Bugyotsuji

Brilliant story. Many thanks. So in your mind, owners were indeed generally expecting their sword to return one day. In the above story the motive would be more a sense of obligation and responsibility, to bring back an object bought by the local community.

Meaning of 'surrender' tags. If this subject has come up before, please ignore. I did try running a search but found nothing. I can guess that 'surrender' means a) the armed forces' general surrender, and b) the surrender of each individual sword to a collection authority. My question is about why those names and addresses and details were written on the swords that were about to be surrendered. Was it because 1. the owners were told that they would get them sent back in due course? Or was it 2. so that a record would be kept together with each sword? Or were these tags 3. for Japanese military internal use which just happened to be on the swords and had no real contemporary 'surrender' meaning to them at all? If the owners were told by the J and/or the US authorities that they would eventually get these swords back, then I could understand why the tags were written like this. But if this is the case, then perhaps we should reconsider the way we treat them nowadays. A minimum effort should perhaps be made to return them to their family descendants. I would not like to think that they were given up only after false promises. Just hoping that I am wrong here.

Really interesting Ian. Since then I have found that the Mon is probably of Matsuura of Hirado, one of the most powerful Kyushu lords. Originally representing a group of three stars in Orion it was known in China as the three warriors or three generals. Genji and Oe used it in Japan and it was inherited by Matsuura.

Hmmm... yes, that makes sense, Ron & Ian. I can now see a narrow area down the inside lower edges where a Fukukaeshi or cheekpieces might at one time have been fixed/wedged to a Kabuto or Menpo. One could have come loose and the rivets could then be a later repair. I am tempted to use these as Gyoyo with my armour/armor anyway, but many thanks for the considered feedback which I genuinely value! :D

Here is a bit of a puzzle. I noticed these at a friend's house and commented on how they had a good feeling to them. Some weeks later, he gave them to me. They appear to be Gyoyo and made of Uchidashi iron, but has anyone seen anything like them? You may notice a line of small rivets down one side of one of them. Why? More photos supplied if requested.

Thank you Stephen.

Stephen, your last link not working? Such footage fills me with mixed feelings. Not easy to watch. Am I the only one?

Wonderful. Many thanks for sharing this. Quite an eye-opener.

Chris, he was given a 'copy' of it.

Late at night and my eyes and cricked neck are playing tricks but can I see Tada- there? Elements of Nori- too. What is going on?

Sa means left 左　and U 右　means right. Sa were famous. There was at least one Kanbun smith who signed with this one 右　character only, as George says.

Many thanks, Gabriel. Nice little box too! These arrowheads when they come up tend not to be cheap. Lots of fakes going around to catch the unwary, though...

I am forced to agree with Ron, :D except for the part about owning a signed Yanone! :lol: Well done Curran. Beautiful, Gabriel. Clever photography. No overall shots with the Nakago? I have a handful of assorted Yanone/Yajiri from the owner of the keys to the Kura of Kameyama Castle, but as you intimate, they are like most, sadly rusted and pitted. Nevertheless I have had some fun evenings with very fine sandpaper. Jealous in the Far East.

This is now on my 'must visit' list. Thanks for the detailed heads up Jean.

Welcome back indeed, but why Pittsburg? Are they still making steel there? I bet it's changed quite a bit since I lived there in the late 60s and early 70s.

Welcome indeed. One thing intrigued me, but forgive me if out of place. It sounds from the tone of your post as though your father has passed on. Did your father ever get to own a Japanese sword himself? Was he simply happy seeing you owning one?

As always, fascinating feeback, Ian. True, it is sad how much is lost forever, but even tiny little things are a revelation when they are rediscovered.

Just makes me angry. They don't even bother to cloud the issue. Just outright lies...

You'll notice in pic 1 of the rain covers that the whole contraption is supported by a vertical wire which passes through the hinge pin of the pan lid. This is why there is or should be a hole in a Tanegashima pan lid pin. If anyone's Tanegashima lid pin is like a solid nail, ie not a cylindrical tube, there is a high possibility that it has been replaced at some point, as they often get lost. As to gun bags, Eric, yes, there were various things available. We have about 20 red gun bags which we use when parading in public for our regular long guns. (Think sankin-kotai) I tend to wrap mine in a soft terry cloth to protect the butt. Recently someone dropped one of these boxes and it burst open, throwing the gun onto the ground. The owner was not a happy bunny.

Morita san, many thanks for reading thaｔ! Now the puzzle is: 小印　イモクシ　

Our troop carry their large O-zutsu in separate boxes like this. My gun weighs only 7.6 kg, (16.7lb) but some of them need two people to carry them, at up to 30 kg, or 66 lb each.

Two shots of rain covers are featured on p. 133 of Sawada Taira's book Nihon no Furu Ju. Will this do for the moment, Brian and Ron? There are others, but such photos are very rare. I have only seen one actual example of a cover, temporarily displayed some years ago at the local castle. For Eric some pics of the box and gun fitted. Note the separate ramrod. Early Bisen, Ron, were cut with a deep minus screwhead. Most extant examples are square, but Sawada Sensei says that the round Bisen was an early feature of the large Tazuke guns. I have seen further examples of round ones, some with a score to indicate the perfect place to screw tight. The beauty of a round one is that you do not have to worry about how it will sit back into the square breech butt hollow when you replace the barrel. As the Bisen and gun get older, the Bisen can become loose in the 'correct' position, but you can't tighten it as it will not sit at an angle into the hollow. The clove or daikon punch pattern I have only seen one other example of, Ron. This was a fine Kunitomo gun, and not Tazuke-Ryu. It must have been an available option when people ordered their personal gun.

Stephen, one of the honorable members asked me to do a write-up of this gun so I obliged. Took a bit of time and head-scratching though. Tried to remain factual and neutral. Certainly no intention of making anyone jealous! Glad you enjoyed it though. :lol:

Last of the pics. (The Kinokuniya gun was 1.9cm caliber, whereas mine is 2.2. Why are they so similar? Did they once live together? And who owns it now?)

This is a 20 Monme Daimyo-dogu gun. Stock/butt is black lacquer with 7 Maki-e gold 'Sasa-lindo' Mon. The bore/caliber is 2.2cm. Overall gun length is 103.5cm; barrel length 69cm. Weight, 7.6 kg. Classified as an O-zutsu, or big gun, but at the lower end of O-zutsu. The gunnery school, or Ryu, is Tazuke, one of the original big 3 schools under Tokugawa Ieyasu, and is quite distinctive. You can tell Tazuke by the flat diagonal cut-off butt-end. Tazuke had various other distinguishing features, such as a 'covered' rain-proof panlid, unlike the two-story sandwich type we usually see, and in the beginning anyway, a rounded Bisen. Mine is missing the Kemuri-gaeshi, another general feature of Tazuke guns. This gun is unsigned. I have been told many things, such as Tazuke are often unsigned, and that Daimyo equipment is unsigned, etc, but what is the truth here? Without a Mei or a date, we have to work with other factors. The Mon are interesting. Sasa-lindo in a circle was used particularly by the Ishikawa Daimyo who lived in Kameyama Castle near Nagoya/Ise. In late Edo this family moved to Takahashi City in the north of Okayama. I spent some time looking for a link between Ishikawa and the Tazuke school and discovered that a famous teacher of this school, Honda Masashige, 1580-1647 with his son Masatsugu 1610-1627 served the Kaga Maeda family. In 1626 his grandson 朝政　(?) was born and they moved to Ise. At the age of 6 the son was adopted into the Ishikawa family and took their name. This is why I believe this gun may have been in Kameyama Castle at some time during the Edo Period. The barrel is covered in choji (clove) or daikon (radish) intaglio, with gold and silver zougan of leaves and flowers and pine needles spotted here and there, a bit like fireworks in the night sky. The tops of the sights are gold and silver zougan, but largely worn off. An intriguing thing then happened. Kinokuniya had an auction/sale No. 187 in 2006 and a very similar but smaller gun was offered and featured on the catalog front cover. The explanation says that it was owned by the Lord Matsudaira of Tosa and is connected with the Yamanouchi family. The price was silly, and I am convinced that mine is by far the better of the two guns, but who knows? Condition, fair. The middle side Mon are worn where the left hand grips the gun when shooting. The gun needs more TLC and I have done quite a bit already. The next step is to ask a lacquer worker to touch up the cracked or peeled spots in the lacquer.