Bugyotsuji

老 possible? (Rō, at an old age)

I’m liking your thinking, Uwe!

中谷要人(秀重) *Nakatani Yōjin (Hideshige) On a hand-drawn map of armourers of Japan, I have just found the name above listed for the Edo/Bushū area. *Alternative but less common reading ‘Nakaya’. http://blog.livedoor.jp/kayoko1227/archives/31862120.html On this page is a reference to a Buddhist bell with an inscription of this name and date of 1630, saying in the Shin Kacchushi Meikan that this refers to the ‘armourer of Buyō’ (Bushū) Nakatani Yojin Hideshige.

Ah, thanks for that info Jon. Tanegashima had a variety of front sights, …only some of which were triangular. (I have an old Tanegashima pistol with a rounded rear sight, which I am guessing is for ease of use with a holster.) But surely it’s only rounded from sideways, and triangular when seen from the front and rear, no?

Was at college in the US with his grandson, who was very proud of his ancestry, but a crazy guy! He had a French girlfriend from his time at the Sorbonne. He wanted my corduroy jacket and $50 dollars in exchange for his leather-scabbard gunto. He let me have the sword, but only on condition that I would one day return it to him. Sadly I discovered that he had later died, after a long and successful career in journalism. I am guessing that the sword must still be in the USA somewhere. 芝生瑞和 - Wikipedia 母方の祖父は荒木貞夫元陸軍大将、第一次近衛内閣文部大臣、男爵。父方の祖父は芝生佐市郎元陸軍中将。 Araki Sadao, his grandfather on his mother's side.

Hope he sees this thread!

若松 Wakamatsu (a place or personal name) 二号 = No.2 (The character after Wakamatsu is not clear to me.)

Nice idea! (ChatGPT could be totally wrong, of course.)

As Uwe says above. The Mei is quite faint and that one character is very hard to make out.(正市?) A-Shū is Awa, Tokushima, on the east of the Island of Shikoku. One of the gunsmith families was the Fujikawa, and many of their individual smiths used the first character 正 Masa… They would have been making guns through the 1700s and 1800s. The decoration resembles guns from Osaka but in a couple of details they are quite different. Sadly the photos do not show everything. PS Why is the rounding of the front sight ‘an issue’?

Ed Wolf, ‘sparrows and bamboo’ seem to be a recurring theme of the Date clan. Here is one of my personal favourites, with the watery marsh or river theme in shibuichi on the reverse, and five silver and gold egrets on a shakudo obverse. Kaga-zōgan inlay technique.

Maybe X-西 (Nishi) on the left? Can’t work out the first character…

Thanks for the clearer photos in the meantime. The unusual diagonal file-down of the top tip of the kissaki suggests that something was broken and smoothed off there.

Thinking about the meanings contained within the second character 露 Tsuyu/Ro, I came across this. It suggests a common theme to me through jade, green tea, dew drops, ambrosia, purity, the soul, the Buddha nature, all at the same time.

Your gun is from Osaka but possibly the owner had it decorated to indicate trade to and from Awa. They are fairly close geographically, so it is nice to imagine the background. My own collection reflects the ‘spread of different styles across the country’ as you put it, something I have been gently but consciously aiming for, for some years now. PS If you can find a copy of Sawada Taira’s 日本の古銃 ‘Nihon no Furujū’, it is full of illustrative photos of this spread, among other things, despite it being in Japanese.

If your wife is happy, let it grow and take over a whole room to start with…

阿波 Awa Awa no Kuni indicates present-day Tokushima on the east coast of Shikoku.

Waves and ships again, not a common subject, but an amazing coincidence. Good job so far and happy discoveries! You must surely be relieved, Tony.

Inside Europe, yes?

Looks like a broken blade later fashioned into a Tantō; or even a long shikomi-zue sword-stick, the blade of which broke, and the sheath was likewise correspondingly cut down. (?)

No, we are all on different pages. 十九 is 19, 1944. 十六 is 16, 1941 十八 is 18, 1943 It is possible that the hat issue type stayed the same but the last number was altered depending on which year each hat was actually issued. If this is the case, to me the last/latest number (Showa 19) is most likely, regardless of the covered number(s).

宇和島 is spelled Uwajima today in English, but it does sound like 'Uwadjima'. This branch of the Date clan was started by Date Masamune's eldest son, Hidemune. Because he was born by a consort, and not by Masamune's proper designated wife, he could not inherit Sendai, so he was sent to be first Lord of Uwajima in Shikoku. He had been brought up in the way of the Samurai, learning both literature and martial arts, 文武両道 Bunbu Ryodo.

The nine looks to have been added later. Maybe an update to older stock? (It’s a thicker script.)

Just had a communication with a friend who lives in that area and John is correct. The locals pronounce it Iwado. She says it is part of Wake-Cho today but was formerly a part of Saeki Cho.

The koshiraé for this tantō has iron tosogu with hon-zōgan inlay of silver arrowheads. The tsuba is iron but with inlay of brushes in various metals. The message seems to be 文武両道 Bunbu Ryodo, the samurai ideal of balance, proficiency in both letters and martial arts.

Hi Tony, thanks for posting your new gun. Yes that certainly does look like a heavy oil coating but why? For protection against the weather, or for long-term storage??? To cover up something? My guess is it should be removed, somehow. A one-off solution. Paint stripper? Hmmm… maybe test out various things on a tiny corner somewhere. Yes, it is an Osaka gun. The Mei is unusual in that a second name is added below 作 which should normally come last. 摂州住嶋内市右衛門作信定 In my lists I can find Nobuhisa and Sukesada, but not your ‘Nobusada’. Likely a smith of the same Shimauchi house, though. Maybe he added his name later for some reason? There is a Shimauchi Ichiuemon dated 1801, so yours would be a little later than that.