added other bits. I have never seen an armour for ashigaru or the like with 3 or 4 gessan. They look as if they have come from a revival O-yoroi. The Royal Armouries has an armour I figured out belonged to Takeda Katsuyori. If there is anything in the book about his armour I would be grateful. Looking at the whole picture, what amazes me is that such lowly troops were issued with such good equipment. Yes the armour was simple but it was usually quite well finished. Just imagine the cost of having 1,000 or so ashigaru armours lacquered, never mind the cost of the iron or rawhide. It would of course have been accumulative and would no doubt have been used for a very long time but still ... The grunts in Europe would have killed for gear like that. I have a half do, rather like a hara ate, done in russet iron with a gold lacquered kamon on the front and simple mail and plate gessan. It is relatively inexpensive stuff but the quality of the metal is excellent and the russet surface as good as you get. Ian

John, No, armour was never made of wood or bamboo (except for kendo armour). It was always either rawhide, neri gawa, or iron/steel. Early O-yoroi had certain parts constructed of alternate kozane of rawhide and iron - an area down the front, back, in a triangle down the shoulder guards, similarly down the back of the shikoro and down the kusazuri. We took quite a few X-rays of pieces of armour at the Royal Armouries which substantiated this (although you can test it with a magnet as well). The rest of th armour was all rawhide - and was very heavy even so. The Tibetans made similar armours with all iron scales laced with leather. They are unbelievably heavy. One characteristic is that every section of kozane is topped by an iron plate that supposrts the rows (except for the kusazuri which were extensions of the do). Initially the scales were individually lacquered before being laced into rows but they tended to sag. Later they were laced first then lacquered into more or less rigid strips, except in the nakagawa of the do (those rows passing right around the body) so that it could be bent to put on. There was one short lived experiment where a piece of iron was inlet into the left side face of each hide scale. When laced into a row, overlapping by half, this presented a solid surface of iron. It didn't catch on and must been very labour intensive. Later armours often used iyozane or double width scales that are often all iron. These were hardly overlapped so needed to be laced onto a leather strip to keep them in position. They were normally wrapped in thin leather before lacquering. This idea of alternate iron / leather scales is actually quite clever. When hit by a missile or the edge of a sword, the iron stopped the cutting or piercing action, the energy of the blow being absorbed by compressing the leather scale between the iron ones. The lacing acted in the same way between the rows of scales.

Carlo, The Stibbert helmet is not European but a Japanese made helmet imitating a burgonet. I have a helmet that once had a nasal bar although only traces remain. As far as I know it is the only one that exists to have had such a feature. There were plenty of European helmets with nasal bars from around the 1630's onwards, but I feel sure my helmet is earlier. I suspect the idea was copied from an Indian helmet imported by the Dutch or Portuguese. Ian

Carlo, The helmet you illustrate from the Stibbert collection is the only one I know of that imitates a burgonet. It would be interesting to know what kind of mask it had originally. Note the rings for its attachment on the cheek pieces. All the other genuine namban gusoku I have seen have either used, or copied cabasettes ( half-almond shaped skulls with a small flat brim). Tokugawa Ieyasu gave Sakakibara Yasumasa a complete namban gusoku with such as helmet. The namban armour in Nikko, also Ieyasu's is interesting. I have never managed to see the interior of the skull but it is definitely in two pieces (joined along along the medial ridges) and unlike the other European parts, the breast, back and gorget that are left plain russet, is covered in bykuden urushi. By far the larger proportion of real cabasettes are of one piece construction. I suspect that at Nikko is actually a Japanese bowl made to go with the other genuine European pieces. Ian Bottomley

All, Here are the images I promised. They are pretty bad but give you an idea. As I had remembered, the blade has an habaki and a shinogi. I could not tell if it ever had a yokote, it was too worn, but the kissaki region looks Japanese to me. I also append an image of one of the pseudo naginata I mentioned Ian

John, Yes, that is almost it. Same type of 'kashira' / pommel that splays out towards the top, same type of tsuba. The blade on the RA one is much more Japanese-like. In fact I have had a sneaking feeling that it was a Japanese Odachi / Nodachi blade, modified and mounted by the Chinese. Since I have seen two of these weapons, both exactly the same, it suggests they were some form of regulation Chinese sword. Although only distantly related, the RA has three 'naginata' like weapons that I am certain are Japanese, but made for export. The blades look exactly like normal ones but are riveted into the shafts. When you get them out you find they are un-hardened and have ridiculous short tangs. They are mounted on black lacquered shafts of Japanese oak with pierced chrysanthemum tsuba in shakudo (or at least darkened alloy) and a series of sleeves over the upper part of the shaft done in gilt with stylised foliage. There are records of the Red Seal Ships carrying staff weapons to trade in South East Asia. I think this is what these are. They all differ slightly in details of the decoration but are generically the same. I have seen about a dozen over the years. I will try and get a pic of these as well. Ian

All, Here is the horror story to beat all horror stories. About 20 years ago a guy rang me asking if he could show me a couple of blades he had been given. He was a gas engineer and had been working in some dear old lady's cellar. Leaning against the wall were the two rusty blades which, when he enquired about them, he was given. When he arrived at my place he unwrapped newspaper from around the bundle to reveal a fairly ordinary katana blade (no recollections about it) and another. It was a glorious 30" or so hirazukuri katana with one of the best fudo horimono I have ever seen, despite the rust. The rest of the blade was bright and when I enquired he told me proudly how he had put it on a linisher to get the rust off. The heat from this had put 5 or 6 hagiri in it!!! Ian

Carlo, No, the swords I am refering to look very much more like a no dachi. There is one in the Royal Armouries and since I am going in on Monday I will try and take a picture of it. It is in a case which is almost impossible to open so it will be through glass. The tsuka on the swords I have seen must be almost 400 cm or so. They are also wrapped just like a Japanese sword, but with leather, and have plain brass mounts. Ian Bottomley

Shan, I have a magnificent naginata that I traded for a shotgun 20 or 25 years ago. It is in its original Momoyama period red lacquered shaft with plain copper mounts. Sadly some ****** has taken a grinder to both faces of the nakago - presumably to remove a signature and the date. I still keep and treasure it because the blade itself is glorious and the fact that it nows suffers anonymity is not its fault. Ian Bottomley

Alan, Do you have any mounts for this blade? I ask because I have seen several Chinese swords of these dimensions that I suspect may have a Japanese origin (in part or maybe in whole). They are characterised by having a long tsuka, bound in leather in a similar way to a Japanese sword, with a 'kashira' or pommel of brass that obviously has the end of a very narrow tang that protrudes through a hole in it and is riveted over. So far nothing particularly Japanese - but, these blades have a shallow sori, a shinogi, a kissaki, an habaki and were carried around in a Japanese shaped black lacquered wooden scabbard - non of which are normal Chinese features. I never managed to get the hilt of one of these X rayed but I have entertained the idea the tang may have been extended by having a bit welded on so they could be rivetted. Just a thought. Ian Bottomley

All, I have a feeling that the key to this interesting mystery lies in the fact that the blade had considerable niku prior to polishing but hadn't afterwards. Could it be that the blade was highly stressed in some way prior to polishing (perhaps by having been straightened) but was had not actually cracked becaue the metal in the yakiba was not quite stressed sufficiently for it to give way. During polishing metal was removed, concentrating that stress onto less and less metal until it reached failure point. I recall a conversation with a modern smith who had a liking for hirazukuri katana but found them difficult to sell because they were prone to suddenly developing hagiri, often after some considerable time. Presumably caused by thermal shock or some other external influence. This would suggest that the extra metal in the region of the shinogi has the effect of dissapating the stress to some extent. Ian bottomley

Shan, I copy all of the posted images onto my computer and then use a 'photoshop' type program to enlarge them, change the contrast and anything else that helps to see the details. If I cannot see all of a sword I then ask for more pictures. So far I've only been caught once. It was a really nice looking wakizashi that turned out to be a boys sword. What fooled me was I had nothing in any the pictures that gave me a sense of the scale (and yes I did have the length). Still, I'm pleased with it because it is well mounted and a good example of what was given to a very rich child. Ian Bottomley

Richard, Having now heard the various comments made by other members of this board, I hope you will allow me a few observations. What has been presented to you is a sword mounted in a style called ito maki no tachi that from about 1600 was the only proper sword mount to wear with armour (provided you could afford the cost). The binding around the scabbard not only gave you a good grip when drawing the sword but protected the lacquer and lacing of the armour when the sword was worn on the left hip. Normally the scabbards of these swords are decorated with the owner's heraldic device done in lacquer. The fact this one is not embellished in this way is a somewhat unusual but not unknown. The same heraldry was also used as the major decorative theme on the fittings on these swords. Again this one is not decorated in this way which leads me to believe that the mount may have been after the restoration of the emperor Meiji in the 1860's. Having said that it is a nice looking mount in good condition. As for the blade, the condition of the tang, the hole through it and the signature do look old. As has been said, there were many smiths who signed Kuniyoshi and it may well be by one of them. However, you should be aware that signatures used by good swordsmiths have been copied by other smiths for many centuries. If the blade is old, and bears an old yet clever copy of a famous signature, it can be difficult to tell. If it is important to ascertain the value for probate purposes then, again as has been said, the opinion of a sword expert should be sought. This cannot really be done from photographs so it means placing it in the expert's hands. I wish you the best of luck with your venture. Ian Bottomley

Chris, This looks to me as if someone has pushed a niju habaki through the nakago ana of the tsuba and then spead the outer sideplates of the habaki down onto the tsuba's surface. You will note that the tsuba would be back to front if you tried to fit a blade into the present arrangement. Who knows why someone would do such a think. I agree the tsuba looks a bit dull, but there is a lot of dirt on it and the highlights show a lot of wear. It might look a lot different with a bit of TLC. Ian Bottomley