Bugyotsuji

Yes. My eyeballs get heavy just looking at them, Alex. Proper do your back in. I can add some more shots if you like. Another friend showed me photos of some Tokugawa cannon in his garden, weighing 400 kg each, I think he said. Covered in inscriptions, apparently.

Every room in the house was packed with stuff. Eventually they moved out from this rickety old house!

He allowed me to take photos on condition that it was only for personal use, so I never showed them to anyone. Eventually he donated about 2,000 objects to the Meirin Gakusha Museum in Hagi, much of which is on display there. Definitely worth visiting if you are ever in Yamaguchi. Sadly Ogawa San died a couple of years back, but his Japanese matchlock accessories book is still a must-have. PS Memory Lane... he was once the leader of the Choshu matchlock troop, and his wife was a member and used to fire an O-zutsu big gun. She looks great in this one photo that I took a secretive shot of! Sssshhh.... Oh, and I inherited a few things from them!

Talking about collectors for a second, the genkan of one friend was so packed with bits that there was hardly room to take your shoes off, even after he had moved stuff because guests were arriving. Just been looking back thru some old camera memory cards. The front hall.

There are various versions to the story, one being that a priest was doing the rounds of the lanterns, filling the oil dishes, when he was mistaken for a thief. It does illustrate to me however, (as a lower-end collector of old lamps and lanterns) the value placed on lamp oil way back when, especially if it was carried in such a special pot. I read somewhere that Natane abura (rapeseed oil) was a luxury for the elite, when the general populace used fish oil for lighting their room at night. It was also the custom rule to extinguish any flame when you left a room, or to carry the lamp with you. (Wisdom from a land of frequent earthquakes and catastrophic fires.)

One can only dream! I once saw and handled a wonderful long-boxed Tanegashima, shiny and perfect in every detail of woodworking and kirikane metalwork, with various accessories plus two interchangeable locks in the set, one matchlock and the other a percussion lock. It struck me that an ageing gunsmith must have decided to record his life and times, pouring all his knowledge into one Meiji swansong opus.

Used to have this one myself, but having scratched my head bald, I must have sold it. Regretting it now.

Alex, what kind of pocket pistols do you mean? Short flintlock and percussion jobbies? Yes, all of those possibilities mentioned above must be at work. The Satsuma has a fairly old registration paper and everything about it looks like it has been in a collection untouched for the last fifty years, and possibly untouched since Tokugawa rule. So although I sold a Kishū long gun to release some cash, I have spent well over ten times that amount since the 1st of February for three kabuto, five tsuba and three matchlocks! All on a pension. (This money should have been part-payment on a house here. Ssshhh…). And the sword polisher will be wanting payment, as too the gun restorer who is fixing the lockwork for me. Strangely there’s no sense of pain. I always find there is so much more pleasure to be had from historical artefacts, handling them and learning from them, than from raw money itself. Maybe they come with a mild shot of anaesthetic, like a mosquito bite?

Also, the Netsuke and Sagemono Lounge of the INS site is working again as of today, hopefully a semi-permanent fix...

Michael asked for updates, but I've been run off my feet since Saturday. The spirit is willing but the body is weak. Saturday morning to Shikoku. Saturday evening NBTHK local meeting. Displayed some more tsuba. Sunday all day up in Susai Castle for their cherry blossom festival. Some blossoms remaining among the green leaf shoots, petals falling like snow. Former Prefectural Governor Mr Ishii Masahiro, LDP House of Counsellors representative was there with his wife to watch us. I noticed he placed his fingers in his ears as the guns got bigger and louder. Back home I dragged all my stuff inside to discover my wife had piled the front hall with heavy boxes. "Help me load the car", she said, disappearing somewhere, so I ended up doing the whole load. Every bone in the old body aches. Monday. Up early for the hour's drive to the antiques fair in Ako, then back to meet someone for lunch before returning home after more than three hours on the road in order to clean the waiting guns at last. No rest for the wicked! PS Some photos and a video from the bridge at Susai last week have finally emerged. PPS Last month I finally managed to acquire a Sendai long gun, and on Saturday there was a quick window to get a fabled Satsuma gun, which I grabbed. These are both as rare as hen's teeth, in these parts anyway. Why have they suddenly appeared when everyone was complaining there was nothing on the market? This spring has been a mega expensive time for me though... but these chances do not come up like this.

Just going from gut feeling here as in a hurry, but you could look at original Azai or Rokkaku allegiance for the hexagonal shape, and some relation to the Date for the Date mitsu hikiryo, three standing narrow-edge sukashi stripes. Time-wise, early Edo?

No, my first instinct, not to click on it, was correct.

Having read this far I will now bite the bullet, go back and reluctantly open the provided link. What was the question again? Ah, really?

Quite large? I like it.

Very true Jean. Either these are purely for observation, or more likely merely for castle-aperture-like-decoration.

I think they're both beautiful, Clive. Kozuka seem to have been made in many sizes apart from what we imagine to be 'standard'.

Although shields were not carried by individual Bushi, they were placed on the ground, e.g. propped iron or wooden boards as in Yoshitora’s woodblock print of Hideyoshi’s army in action, or often tied into bamboo bundles which proved more effective against larger bore matchlock fire. Iron examples can be found at Osaka Castle and at Tokumori Jinja in Tsuyama. (very heavy)

Thanks for the clear photos. Sadly, this badly-written Mei looks like an added-value attempt to deceive potential buyers.

Looking ahead to Children's Day in early May, I am starting to 'picture' the static display up at the shrine. Recently I bought a shield which needs some work done to it, but it could be good as a backdrop. Someone made me an offer I could not refuse. The little peek-a-boo hazama windows are too small for a gun, but perhaps an arrow could be fired through them. (Might wreck the flights?)

And just now I found this photo from 2018 on the bridge in Shinjo Village. Staring at it closely I suddenly realized that that's me there in my 'good' kabuto, and a slightly different outfit! 'Different' means I no longer wear that jimbaori, and I have now upgraded the red leather Hosokawa doran waist ammo box for a green leather padded-top makura-doran (Pillow doran). Holding my trusty Hosokawa Kumamoto Castle large-bore army gun. The hoshi kabuto may be mid-Edo Haruta from Kaga, but I have not opened the ukebari lining to look for a Mei. Kote chain-mail sleeves are Muromachi.

Does the Middle East count, Carlos? Remo Nogueira works in the UAE(?), I think.

Back to the kabuto for a minute, there is a strong sense in Japan that your mabisashi should be close to horizontal, i.e. 180 degrees, almost level with the horizon, even when on display. The reason for this is from the battlefield, to be able to maintain forward sight, while protecting your eyes as much as possible from incoming projectiles.

冬廣　作 Fuyuhiro Saku

I would take the brass signal cannons any day of the week! Maybe that’s just me though.