IanB

Shan, Although the tsuru in a circle id often used as a kamon (including JAL), the other motifs suggest that in this case they are just designs. I do recognise the 7 (or is it 5) tailed fox. That is a folklore story. Sadly some **** 'borrowed my copy of 'Legends in Japanese Art' and has never been seen again so I cannot look the reference up. Ian Bottomley

Stephen, That is a very kind offer - thank you. As it happens this nugui was for sale by a very odd dealer about a mile or so from where I live. I tried emailing to say I would call and pay cash. No reply. I had tried to make contact previously with the same result. Odd? Ian Bottomley

I haven't had any trouble, but if you try to bid on anything in their knives / swords catagories you are taken through a series of pages that insist you supply them with full credit card details to prove you are over 18. I refused to hand over details of my card (although I have a Paypal account so they know my bank details) so I was unable to bid. This was on some nugui would you believe. Seems like you have to risk having your financial details stolen to buy 'rust' thesedays. Ian Bottomley

Syd, The sharpness of the tagane makura would suggest that your sword is later rather than an old koto blade. Also, the signature differs in that the lower left of the 'kane' character is much more rounded and the left hand elements of 'naga' are differently formed. On balance you appear to have a blade by the later smith. Ian Bottomley

Henry, I may be pointing out the obvious, but as a total ignoramous on fittings I was impressed by the quality. At first glance the mounts look rather eclectic but then it dawned on me that they all depict attributes: for Ebisu, Daikoku and Hotei. Very nice. Ian Bottomley

All, I have seen this type of stamp before, on a gunto, but so long ago I have no other recollections. Not a lot of help I know, but note that the 'instruction' to the lacquerer to use black lacquer is in pencil, not written with a brush so the saya must be post Edo period. Ian bottomley

Henk-Jan, @%*$ ... He doesn't ship to the UK. Ian Bottomley

All, I too have done the dressing up in the rain bit - at a yabusame display at the Tower of London. To say the heavens opened would be an understatement. Fortunately I was wearing kamishimo and when it finally stopped raining I dried out reasonably quickly. Surprisingly, the kamishomo, of starched hemp, with pasted seams, didn't seem effected although I did iron all the pleats and seams again soon after to make it look presentable again. On the subject of rusting armour, the Europeans never really managed to solve that problem. A lot of ordinary armour was left black from the anvil, the fire scale having some resistance to rusting but not much. No doubt if the oxide layer was soaked with linseed oil or the like it would have helped. (On this point I have a Japanese armour that is finished with an all russet surface. When I acquired it the surface was dry and was beginning to show spots of surface rust. Working on the principle it was no different from a gun barrel, I rubbed on a solution of boiled linseed oil in white spirit, left it about an hour and then rubbed off the excess. After 40 odd years the finish is still beautiful and glows with a dull sheen when polished with a duster.) Some European armour was undoubtedly painted, but that was only after suitable paints had been devised. Polished armour just had to be repolished on a regular basis. It was very high maintenance. The 'interpreters' at the Royal Armouries, who put on displays for the public, found that horse sweat was terribly corrosive, the cuisses og their armours in particularly suffering. With mail, the solution to cleaning off rust was to wear it, the movement of link on link having a burnishing action. One little trick the mail makers adopted was to use brass links for the borders, particularly the lower edge. Rain trickles down from link to link and accumulates at the bottom edge. Making these rows of brass resists corrosion. Another trick was to dag the bottom edge into a series of points from which the rain could drip. The scales and plates of a Japanese armour were by and large waterproof, provided the lacquer was sound. It was the lacing and fabrics which took a hammering. There is the oft (perhaps too oft) quoted passage by Sasakibara Kozan that the weight of a kebiki laced armour could almost double when wet (and become infected etc). During the Muromachi period they tried kawa tsutumi do, in which the entire do was covered with lacquered leather over almost all the lacing. It cannot have been a success since they were never common and soon abandoned. At the same period there were the kawa tsutsu maki no tachi (if that is the right term), presumably adopted for the same reason, to keep the rain off the scabbard and hilt. Ian Bottomley

Like an idiot I forgot to add the images.

Here is another book that was obviously used by the British Diplomatic Service in Japan. The additional slip informing of the death of Emperor Meiji was inside. Also inside is a printed sheet, dated 1910 and issued in Tokyo, giving details of the examination that had to be undertaken for an Interpreter's Allowance of an extra £100 per annum. That involved reading and translating dispatches, newspapers, official documents and the like. Ian B

My utterly brilliant and super scholarly exposition on Japanese wheel locks and snaphaunces has been lost forever in cyberspace. Ian Bottomley

All, A critical factor at Nagashino was the presence of a stream / drainage ditch (clearly visible on the Nagashino screens). The Oda / Tokugawa lines were positioned some 50 / 60m away from it giving the gunners every opportunity to pick off targets as the horsemen slowed down to cross it. Those who managed to get as far as the palisades were held at bay by ashigaru with long yari thrust through the barriers whilst others with shorter spears, and presumably swords, swarmed around and killed them. As for the discomfort of armour, if it fits correctly, it isn't too bad. In Europe the well off were very particular in having their armours carefully fitted. If my memory serves, it was Philip II of Spain who allowed one of his armourers, brought in from Germany, to watch him in his bedroom so that he could observe the way the emperor held his head and neck. Issued armour was obviously not fitted to any individual, but the wearers overcame this problem by exchanging pieces between themselves. We have evidence of this in three armours bought for the retainers of the Von Trapp family at Churburg. The armours were bought in Nuremberg and the parts of each set were numbered. They were later swapped around and each retainer wrote his name on each part. Needless to say the numbers and names do not correspond. I would imagine exactly the same happened in Japan, although of course most of the parts of a Japanese armour are far less critical when it comes to fit. The use of renjaku-do in which internal cords pass over the shoulders was almost certainly designed to alleviate some of the fit problem. By tightening the cords, the shoulder straps of the do were lifted off the shoulders whilst the pressure of the lower edge was taken off the hips. Ian Bottomley

I included this quotation in a text for an exhibition the Royal Armouries held in conjunction with Nikko Toshogu Shrine. It was greeted with bewilderment by the priests who had never heard it before. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Thank you for the note on the single 'k'. I have always been unsure on the romanisation but the ashigaru equipment is referred to using the term by Sasama in 'Nihon no Katchu Bugu Jiten'. John, Yes I would agree your sword is probably Satsuma but believe me far far better than the species I am describing. Malcolm, The Tadayoshi I wrote about was bought as a Christmas present in exactly the same circumstances. It was a choice between that and a tanto with lovely mounts of quail in millet. I rejected it because it had no scabbard. All attempts to find my book have failed. I know it is in a slip-case I made for it. I am wondering now if it is in the Royal Armouries. They liked to copy images from it for various publicity material. However, I have found the remnants of a hilt from one of these swords, sans iron fittings. Ian B.

Malcolm, Certainly. For years there has been the belief in the UK that a certain type of 'cobbled together' sword mount was for use in the Satsuma Rebellion (or Southwest War) of 1877 in which Saigo Takamori and his samurai followers fought the Meiji government. A good number of these swords are wakizashi size and most have blades that are clearly 'past their best', often tired or made from cut-down katana. Having said that one of the best blades I have ever owned came in such a mount; a slightly suriage Tadayoshi wakizashi that is either shodai or Tadayoshi III. However, it is the mounts that are so characteristic. They are characterised by having a tsuka, often a short length of an old saya, bound with cotton(?) tape in a style similar to katemaki but with a twist put into the tape in that section that is normally just wound around flat. It is virtually the same as that described as being used by 'high ranking samurai of the Shonai Han' on the JSSUS website. I have noticed that some of these hilts had the tape dyed green, but most are now a dull brown. The fuchi is usually just a simple strip of sheet iron, brazed into a ring without a base. The kashira is again of thin sheet iron beaten into a cap over which the braid passes. Finally the menuki are most commonly iron washers, hammered up to a dished shape. Scabbards can be anything but generally fit the blade well enough. Tsuba are generally plain, in all shapes. Now why do I believe they are nothing to do with the Satsuma Rebellion. Firstly, most rebels were samurai and would have had their own swords. The opposition was the Meiji army who had been well equipped. That they were not knocked together for the tourist market is suggested by their obvious utility appearance and the fact that there are so many all the same. If you are making up junk swords for the tourist trade you would at least make them look desirable. Finally, and I think most convincing are the illustrations in Zobyo Monogatari, originally printed in the early Edo period with illustartions of ashigaru. One picture in particular shows two spearmen with their loaned equipment, okkashi gusoku and okkashi to ('lent' armour and 'lent' swords). You will note that one guy, with a trophy head, has a pair of looted swords tied to his spear. Note these are bound in the normal fashion. But note how the artist has depicted the tsuka maki of the okkashi to (the same in all the illustrations). I am sure that what they are are old munition swords put onto the market when the old castle arsenals were being cleared out. At this point I was going to add the picture with nice close-ups of the sword hilts. But!!! The gremlins that inhabit my study have hidden my copy of the book . I will have a look tomorrow for it and add the pics later. Ian Bottomley

Piers, You ask if having worked in a museum has sharpened my eyes. The answer is no but it has made me realise that collecting is not just a matter of chasing the bright and shiny. There is obviously a place for setting your sights high and only acquiring the finest quality but the equipment used by the rank and file is every bit as valid (alothough to read some comments you might not think so ). For every daimyo strutting his stuff in his lavish Haruta armour and wearing his immaculate tachi with its 13th C blade, there were thousands in issued gear. In many respects this low rank stuff is almost as scarce as the best, having been scrapped as not worthy of being studied. I own a 3/4 German black and white armour made in Nuremberg about 1560. It is absolutely genuine, with no replaced plates. Can you find any real information on these armours - no. The books wax lyrical on the armours made for the upper ranks and say nothing about the commonest equipment - that made for the soldiers who did the real fighting. The same is true of Japanese arms and armour. Last Friday a guy came to see me with three swords left by his grandfather. One was a perfectly respectable wakizashi in nice enough mounts and with a touristy lacquered dragon on the saya. The other two were what everyone in the UK keeps calling 'Satsuma Rebellion' mounts but which I maintain are okkashi to. One was made from a broken katana blade and was still about 22" long, but had an absurdly short tang. The other looked the same but was in fact a real wakizashi blade signed Kanehiro. On the reverse it stated 'Kanemitsu two people made this'. Now to me that was more interesting than the first wakizashi. It was a real piece of history. Later another sword was brought to show me (another grandpa job). It was a katana by Harima no Kami Fujiwara Teruhiro. A very rare thing and highly desirable in many eyes since very few katana were made by him, but to me not half as interesting as the little wakizashi balde. I will no descend from my high-horse and climb back into my cupboard Ian Bottomley

Piers, If the toggles (kohaze) have been eaten by the weevils, or whatever it is that infects armour and eats the horn, you can fit new ones without disturbing the cords. I am assuming of course that the cords are reasonably strong and intact. (One of my armours came without a single horn toggle left but with the silk cords they had been on completely intact.) What I did was make new toggles and drill the usual two holes through them. I then cut the bit of horn away between the holes to give a slot. This allowed me to thread the loop of cord through the slot, fastening it in place with a horn peg glued in place through a hole drilled from side to side and of course through the loop of cord. When it was all dry, I sanded off the excess peg and re-polished the sides of the toggle so the peg was all but invisible. Worked a treat and you can only tell what had been done if you look very carefully. Ian B

Piers, I did once have a regular wakizashi with a long drawer, made of horn, built into the inside of the saya alongside the blade. After pulling out the sword, there was a small notch inside the koi guchi that enabled you to get a finger nail in to pull out the drawer that was about 12" long. It was about the right size to hold ichibu (?) - the small silver coins. It must have been a merchant's sword and a very convenient way of carrying your cash because the drawer was virtually undetectable unless you really searched for it. I have just found an almost identical one to the one I have just posted, illustrated in the book on 'Edo no Tanto Koshirae', page 63. Apart from having different false-menuki, it is exactly the same - even to the spiral shapes in the lacquer on the scabbard. Must have come out of the same workshop. It is illustrated with three other, more realistict, dummy swords and a scatter of silver and gold coins so I guess that is what it really is. Ian

Piers, Glad to hear you managed to sneak the armour into the house. A tricky situation I have been involved in on odd occasions. Now, here is a trivial item that turned up on UK eBay a few weeks ago. There is an almost identical one illustrated in Stone's 'Glossary ...' where it is described as a bokken. What surprised me is that the drawer, which is paper thin, is carved from a single piece of wood and is curved to fit the saya. Stone was of the impression this kind of thing was for carrying brushes. The interior of mine is so clean it is either new and unused or it carried coins or some such. Ian Bottomley

I was dropped on my head when a baby. :D :D :D Ian Bottomley

Dear Mr Trotter, 60 years old - a mere child :lol: :lol: I'm so old they were still wearing Nihon to when I was born. Ian Bottomly

Piers et al, I have recently been putting down my researches on the origins of Japanese guns (something I have been looking into for about 20 years) in a little introductory book that the Royal Armouries may or may not publish in due course. As is usual, the story is rather more complex than is generally assumed. What triggered my interest was the usual tale that the Portuguese introduced the gun to Tanegashima in 1543 ... but Japanese guns are totally unlike anything used in Europe. The snapping matchlock mechanism was known in Germany but it wasn't exactly popular elsewhere. There was supposed to be a diagram of such a mechanism in a manuscript written during the 1480's by a gunner called Metz who worked for the Palatinate of the Rhine, but I am certain it isn't a gun lock. I think it is a crossbow lock of some kind but there do not seem to be any surviving parallels. So, we have a gun appearing in Japan with a German mechanism carried by the Portuguese who didn't use that kind of gun in Europe. The answer lay in Needham (see previous comment) who states that the Portuguese conquered Goa and put the craftsmen in the arsenal there to work making guns under German overseers. In other words what the Portuguese carried to Japan and elsewhere in Asia had an Indian/German pedigree. The next clue is a pair of guns preserved in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya (see 'Military Accessories of a Daimyo House' pages 66 and 67). These are clearly not Japanese despite the fact that one has an aoi kamon on the pan cover. One has a rather odd 'Virgin and Child' in silver koftgari on the barrel, the other scrolling koftgari folliage. The locks are retained in the stock by screws passing through from the left side, a feature retained by Japanese made guns produced in Tanegashima. There are other minor differences from later Japanese guns, such as the shape of the lockplates, triggers and sights, but they are really only cosmetic differences. I am sure these are Goan guns of the type introduced by the Portuguese. Interestingly they have the two different lock mechanisms, both used by the Japanese later - one with an external spring and one with a coiled internal spring. One also has a stock that is a precursor to the usual Japanese stock shape. What the Japanese seem to have done is take guns like these as a model and modified them for Japanese mass production methods - by eliminating the screws and other minor simplifications. So where do the Chinese come into the frame? Needham suggests that the later Chinese guns derive from the same source, either from the Portuguese, or the Japanese (Wako) with perhaps some ideas copied from the Turks. Undoubtedly there were earlier Chinese guns, including things like fire-lances and one with a crude form of serpentine (again see Needham). There are Japanese records that a Chinese gun was imported into Osaka in 1510, but we have no record in either Chinese or Japanese writings as to what it was like (although Hojo Ujitsuna is supposed to have had a few made and they may have been tested in the Battle of Udehara in 1548). Whatever it was like, it obviously had drawbacks since the Japanese didn't really take it up with any enthusiasm and it was superceeded both in China and Japan by the Goan model with its long iron barrel, sights and efficient lock mechanism. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Yes spurs to screw into the heel of a boot. Saves you having to have the normal arrangement that straps around the shoe or boot and fastens with a buckle. Although we had a vast collection in the Royal Armouries, I can't say I took too much notice of them, but I guess these are 19th C. Milt, Nice Bajozutsu - I don't think I have ever seen a Sakai one before. Ian Bottomley

All, I just thought I would be a good plan to start another theme. This time it is a pillar clock. Probably late Edo or early Meiji It is totally unmarked to give me a clue. It just about runs but is rather erratic - sometimes I can get several hours out of it, at other times it stops after a few minutes. The clock itself is the usual verge movement but with a wheel and hair-spring mounted horizontally above the rest of the movement. The spokes of the wheel carry tiny weights to regulate it. The silver sakura does nothing except to show the thing is running, since it rotates and catches the light. Most interesting is the fact that the clock has a striking mechanism. The weight, which runs down the trunk, is in the form of a completely separate mechanism with a spring that you wind through the hole just under the hood when the weight is at the top. As it descends, pins on the back of the number plates trip the striking mechanism and it pings in a most refined manner. Ian

Oh dear I forgot the pictures (senior moment