Bugyotsuji

To be fair to the dear readers of this thread, it should be noted that the one guy sold all three of his golden-barrel guns on Tuesday. Someone made him an offer and he accepted. They will be sold on surely at double the price, and their new owners will be proud to show them off. And I am free! (Now, about the other one… the one with the notation warding off barbarians… hmmmmmm…)

文明七年二月日 Bunmei 7 a day in February

Rick that sounds like a great idea. I have removed bisen screws in the past with some kind of black sealant around them, as if someone had had a similar thought. To extrapolate a little, it may have been the fact that the guns on Western ships approaching Japan's shores had so much greater range. Japanese cannons needed to be sealed more efficiently, so the barrels were filled with seawater to rust-seal the breech plugs. As a spin-off from this, or in conjunction with this, infantry guns began to be made with even finer tolerances to gain extra bang and range, (vent channels became so small that only a fine cleaning wire could work through) and troops were encouraged never to remove the bisen screw when cleaning their guns, i.e. to deliberately allow a build-up of grunge around the screw. Personally I wind a section of kitchen paper towel two or three turns around mine after every clean to make for a tight fit to the right position. PS What you say about European gun threads is interesting for me as I have a pistol with an uncharacteristically short bisen screw. The screw is stuck so tight that I have given up on opening it, but I was wondering if such a short screw could even be practical, to the point where I thought the gun could be a fake. It was only when I finally managed to clean out the vent hole, (yessss, fantastic, it does have a viable fire channel!) that I became convinced that this gun was/is the real McCoy. You have opened the possibility in my mind that the gunsmith used a Western technique in the manufacture of this matchlock pistol.

And these are from Sawada San’s book, showing how the Awa long guns’ front and rear sights could be adjusted up and down.

Is this the illustration you saw, Rick? From Sugawa Shigeo’s ‘The Japanese Matchlock’. These are not replaceable, but just examples of styles.

Ah, the added information begins to fill in the picture. Long guns from Awa had adjustable sights front and rear, although most of them have lost the sliding, fold-up part. Adjustable sights of any kind were very much the exception, and fully working ones not often found today. There is a guy called Sawada Taira, author of ‘Nihon no Furujū’, who proudly shows people his ladder sight, which has its own separate box. An extremely rare object. I am guessing you’d like photos of the above, or would you also be interested in normal, fixed-in-place rear sights? Am I correct in assuming that yours is missing, and there is a shallow box where it should be? Or is yours like 99% +/- of Tanegashima which have fixed rear and front sights?

As a swordsmith, this name was read Kaneaki, as Moriyama San says above. (My suggestions were general readings, but stupidly I did not crosscheck with the Meikan when I first posted.)

Try Kanemi or Kaneharu, Rodriguez. (Edited. But see Moriyama San below.)

短刀　氏信岩捲 (TA-030111)｜刀・日本刀の販売なら日本刀専門店の【銀座 誠友堂】 －　氏信岩捲 Ujinobu Ganmaku　－　日本刀の通信販売　明倫産業株式会社 日本刀販売専門店銀座長州屋｜刀　銘　氏信岩捲(業物)｜刀剣の専門誌『銀座情報』の名刀 Check these out, Kevin. (There is a little information in English to get you started.)

If it has been glued in place, I would leave it and move on. Could be deliberate for whatever reason.

By the way, if you have any zōgan inlay along the top of the barrel which you do not wish to damage, application of heat becomes more problematical. Wrapping that section in a wet towel can help keep the temperature down, …if your soft metal inlay is not too close to the base of the barrel.

Hey, those are some interesting figures! Wow. Did they say how long they soaked it, giving the stuff time to go to work? One thing to be aware of Dale is that towards the end of Edo there is evidence to show that some late-manufacture bisen breech screws were pinned in place, i.e. for the sake of a better seal, designed never to be opened. (The crosspiece can be mega hard to spot.)

Hi Rick, If you mean rear sights in position, yes, there are tons of photos available. Do you want a generic sight for a gun that is otherwise pretty standard? (Often the shape can depend on the region of manufacture.)

The answer cannot be absolute, but generally there will be a story whether faint or strong behind such annotations. I have two or three objects tied to different *Daimyo. It’s always a nice extra background aspect to have, but how solid is such provenance? Luckily there are works such as Thomas links above, giving you the opportunity to check out or cross-check the story for yourself. *For example a Yama-no-Uchi (Yamauchi) pistol from c.1825. When the family storehouses were opened up a certain local dealer was able to buy up and pass out many objects into the general market becoming rich in the process.)

Heisei 6 = 1994 Interestingly, there seem to be some small differences (e.g. length 71.2, vs 71.3) between the original handwritten assessment and the later transliteration, especially the last line. Could they not read the hand writing, or was it merely a formalization of the language used?

If you follow that ‘shortening’ logic, Jean, you could argue that the Tsuka has been made from a section of the former Saya.

Traditionally people hold the tsuka fairly low down, with the blade pointed up and away from you. They whack the back of their hand, (the hand holding the tsuka), with their other hand/fist. This seems to be to encourage the blade Nakago to break its seals and jump. There are some really tough ones where the holding hand gets beaten to a pulp. Eventually they may resort to the old wooden hammer and peg tap, as a last resort.

Hmmm… mammoth?

Hi Dale, welcome to this site. There is so much information filed away here, ... and the folks range from mega friendly to super ornery, so good luck and I hope you enjoy your time here!

The simple answer Ken, is, as with Nihonto, you can tell at a glance, if you've spent any time with them in hand and studying with books. There are also websites dedicated to pointing out the differences. The difficult answer I will attempt to answer below. It is worth remembering that at any antiques fair you will find hundreds of NLO, but rarely a Netsuke with both fine quality of carving and serious age. There is some middle road with funky (民芸品 Mingei-hin) folkcraft netsuke used in everyday Edo-period life by ordinary people; these can have an old rustic charm of their own, and if you are lucky you can still find them at antques fairs, hiding within collections of more modern NLO pieces. As I said above, everything. The opaque white of the material reminds me strongly of resin 'netsuke' produced recently for museums, or in sweatshops in China, although it could be marine ivory. I cannot see clear Schreger lines, except possibly in the tail, but there are nerve-ending holes fore and aft. The strength and application of the stain. The casual hairstrokes, the crudeness of the carving of the paws underneath. The rough treatment of the himotoshi holes, and the final straw is the obligatory Japanese-looking Mei. All of these shout NLO. Having said that, I do not wish to shock the starter of this thread, as it is indeed a cute object, and many people collect these happily. Over on the International Netsuke site we get a steady steam of people who say their grandmother left them a precious collection and can we evaluate it. Well, sadly, no. (By the way, there are modern genius artisans who produce one-off works of supreme art. Such netsuke are another complete area of collecting, but they can justly be very expensive.)

Cute, sure, but sadly everything indicates this to be a recently-made NLO. (Netsuke-like-object.) Since ivory is a giant no-no internationally these days, just pray that it isn’t.

These late Meiji Koshiraé normally have reverse screws for the Mekugi. One side can be held firm, and the other with clever pressure and reverse twist of the finger should be encouraged to unscrew. (Although we don’t know how your hilt is held on, with what kind of screw, or even if it has been glued…)

The wood of the stock shrinks and grips the barrel. Sometimes there is rust involved which makes for an even more solid grip. You are right; some of these slender stocks look and feel quite fragile. Gentle all-round use of a rubber mallet can be better (and less painful) than the palm of the hand. Tapping everywhere can break unwanted seals, and loosen things up.

Ask Aoi Art if they would be willing, and able, to ship to the UK with confidence.

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