Bugyotsuji

You've done a fine job there, Jay. Really something to be proud of, restoring a piece of history like that. Small-bore Sakai guns from the mid-Tokugawa period onwards tend to be flashy, highly decorated for the rich merchants who would buy them, but yours is more understated, which may be because it is an older version.(?) According to Sawada Taira in his book Nihon no Furuju (and he is a proud resident of Osaka), guns of up to 3 Mon-me were sporting guns for hunting small game, or for target practice. Military guns only start from 3.5 Monme (bore of 13.2 mm) and above, most often around 5 (14.95mm) or 6 Monme (15.78mm). When you talk about the wider diameter of the front of the barrel, do you mean the exterior diameter, or the bore? If the exterior, then I suppose a bulge at the end could stop your hand from slipping off the end of the barrel when loading in cold or wet weather. (Last year I came into possession of a long Sakai gun like yours, and then more recently into a shorter, heavier 5 Mon-me military version with larger bore.)

堀内宗完 Try Horiuchi Sokan https://www.google.com/search?q=鍔+鑑定　堀内宗完&client=safari&hs=g2i9&sca_esv=c2befdc87a32043e&hl=en-gb&ei=T9NQadnMEuOs0-kPyrbToQc&oq=鍔+鑑定　堀内宗完&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhnpjZQg6ZGR5a6a44CA5aCA5YaF5a6X5a6MMggQABiABBiiBDIIEAAYgAQYogQyCBAAGIAEGKIEMggQABiABBiiBDIIEAAYogQYiQVInU9Q0RNY6zVwAngBkAEAmAF5oAHfAaoBAzAuMrgBA8gBAPgBAZgCBKAC9AHCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgIFEAAY7wWYAwCIBgGQBgqSBwMyLjKgB4cFsgcDMC4yuAfkAcIHBzAuMi4xLjHIBxKACAA&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

Nice. 'Kanzan and Jittoku' is a popular subject for Netsuke and Okimono too, throughout Japanese art.

Later, on the PC In the top pic, the powder measure bottom left is more modern. The Tamaigata ball molds look OK but you have to be careful to check whether they are later versions made for fishing weights (with small holes for the line). Genuine ones are expensive, the fishing versions are cheap. The lead ladle handle looks new and the musket balls too, but it may be an old ladle with a replaced handle. There is one hayamichi and four flasks. The top two, bamboo and horn look legit from here. Middle pic The central flask with ballbag looks Japanese, probably for a hunter, and the net ball(?) bag on the left likewise. Not sure about the others ecept for the European-style flask on the right. Bottom pic. On the left is a hayamichi traveller's purse. The two bottom flasks look like decorative imitations for tourists. The one on the right looks like a powder flask that has been cut in half and joined to the bottom of a crow's beak ball bag, a bastardized thing that could be genuine and something a Japanese matagi (hunter) might have used. Confidence rating: 85~90%

Coming from another angle, there are many names which could be read either way. A simple example is the swordsmith Chogi/Nagayoshi. Sometimes an alternative reading is used to distinguish one person with the same name from another. Kane/Kin, etc. Today in Japan if there is any doubt, (and even when there isn't) people will ask you how your name is pronounced. Only the owner can tell you for sure. Although 信四郎 can be read Shinshiro, and I have found examples on the web, Nobushiro is more likely to bring up the correct kanji 信 in people's minds. Even if the 'correct' reading was Shinshiro, the owner would be 100% used to people calling him Nobushiro, and if or when he introduced himself as 'Shinshiro', each and every time people asked him which character he used for Shin, he would surely have answered 'Nobu'. In this sense the default reading would really have to be Nobushiro...

At a glance. Eight of those are almost definitely Japanese and matchlock related; another two are Japanese Hayamichi (traveller’s purses). Others look … Korean or continental(?), and one flask looks European.

No rush. Seeing blades in hand at sword shows is a great idea, while listening to what people say and point out. Actually owning a blade can be a drag at first if you don't know what you have, and if you are not really prepared to take good care of it. Finding the right blade can often be a serendipitous event. It might even be a beautiful little tanto. You might decide for example that you want a blade from a particular school or area, of a particular age, in shirasaya and then plus full koshirae perhaps, and even some more modern paperwork to go with it. Dream the dream!

Ancient Rorschach Test…

ChatGPT got both the name and the date wrong.

I see turtles…

Of course it’s possible they are thinking of Dōran hip boxes or bags for hayago quick-loading tubes and gunner’s accessories, but these have 3D depth to them for the tools.

John, I think you are correct. That is for brushwriting paper, a billfold or a tabako-iré for tobacco, but it’s a nice old lacquered leather example! Always nice to have lettering and/or a mon. Musket ball were downloaded from an ammo box, and then generally carried individually in small leather pouches, usually attached somehow to powder flasks. Many of these pouches had Karasu-guchi mouths, crow-beak dispensers. I’ll take some photos in a minute. Assorted ball pouches and crow beaks

And one other. So many of these powder flasks, small and large, have lost their original caps, up to 40 or 50% of the ones I have found in antiques markets.

Looks like elephant ivory from the Schreger lines in one of those shots, Mal. Not so old though, probably 20th C. (Just a gut feeling)

They usually come in sets, but good idea, maybe better than a brush rest.

Nice. Reminds me of the Hojo uroko (dragon scale) kamon, piece of third triangle down left, with a hanabishi (?) top right.

The blind leading the blind. The signature is usually hidden? I wonder if Max or Rosemary could help us?

Yes, Sasa no Tsuyu 笹露 maybe ‘drops of dew on the bamboo leaves’. Popular as a sword name, implies your enemy’s head will be instantaneously cut off and fall like drops of dew.

Whole post just disappeared again. Grrr… And I smiled at the dealer. Those grapes were probably sour anyway. Besides, I had found some other neat stuff, and there is No Way I would pay that for an obi-hasami! Here’s my modest contribution to this thread, the best one I have. (One of mine has virtually no decoration at all.) The front the reverse

Like two peas in a pod, Jan! Very nice. *Unlike yours with the Mei, there is a small circular impression on the plate behind the pan, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

No, what you say is true, Brian, but the letter of the law still stands and the warning is written clearly on the back of the registration card. Many people do ignore it. The problem arises when something unforeseen occurs and they can use it against you. I won’t go into detail but I ran foul of it once.

Only just noticed this thread. Some nice examples there, Peter!

Don’t have time to look at everything in detail but the inscription does not inspire confidence. 木元武夫 Kimoto Takeo is wrong for a swordsmith name. 元和 七年　is read Genna 7, toward the beginning of the Edo Period.

Kane…(?) 兼

Reminds me of this ‘bamboo’ netsuke (made of ivory) with the Fushi joint in the design of Mt Fuji. I think this is a wordplay on Fushi and Fuji, talismanic, Fuji (不死 Fushi) meaning ‘eternal life’.