Bugyotsuji

Two threads running now!

No. 2 is Hara/wara (Gen) 原 No. 3 is… Gei/Kujira??? 鯨

Ball molds Tama-Igata of various sizes. Lead ball, range up to 100 Monmé. Lead ladle 玉鋳鍋 Tama-inabé (Various chunks of lead for melting)

Pa Blo Pi Casso, I reckon!

正阿弥盛世　from Iyo in Shikoku apparently.

One possibility for a flared bore is repeated use of an iron ramrod (or cleaning rod) at some stage in its life. My friend Jan Pettersson has been trying to map out when exactly iron ramrods were first used in Japan, but they were certainly less liable to breaking than the more common wood or bamboo types. Rare overall, but Yonezawa guns particularly featured an iron ramrod.

Great. If I get a minute tomorrow I’ll post some molds for you to compare yours with. See here: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/28754-accessories-for-the-tanegashima/page/2/#comments

Yes and yes. You bought the first lot? It’ll be interesting to see what you discover once they’re in your hands. The ‘netsuke’ resembles those made in Hong Kong around the turn of the previous century, perhaps 1900-1920…(?)

Uwe, how did you get that!?!?

正阿弥 Shōami on the right?

Museum displays sometimes need a little tweaking here and there. This is a high zunari. The kabuto pole section is usually adjustable, and in this case maybe could be lowered a notch, or they have inserted too much stuffing in support of the ukebari. (Possibly they've lifted the kabuto higher to give visitors a better view of the menpo.)

If the bore is flared internally, that usually indicates many years of heavy usage with a ramrod, or even heavy cleaning, which has gradually worn the muzzle end wider.

Hoping we are not commenting publicly here on people’s goods for sale at all! Having said that John, I am pretty sure you are correct. Oh, and the netsuke beyond may be tagua nut, vegetable ivory. As to lathes in general, they were using hand and foot power to push-pull small spinning lathes with long strings, way back in the Edo Period at least.

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 a shorter, heavier 5 Mon-me military version with larger bore.) For reference:

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