Bugyotsuji

The only air-conditioned room in the house is strewn with underclothing, pieces of armour, bags and boxes and supporting bits and pieces. Trying to dry some of it out really before packing it this evening. The guns had been in their cases, but the barrels and locks were bright red with rust and the brasswork was turning bright blue. Quite shocking how quickly this humidity gets to anything metal, and how quickly any leather starts to grow mold. How can Japanese swords exist in the pristine condition that we see them in? An exercise in impossibility, the human will over hellish conditions. Perhaps that is why in the West they have not been taken care of in the same way. Humidity for the festival and parade tomorrow is forecast at ninety-two (92) percent. Maybe that's bone dry to Stephen! Dressing up in metal suits, we will be poached eggs. I just had a haircut in order to make the helmet more bearable. 100 people have died of heatstroke over the last three weeks in Japan, and 20,000 have been carried to hospital by ambulance.

Eric, the whole dish is designed in the shape of an abalone shell; the barnacles and things on the bottom are all handmade too. Whoever made it must have taken some time over it, and I bet they were eagerly looking forward to seeing what would come out of the kiln. One 'leg' for you.

One small crack for a man, one giant crack for mankind. What do you think of this? It's Ko-Imari, quite large, ie 29 cm long ( 11 1/4 ") 24.5 cm wide (9 1/2"), 6 cm deep (2 1/2 ") so maybe good for a pot pourri or fruit bowl.

There is also the custom of placing a Mamori-gatana tanto on the breast of the dead, so this must have been another 'hidden' market. A very good looking Tsuka, though!

Stephen, sounds like hell! :lol:

August 7th. Himeji Castle Festival and fireworks night. Weather forecast cloudy; temp 32 degrees & high humidity. If the clouds break then 34 or 35 degrees. To tell you the truth I feel sorry for the spectators. Will they be there to watch the stage events in that wicked heat out of genuine interest, or because they are expected by the organizers to be there? We will be in full armor/armour mid-afternoon and standing outside waiting our turn for perhaps 30 mins if we are lucky. A 20 min demonstration on those hot metal plates covering the stage, and then back inside and off with the Kabuto and Do. Attempt to dry off some of the sweat before they send us out again in full kit for the photo session and Gyoretsu procession; another hour or two if we are lucky. Finally the stand-up buffet in the evening in any spare dry clothes we have brought. Lastly a two-hour drive back to base to offload the van, and then the final drive home. Midnight. Any energy left over to do a massive laundry and clean the guns?

Nobody! You are always one step ahead. When will I be able to catch up with you???

Is this a version of まるに三階菱　"Maru ni Sankai bishi"?　Three-storied diamond. See line 6 here on the right http://www.otomiya.com/kamon/kika/hishi.htm

Ron, they look like boats to me! (Impossible to slip one past you!)

What are they?

Clive, there is a link to the web page in the first post above. You'll find a short paragraph somewhere down the page.

Steven, I think you'll find that Jitte 十手 are straight-ended, for parrying sword blows... http://www.google.co.jp/images?q=%E5%8D ... CCQQsAQwAA

Eric, yours seems to have a clip for a belt on it. http://www.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&rl ... CCgQsAQwAA

Thank you, Ian.

Ian, according to this page, the Ashikita group from Kyushu mention they did their act at the tower of London and in Leeds. http://4travel.jp/traveler/minikuma/pict/18607415/ I know one other group has been to Australia. We nearly went to Hawaii a couple of years ago, but again these things are so heavy and then you have the local regulations which can prove problematical. Sorry to hear about the blackpowder law. I wonder what the problem was, as I have definitely fired blackpowder at Bisley. Half-way down this page you can see them firing at the Tower of London, and... at least one shot at Leeds??? http://www.yoroi.co.jp/topics/2009/ashikita.html

Trust you Brian, to come up with the weighty million-dollar question. :lol: Unable to answer your question I went round to have lunch with the powers-that-be and tried to discover the latest state of play. Typically there is no more, or very little more hard info at the moment. Somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people on average fly from Japan each year to do these Japan Weeks in various countries around the globe. Logistics would mean filling a suitcase with a set of armour/armor and accoutrements, and then attaching wheels to one end of one's big gun box for ease of porterage. Clothing and accessories for every day to be kept to a bare minimum, eg shoulder bag. We would take the Shinkansen first thing in the morning, hoping to catch an afternoon flight from Narita, where we would be given a Temporary Deregistration Certificate for the guns, to be exchanged on the way back for the original, I am hoping. Black powder will be provided in Portugal. Asked about cleaning the guns after the display, but they shrugged and said 'sho-ga-nai, probably back in Japan...' My hotel bath will have some nasty black rings for the cleaners, I suspect.

Well, it has been a week and much water has flowed under the bridges, some of which have been washed away here in Japan. The rainy season has now been declared officially over, but it was a harsh one, with 10 people killed and more missing in the flash-floods. :| For me the big news was a phone call announcing that we have been invited to Portugal in November to do a matchlock display there for their Japan Week, marking the link that was made when 'Portuguese' guns arrived in Tanegashima in 1543. Only later did I begin to think about the logistics involved in such an undertaking. Getting the time off work, and considering the costs involved, and the movement of all that kit and clobber... aaarrrggghhh...

Oh, in the 2nd picture is the outside/underneath of the lid showing? I thought it was the inside. So you are saying that it actually dispenses balls, then, through the mechanism?

OK so that's (licking tip of pencil) 9.5 cm long, and 6.3 cm wide, and 2.4 cm thick. What material is it lined with, inside the 'box' and inside the lid, Ron? You wouldn't have a photo of the complicated opening and staples bit you were describing above, perhaps? Oh, and one other thing, would you say that this would have been waterproof when hung from the Obi? You must be wondering what's going on inside my head. Never seen anything like it, and ball bags tend to be soft in my experience. The outline inside the case suggests to me a small bottle or flask, and if it is gun-related, then the most natural thing would be to keep a primer flask sealed dry inside. I always have to be very careful with my primer flask when we do a demo on a rainy day. In fact I usually keep it inside the Doran until just before we are marched out into our firing positions. Then I have the struggle to tie it to my nipple ring or bandolier necklace, with my hands otherwise full with one long gun, one burning match, one gun block rest, and one Triton Horagai horn. Anyway, that's what I was thinking, but no real basis for this. I might print those photos out and show them around, if you wouldn't mind?

Ron, can you post the measurements of that quite unusual item? I am having a glimmer of an idea. Many thanks.

That is absolutely beautiful, Ron. Many thanks for posting. About three weeks ago on Japanese television they showed a documentary on how these ringing bells are made. Starting with a flat block of metal the artisan started to hammer it out over the days and weeks. Hundreds, thousands of blows, gradually extruding it out to an even thinness for purity of sound. They said that a large completed singing bowl will have had 120,000 hammer strikes into it. And then you have the dragon design besides. Magnificent.

That's quite impressive. My computer is too slow to open them all! :lol: Horn is quite a tasty treat for some, so often these antique bits have whole sections chewed away. For display anyway, new is a good way to go.

Always been on the lookout for one myself. They do come up in the antiques markets in Japan, but rarely, and when they do often broken or incomplete, and maybe every second one will be a modern repro designed to look old. Mostly already in collections; people do not offer them for sale. Never thought of making one myself. Good idea!

It certainly looks good. Clive's link above does not work for me, but going through Steven's Token page and then clicking on Articles soon did the trick.

Well, thank you Ron. It sounds good, and it would be such a temptation to believe it! :lol: