Bugyotsuji

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.

You mean the Date of Uwajima in Shikoku? (kuyomon in a circle)丸に九曜紋 Agreed, but they too used the Kuyomon only as their third mon, their ura Mon. In the prominent place on your sword it would surely be a primary Omote mon. But those generic metal mon discs are sold everywhere, so I would not be sure of anything…

Multifaceted question there. Remember that the nine-star mon (Kuyōmon 九曜紋), or nine heavenly bodies mon was used by several families throughout Japan, in various configurations, with or without the Maru, solid or sukashi, large stars or small stars, etc. The most famous users of this mon were probably the Hosokawa of Kyūshū and the Daté of Sendai. *To answer your question Volker, I would say no, as the Date preferred a different one as their Omote Mon.

To add to John's posts, the purple boxes, centred around Bizen, contain the following Ha (group/school) information, from the top right down: 大宮 Omiya, Omiya Ha 長船 Osafune, Osafune Ha 畠田 Hatakeda, Hatakeda Ha 片山 Katayama, Ichimonji Ha 福岡 Fukuoka, Ichimonji Ha 岩戸庄 Iwado Sho, Ichimonji Ha 吉岡 Yoshioka, Ichimonji Ha 吉井 Yoshii, Yoshii Ha 宇甘 Ukai, Ukai Ha (Also pronounced Ukan)　Said to be from the sound of Ukai, 鵜飼 cormorant fishing. 岡山 Okayama, Higashi Tamon Hyoei Kei (line) Very few examples said to exist today

“I thought we had adults here.” Brian’s wrong of course. The adults took fright and left the room a while back…

Mark, have you tried the 蔦 Tsuta ivy Kamon? https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=e63747d83a281166&hl=en-gb&udm=2&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeioyp3OhN11EY0n5qfq-zENyQuF3_WaPI4Qgb6AZzy-etFjo9fqZ_m1LmwOk0Tw7NqzRByaVxBM1fsvEyMalinYBnZSbPsMGKnfuTgCN-kMPLGu-9S4H_wozMCmxOUp_MU4XAZj8Ws9KVbcwnvg86KE93TYmL1kpnleGzufE81r9xCWvfA&q=蔦家紋&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjSm8fztKmPAxXbQUEAHQgcG7YQtKgLegQIGxAB&biw=390&bih=663&dpr=3#sv=CAMS-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-AzABSgoIAhACGAIgAigC

That’s a Takeda-bishi inside a Mokko surround, Sam. 木瓜に武田菱 https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=68354a3c7c70afc3&hl=en-gb&udm=2&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeiAkWG4OlBE2zyCTMjPbGmMU8EWskMk2JSE__efdUJ3xCy-TJvLh102VajJHlWcuOMzuudcRq6McxYvTDw4xql9ltBOHIJaSaTfN7wuQcwsNEykFXCmH-aW_zRjpKtpTVfBkZf-L9m_IJvYLcwjwgMx7BTMU9NqkzLP44Nj6uc5ciPTJCQ&q=木瓜に武田菱+家紋&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiSm5H6lqmPAxXGUEEAHUTPHeAQtKgLegQIDhAB&biw=390&bih=663&dpr=3