Bugyotsuji

Unfortunately Eric, that one is a modern Chinese reproduction. (Just one person's opinion. Can't say more on a public site.) Consider two things. One, these are being made today in Beijing, and dropped into latrines to 'age'. Two, if it was real, the Chinese government would be up in arms about this sale and would be demanding to know its provenance. Does the seller give you this information? They are in truth very rare; most either already known and accounted for in museums, or still buried and subject to Chinese cultural export laws. PS Yes, Philip, those workmen Tabi with the Nike air bubble are my one luxury and the weak spot in the ensemble. They really need to be disguised inside proper straw Waraji...

Here is a pic of me firing a 20 Monme O-zutsu from Kameyama Castle in Ise, last autumn. (Uki-bune style) Notice the butt is nowhere near my shoulder. My regular long gun and Triton are on the ground beside me. http://yasuyuki.blog.ocn.ne.jp/.shared/ ... c_4538.jpg Oh, here is one showing my regular Hosokawa gun from Kumamoto Castle. 8 Monme. http://yasuyuki.blog.ocn.ne.jp/.shared/ ... c_4519.jpg

The picture above illustrates one of the ways of firing a gun firmly from the hip, and the rope or sash is used to hold the gun steady at a low height, a triangle being created by pulling up against the left foot. I had to do this in the Dojo as part of one of the Dan that I got. I don't remember anything about night firing, but that too is quite possible. Another increased-accuracy position we had to be able to do was, in the kneeling position, using our upright sheathed Katana as a monopod, and holding the Tanegashima firmly onto the edge of the tsuba, all with the fingers of the left hand, and then doing the firing procedure. Try doing that on a slippery wooden Dojo floor without sliding the Saya, dropping the gun or letting it slip off the Tsuba, all in front of the judges!

Good informative write-up, Ron. Many thanks.

Mr Jones, sir, Guns were orginally pole weapons. The pole was held straight but it was difficult to aim. Versions were designed to go over the shoulder, or under the shoulder like the Jezail. Others to go against the shoulder, and still others to be gripped and held away from anything. There is a theory that the design of Japanese armor/armour does not allow for the use of a Western type shoulder rest/butt. In Japan they kept the old ship's prow type of butt, and they called it a Ho-ate among other things, or cheek piece. I believe you could reverse the gun after firing your one shot, and split a man's skull open with the central ridge of the butt. On firing, the butt/stock slides back past the right cheek-bone and the recoil is taken by the grip and elasticity of the complete right arm. The whole body stance of the Samurai is designed for aiming and recoil, and there is even a school of thought that says placement of the butt against the shoulder is actually a 'less' accurate way of aiming and firing. It is true that into the Edo Period larger and larger guns were fired in this way, and Western observers called them hand cannons.

Glad to see that that this kind of stuff shivers other people's timbers too. Ian, I had a follow-up double-check chat with our top man about your grapevine three-barrelled matchlock, and he said that he has no reason to doubt its authenticity. He said this type was probably being made towards the end of the Edo Period.

I didn't know that about how tricky the bohiya were in flight, but it makes sense come to think of it. As to that long gun, apart from the shooter and the loading team, there were two ashigaru (well, not really ashigaru) designated to carry it yesterday, and I got them to pose for me.

Ah, yes, I heard something along those lines. And one of the towers is constructed after the fashion of a famous castle which withstood a long siege. This was considered a good omen.

What, all of them?

Apologies Brian. I'll stop here...

Simple Kanji question. What does this say?

This gun was used to fire a bo-hi-ya or flaming rocket. The iron tip would burst through the castle tiled roof and the naptha-soaked ropework, set on fire by the gun's explosion, would ensure that the castle burned from within.

Some general heraldry shots.

Your post is full of fascinating insight, for which many thanks, Ian. Perhaps that is what he meant about the vine leaves... although he seemed to be careful not to say too much and it did not sound particularly negative. (?) I think he merely wanted me to know that his was/is the real McKoy. Here are a few more pics of the day. The long gun below is an Oo-deppo, (to be distinguished from an Oo-zutsu). They were used in the early years up to Sekigahara and Osaka-no-jin. Sometimes called Keicho-deppo. Sawada Sensei pulled the trigger, and he had a new boy to hold up the front end of the gun for him. It took about three or four people to load it, and he assured us that he had just borrowed it from the museum, and it had not been fired in 400 years. There were two of them fired yesterday, both quite rusted barrels, one genuinely old throughout, and one with a new stock and lock. I got one guy to make a fist to demonstrate the size of the muzzle.

Working reproductions are not allowed by law. All the guns are on the face of it genuine antiques with Toroku paperwork. Any exceptions would risk flouting the law.

Doug & Eric, thanks. Eric, in the summer of 2008 there was a gathering in Tanegashima of fullarmor/armour matchlock companies from all over Japan. Something that had not really happened there before. This was a great success, so last fall/autumn another was organized in Ashikita in Kyushu. 160 (?) gunners formed a line and fired towards the Ariaki Sea. Suddenly it seemed like they were on a roll with this sort of thing, and it was announced that Hikone was going to do one in March 2010, with 250 members from 23 castle matchlock corps. Unfortunately the funding is a problem and we may not have one again for some time, according to the rumors/rumours. I'll add some more pics in a while, then.

Thanks Carlo. I have put out an exploratory message there. Let's see what happens.

Piers, just post them on Samurai Archives. Emmanuel is not the only one that would love to see them ... Is there an invisible wall against outsiders? No-one bothers to answer or acknowledge my posts, so I have kind of given up commenting. I posted a correction to someone's misinformation the other day, but was completely ignored. You and John seem to be the only 'friendly' people over there. (Probably overstated the case a bit! :lol: )

One has to be terribly careful with unusual Japanese guns (eg three-barrelled guns) as the very high prices assures that there will be many fakes around. People will pay top dollar just on the off-chance that this one could be genuine, when in many cases the provenance is just not there. A close friend likes to assure me that there are only 'three' (pick your figure) known and verified examples in the world. To show how far he knows the market, I told him that there was one in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and he said, 'I bet it had vines on the barrel' and he was right. Just shows how well he has researched them. Back to the purpose of this post, to update the thread, I was in Hikone this weekend for a gathering of the clans. A bitter wind and driving rain did not deter everyone from a magnificent display, not least of which was the various Sengoku banners and Uma-jirushi. I bet John's friend Evalerio would have been happy to see them. I was astonished to see one group with large silver crosses hanging on their breast plates and asked if I could take a photo. They explained that they were from Bungo, and their Lord Ootomo Sorin 1530-1587 was a prominent Christian Daimyo. I will post up a few low density pictures from the day, if Brian can overlook the bandwidth creep. Hikone Castle with its complete concentric moats and many remaining original features is worth a visit alone if anyone has not yet been.

One quick question, Ron. Is it possible in your mind that the gun was hit hard (by enemy fire or an explosion etc.) from the side, and the repairs were for deepish gouges in the exterior of the barrel?

Thank you for showing that, and giving us the very interesting cover story! So, calibration of the cannon was done by eye, much like a hand gun, but with a handy coil of rope. Dead easy once you get your eye in, I should imagine, and fine for short range work.

Oh, thank you so much all of you. (And John, I never suspected that you were born on the bosom of a poetess!!! )

This has been up for a few days and there have been no comments. This means that the Japanese is difficult to read, and no-one can advance the state of play, even one letter? I was doubting the reading in a couple of places, but cannot offer anything better. If this is the case I will go back to my friend and say we here can take this no further. Thank you all for looking, anyway! Oh, and now I can attempt my own translation! :D Hmmm.... first attempt, here we go! Fell fast asleep drunk It's been a while since I dreamed That inn full of blooms

Unfortunately I am pretty sure the one posted above is a modern Chinese reproduction. I think I know who has been selling this piece too.

Friend in Switzerland asked me to check this carved Haiku; YOUTE NETA Endormi d'ivresse Sleepy with drunkenness YUME MO NATSUKASHI je fais un reve qui m'est cher; I have a dream that I hold dear HANA NO YADO ma maison est en fleurs my house is in bloom Someone has already attempted to do the translation, as you can see above. What I would like is for someone to check whether the original Japanese is correctly transcribed from Kanji/Hiragana to Roma-ji before we think about any possible English rendition. Thanks in advance.