Bugyotsuji

You can see the construction a little better here. Very flimsily made, but it obviously follows a natural, subconscious pattern. And look at that Torii Sori!

Attic junk. Up in the loft (attic) of a Japanese farmhouse I found the remains of two dusty old lanterns. The owner said she didn't want them, so reckoning I could fix them up I asked her not to trash them. Nothing really special: one was a simple box frame, unpapered, with a central spatula or tongue for a candle. The other was better, with three papered but torn windows, a door with a little catch, and a shrine-like roof. Being an earthquake prone country, with houses made of wood and paper, you can understand the traditional nervousness around the danger of fires. Off the scale, what I came across when first living here. I do not plan to put real candles in them, unless following the golden rule of never leaving a room empty with a burning light unattended. Take the light with you (to the 'habakari' for example), or light a small carrying lantern and extinguish the main light. If you are the cause of a house fire, the whole village will probably hate you forever. With these two as a temporary fix, I have simply fitted Buddhist altar lights, candle look-a-likes with batteries! As to age, they probably do not go back to the Edo period, but who can date such country traditions? The loft was once used for silkworm culture, but that must have been way before WW2. Photos to follow. (Both lamps strengthened and rebuilt.) 1. The box frame. Maybe I will paper the facets. 2. The roofed shrine lantern.

Thank you Thomas for the clear and understandable reply. This does advance the story. My thoughts around the Mei were that the most important kanji is badly hit, badly incised. This causes confusion and uncertainty, giving several possibilities. The question is why. Was it a mistake that was going to compromise the whole kabuto, i.e. did the poor chiselling of the date mean that there was no longer any point in adding the maker's name? Or was it deliberate to help make the unsigned hachi bowl saleable? There is a theory that Mei were inserted before the plates were assembled (comments from any armourers here?) because there is no room inside a completed hachi to swing a hammer onto tagane chisels. Did someone attempt to do just that with the Mei, giving up after a poor attempt at the date? Nothing definitive, but innocent questions that have been bubbling up since first looking at that date. (A mental process I frequently go through in other fields.)

There is a fairly strong theory that these shorter Ozutsu were created to shoot 棒火矢 bohiya bolts and thus came to be called 火矢筒 'hiyazutsu'. They are relatively rare. These flaming, finned bolts were used at the siege of Osaka Castle and their use became popular with gunnery schools through the Edo period. Of course they could and would also shoot lead ball of 30 Monmé weight. (Nice Doran waist pouch for accessories too! Oh, and the stand looks like a perfect job.) Photo follows of one of Anthony's, a 100 Monmé version now in active use by the Okayama Castle teppotai.

What fixes it to Edo for you, Thomas?

Sō-Shū is the area surrounding where the Kamakura government was once located. Nearer Mt Fuji, a little south-west of Edo, present-day Tokyo.

You need to get out more often. (To sword appreciations, sword shows etc.) I have a kotō Tantō from Sō-Shū (Sagami) with a mitsumune.

Of the very little information that sticks inside my tiny brain, Mitsumune indicates Soshu, and So-Shu Den... and sometimes the tanto of Yamashiro.

On the same day among the jumble of armour and other weaponry, I spotted what looked like a very early matchlock. It was the exaggerated, slightly ugly shape of the butt that caught my eye, so I asked the owner what he had. He is a new member, thus I was not too surprised to find he knew little about it. It was obviously an Inatomi-Ryu gun, but from several indications an early example. "Does it have a Mei?" I asked, and he replied in the affirmative, showing me the registration card. Namikawa, it said, and it gave me vibes of Sakai, Osaka. "I'll look it up when I get home," I told him. Last night I checked the records and there it was, the same name, Namikawa Gensuke, (Settsu) Sakai, with a notation of 'Keicho'. Well, that is bang on the money; Keicho ran from 1596-1614. This example must be among some of the earliest known guns in Japan. Sawada San who wrote the book, Nihon no Furuju 日本の古銃 calls 1543-1600 暗黒に時代 the Dark Age, as so little is known of this time, with very few artefacts surviving.

Used to have a beautifully made kiridashi which I gave to my daughter's first boyfriend. Seeing this thread I kind of wish I hadn't ...

Thank you Jacques. To refresh my memory I have just read the whole thread once more. It is as you say. But what a rabbit hole that one was!

Yesterday was Children's Day at the family shrine of the Ikeda and top shrine for Bizen, Kibitsu Hiko Jinja. Around midday, following the blessing by the shrine priest, and the Shinkage Ryu demonstration, we performed a full-armour blackpowder demonstration on the Yabusame course. After lunch the priests had requested some of us to remain in armour for group shots with the children and families, alongside a static display of the weaponry used earlier. I was surprised to hear our leader call my name while he was outlining the day's activities. "Piers, you are in charge of explanations at the static display tables." I don't know if other members were as surprised as I was, but they silently gathered around as a group to help our corner go smoothly. For years, he would always cut me short when I was enthusiastically explaining things, but now it feels almost as though he has recognized something and given me free rein to talk.

Not that I am aware of, Jacques. This is the thread: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/33474-tamba-no-kami-gamble/#comment-346826

Yes, that is the one that does not fit, imho, Colin.

As a suji kabuto, everything is there. It has four shiten-no-byo and four hibiki-ana.You have some of the rivet heads showing. No hachimanza, but some people prefer it in the raw state, and quite well finished even without the tehen kanamono. The haraidate-dai has two holes in vertical alignment and iri-hasso in the top edge. The shikoro would have been.. manju shikoro? The mabisashi is fairly steep and has a good shape.

Well, it depends also on how you read that poorly-inscribed date. Is Genji 2 really possible, as it only lasted a year from 1864 to 1865... (?) Manji does not seem to fit the kanji. Another possibility is Koji, 1555-1558. 弘治

Just seen this, apologies. The leaves are traditonally said to be mugwort, designating a sage or shaman as they have strong healing properties. In fact the name moxabustion comes from them, the active part being 艾 Mogusa (蓬 Yomogi plant) in Japanese. (Think 'mogu' and 'mogi' and 'mugwort') They can be dried and powdered for use in burning over acupuncture points, but I have found their compressed juice will seal and heal a knife cut beautifully. They are also used in food, such as Yomogi-mochi rice cakes

Ah, thanks! Toyo-Oka? 豊岡　豊邱… that second kanji is tough!

Hmmm... will need to get my eyes focussed on that. (The shot with the tang is upside down.) 豊前... no, not zen...

They look like copper from here...

Do they really use oil, though?

Some years back I went through this whole process with a signed tamba no Kami Yoshimichi. There's a thread here somewhere. Most people opined that it was legit. Even my sword appreciation sensei said to send it off to shinsa. He too was interested in which Yoshimichi they would choose, as he had his own opinion. In the end it came back 'gimei', with no explanation. Not saying that yours is the same, but there are a lot of good fakes out there, so be prepared to roll either way.

Try, Seki Unjosai Katsunaga For example: 旧日本陸軍九八式軍刀拵入り.雲上斎 https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/l1121008323/ https://www.token-net.com/soldout/201511-28.html

Of course you could say, and many do, that a wakizashi is a good way to enter the field. You can often find excellent work by a good smith but in a relatively affordable package. If the blade itself is everything to you, find something in shirasaya. When you feel more confident, or when your slice of bitcoin has gained tremendously in value, you can branch out into longer or shorter. Bobby above mentions why older people in Japan might be collecting tanto. Certainly it was traditional for households to have a last symbolic tanto. And I too have found myself gravitating towards tanto, my 'collection' now down to one last koto wakizashi, plus one koto tanto and three shinto/shinshinto tanto. All with koshirae, and all bar one papered.

Ran this by a Japanese kinko artisan today, who looked it up in one of his books. He reckons the reading could be Hironori or Kojo, though the photo of the list he posted has it sandwiched between Hirosuke and Hirotsune, so if it follows the J alphabet, it should indeed be read 'Hironori'. 「二字に銘した鐔がある。江戸時代後期」 "Tsuba with two-kanji mei is known, the latter part of Edo", it says. So with all those references, and the NBTHK paperwork, I reckon this metalworker really did exist!