Bugyotsuji

Grazie mille, 'Renzo, but in this case I think you should keep it with the certificate as proof to the wife of your true worth. When you have more time and money, then please make something for me! (Before you become famous and too expensive...)

Thank you Moriyama san. I cannot find any record of such a series, though. Perhaps it was to be the first one but did not sell well! :|

Well done indeed! And to Rorenzo too, of course! :lol: You guys must all be very proud.

Thanks for showing that. Pretty sure I have a leather tsuba for a tanto at home. I'll check later.

Thanks for the input Mark. Every contribution helps push the truth up and out, I believe. Another very Japanese possibility that has been occurring to me since this whole discussion went off the boil, is that the artist did not want to rekindle old emotions. This was painted in late Edo, and the Bakufu system was still in full control over a 'peaceful' united country. By depicting Hideyoshi, he has removed the scene from any Tokugawa involvement. By making the defenders and the castle unrecognizable, he has avoided offending the family name of anyone or their offspring. No-one can take offense, and everyone can feel the glory of the heat of the battlefield, without anyone knowing the outcome, one way or another. A very diplomatic solution.

Hi, I can't see the central circle that you refer to, but there are 蔓　tsuru vines between the 樫　kashi/gashi oak leaves. It is a common combination with oak leaves and comes in many varieties. Look for "maru ni mittsu tsuru gashi", for example.

If this seller in Hiroshima is who I think it is, then he has a reason for not being able to read the signature. :|

Ian, can we get a float, erm... fleet together?

Hahaha :lol: yes, well spotted, very good. We have always been told that 　浮き　UKI- 世　-YO　"Floating World" is the way it should be translated, but then people say it has more of a meaning of fleeting, unsubstantial, transient, of the moment. I like both expressions! The fleet is floating down the river. Hmmm... these two words might be very close.

Henk-Jan, "fleeting world"... very good. This thread nicely tied up! :lol:

Thanks Dan for the detailed follow-up. You have to be right. Now I can see I will have to change the question for Japanese people. "Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, now look at this scene, and tell me the first thing that pops into your mind!"

I like the Netsuke idea. Just don't get your main powder flask and your sporran entangled...

Thomas, here is a typical Awa-style 狭間筒　Hazama-dzutsu. Small bore of 1.1cm. Lots of pics at bottom of page. http://www.seiyudo.com/GU-08132.htm

Ron, I can see you enjoy a challenge. I agree with most of your points above, and will keep an eye out at museum displays. What you showed above would certainly do the job. Any residual smell inside it? Have you turned it upside down and tapped it lightly onto the palm of your hand? Am I teaching my grandmother to suck eggs?

Hi Dan, Welcome to the site and thanks for the thoughts. Your last comment "...the accuracy of the castle is not important to the scene" leads me to ask you what then is important. In many if not most Ukiyo-e battle scenes, the artist indicates where it is taking place. That he has not indicated perhaps vindicates such a suggestion. In light of the 1842 Tenpo reforms, has the artist taken the authorities' directions to heart? Dressing the participants in O-yoroi suggests great respect for them. Is this a scene designed to generate respect for the martial arts, and for a rearming of Japan in the face of internal complacency and barbarian threats from outside? "Remember the glorious deeds of our ancestors!"

Malcolm, that's good. Just been playing around there. Thanks. Also thanks also to Henk-Jan for some nice castle links on the previous page. Now, I am still digging around Japanese sites for a definitive list of moated castles that Hideyoshi or his generals laid siege to. Could be a large number, though.

Most on this page are genuine, (not all) but you will be able to tell the difference. http://image.search.yahoo.co.jp/search? ... 5%E3%82%8C Now you know which bits are missing from the old primer flask I found on Wednesday!

Look at Photos #10 and #12 on this page. 10 is the generic primer flask, and 12 is the Satsuma type. http://www.mlsa.jp/%E4%BC%9A%E5%93%A1%E ... 5%E5%85%B7 They both hang from two strings which connect to the flask's 'shoulders' like an Inro from a Netsuke, and the mouth points up. They both have a tube out of which to pour the fine powder. No 10, the Satsuma flask is similar to Western flasks in that it has a spring and sluice gate which you can depress to measure one exact charge of powder for the pan. The normal flask is clever. The top 1/3 is held on by two pins which when removed allow for filling with powder. The strings are attached to the ends of the two pins. The whole thing hangs from your nipple or some suitable ring on your breatplate. You can lift it up with one hand, causing the two strings to go slack, and flip off the cap which was sitting in place there by gravity. Even if it is raining, the rain can go freely down through the two holes in the cap as they allow the string to pass through and out, but they do not connect to the central powder tube. The clever bit is when you drop the powder flask. It falls freely and reaches the end of the strings and then stops, and the cap comes sliding down the strings to cover the mouth of the tube once more. All automatic just as your hands are occupied now with other actions. Many antiques dealers at stalls or on the internet suggest a particular flask might be a genuine powder flask, but without this string and free-fall system (Satsuma excluded) the possibility is strong that it is something else entirely and the dealer wants to make a quick buck. Primer flasks are collectable and generally worth quite a bit more than their larger brother powder flasks. http://image.search.yahoo.co.jp/search? ... 5%E3%82%8C

As a footnote to Andrew above, what you say may well be true. Indeed I very much hope that you are right and one day someone will come forward and say, "Yes, that is the famous Seige of Akasatana-Hamayarawa Castle". That is what is in my heart, fondly. My brain tells me however, that one must be ready for any eventuality, in order to avoid any disappointment. I know Hideyoshi performed a series of battles in his Western Campaign against the Mohri and their vassals毛利　(long O-, as opposed to the short o in Mori　森) , capturing various castles in the process. Some like Tottori will have had a moat or moats. During the most famous of these sieges, the Mizu-zeme (flood-them-out siege) at Takamatsu Castle, he was waiting for Shimizu Muneharu in his boat to hurry up and perform the Happy Dispatch when he heard the news of Oda Nobunaga's death. I have to acknowledge that Yoshitora may have been fuzzy on the details, despite knowing like everyone else about Hideyoshi's famous Mizu-zeme brilliance. Since the castle walls no longer exist, he may have taken poetic licence and hoped his customers would recognize the scene as Bichu Takamatsu-Jo. (?) http://www.mustlovejapan.com/subject/si ... su_castle/ http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98% ... D%E5%9B%BD)

I see what you mean about the pineapple muzzle shape... hmmm... Priming flasks almost invariably follow a logic to their structure and mechanism which I will illustrate, if you don't get there first.

Gotta hit the sack, but pleasant dreams tonight, I wot. :lol: Some further shots of the tryptich. My camera is usually good, but the colours have not come out well. A copy of this work is illustrated in Sugawa's book. There is also a set in a museum in New Zealand, stating that is it Toyotomi Hideyoshi's besieging army... Unfortunately they all seem to have been trimmed. It's not great art, to my eye, but it's done with energy.

Well Ron, it's a sweet little thing. If it is a priming flask, then it has been adapted away from the two standard patterns of the mainland and Satsuma. It hangs upside down, (?) and corks were never really used in Japan. Perhaps the cork was simply added later. I'd like to be able to pick it up and examine it all round, but from those pics it does have a strong feel of a Chinese snuff flask. Horn was often used in J for priming flasks, though.

Anthony, the question still remains as to whether Yoshitora was a historically accurate printer or like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, just interested in stirring up the spirit of the age. This tryptich will illustrate how the 1842 Tenpo reforms encouraged war imagery in place of decadent stuff like courtesans, Geisha and actors. I will probably let them roll a few Netsuke around in the hands, and explain how I repaired the few tatty Ukiyo-e that fluttered my way. The Shunga will stay in reserve... The question of which castle this might be has bothered me on and off, regardless of any talk or speech, and suddenly today I thought let's open it up the the honourable members. Many thanks for your thoughtful feedback, folks!

It's very small, HJ, about the size of a snuff bottle. Inside, maybe room enough for ten shots' worth of priming powder.

Dang, not Odawara then. (I liked the look of the drawbridge to the main gate.) Tottori? A Korean castle in the Japanese style? Which Takamatsu is that, Henk-Jan? Hmmm... every straw I grab seems to be slipping away. Shunga only came up as I was power reading on Ukiyoe, Ron. There will be eight men in that room, and from comments dropped last time I think they would be more than happy to have some serious Shunga rolled out for perusal. The four ladies, on the other hand, might a bit of an unknown quantity when we come to the edge of the known world and get ready to step off.