Bugyotsuji

Mark, Piers, All, I once had a sankaku yari mounted as an aikuchi tanto, the blade being only 4 or so inches long. The nakago had been cut, of course, but the mei SHIMOSAKA was still evident. Now, it is true that I have never seen another one (maybe one other??). Edo?? Whilst the yari itself was no doubt old, the aikuchi tanto koshirae I thought was perhaps Meiji although of course it could have been late Edo. It was a somewhat poor quality affair and my feeling at the time was that it was a cheap way for someone to have a defensive weapon, a tanto blade almost certainly being more expensive than a by then more-or-less useless short yari, of which I'm sure there were thousands freely available. Maybe they are "rare" in Japan because they were mostly sold as curios in the Meiji period?? Regards, Barry Thomas. Good point. Lots of yari with rusted lower tangs which can be snapped off and reshaped, and lots of out-of-work katana shokunin, and lots of Western visitors and you get... a+b+c =

Something I came across today which I bought for the NMB Edo corner here. A small Kutani porcelain tea or sake cup with a photo in the bottom of a chap in uniform. Some debate among the dealers and customers ... "Nogi Taisho!!!" etc., but they were not really sure who it was. It was Admiral Togo Heihachiro, but I realized that people have generally only seen pictures of him as an old man. He looked too young for them in this portrait! In small gold letters inside the rim and upside down it says Togo Taisho. He became Taisho as a result of winning the Tsushima Straits battle against the Russian Baltic Fleet, so the cup has to be post 1905. Comparison of the medals on his chest might date the cup more accurately.

Talking with a Japanese friend today I mentioned these two slots and he immediately said Kakuri Kurishitan. I said, nope, ...Ford said that that was the one thing we are not allowed to say. He looked astonished and said "Who's Ford? Everyone knows it's a hidden cross." Then I thought to myself, why do we have to swallow that very first restriction put upon us. Why, Ford, why? :lol: Then looking at the Namban ship tsuba on the cover of the book posted over on the Namban Tsuba thread, the Nakago ana suddenly looked like a ship, and the cut away sections looked like the sail of the ship. Hmmm... then I thought that when it comes to proscribed things, the Japanese love to have a second or even a third explanation lined up for times of trouble. Everything in Korakuen Pleasure Gardens for example can be said to be for beauty etc., but there is often a hidden military meaning behind almost all of it. (Mark, sure let's start a different thread! I saw another one today, BTW, but the koshirae was much poorer quality.)

On the book cover Tsuba above are square slots, bringing our two threads together.

Yes, I agree with Reinhard on the readings. The first character on the fuchi may be 光 Mitsu-, but possibly 芝 Shiba-, but it's hard to see, and I would want to check my books first.

Hi Mark. There are modern versions, but the one above was done in late Edo; the saya Koikuchi is cut specifically for this yari, as too the seppa and tsuba. Sword-related Japanese people I have shown it to have been generally surprised by both its relative rarity, and genuine nature. Back to the tsuba in question, the holes may have been cut later to incorporate something, for example a blade with a high shinogi that needed special side pads to hold firmly. A square cut for special copper, gold sekigane? (Really struggling here...)

Hehehe... point taken. My brain is still refusing to give up on the cross-slots puzzle above. I hope Ford gives me the tsuba for my efforts anyway!

Add this to your memory banks, Guido.

Or Nobody's cameo pic from yesterday in this week's Edo Period Corner viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2554&start=705

Oh, wow!!! 2 Ichi-bu (Ni-bu?) bankin? Well, then it is not such an alien concept! :lol:

The answer to your suggestion may be found in trace quantity on the walls of the cavities, unless the incense was wrapped up in three layers of paper. One more possibility presents itself here. Swords sometimes had hidden compartments for little blobs of Mame-Ita-gin or Mame-kin, which could be exchanged for cash in times of need. With his gold hidden in the tsuba, even if the saya was lost, a samurai would not lose grip of his sword unless his spirit had passed on. (As an adjunct to this, I wonder if they ever took out the gold filling from the Hitsu-ana in times of need?)

Love to hear this kind of stuff, Ian. No problems at all for me. I had just had a quick look in a Japanese Super Daijirin dictionary (we all know for example how reliable the E-J and J-E dics can be) and simply quoted the received knowledge. Just rechecked to make sure I was not hallucinating or making things up, and it does say that the very first ones had Western/European motifs. Never having seen such, I was interested in the idea anyway. Always good to take everything with a pinch of salt, and to have the frontiers tested. What you describe makes a lot of sense historically and geographically. :|

The 'free floating ball' (nice!) is the dragon's fiery orb, the jewel for which they both fight. Namban tsuba tended to be European in style at the beginning of Edo when they first started being made in Hirado and Nagasaki, but later they had more of a Chinese theme to them. (Quote from dictionary!) Nice piccie here! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... longBi.jpg

Something to do with...

What an excellent photo. Thank you Koichi san. The accompanying Japanese explanation seems to suggest though, that he was executed upon his return from his world tour... :| Somewhere there is a detailed description of the wonderful gifts the Japanese delegation took to the USA and where they are stored today. It also describes the manufacture and presentation of these medallions. Mine looks as if the recipient used it for tapping out his kisseru!

Not exactly what I was looking for, but nicely set out with a menu on the left. http://www.ny.us.emb-Japan.go.jp/150th/ ... nrinE1.htm

Yes, Koichi san, and there should be quite a lot written in English on the web somewhere if I can find it. I believe there were about 80 members altogether wearing haori/hakama and carrying swords, and they were all given medallions, three (?) of which were gold, seven (?) silver and the rest copper...

This week's puzzle. Bought this off an acquaintance about three years ago and it has been sitting in my office undisturbed ever since. 7.6 cm across. Rim is 0.6 cm. Copper. Quite heavy.

Ian, just talking to an insider friend and he said that those two guns you mention in Nagoya were here in this part of the country for six months before going to the museum there. The owner(s) were very protective about them, so the only way you can/could find out anything is to make friends with them and listen with suitable deference to their description. In Nagoya, even when the guns are on display, no-one gets to handle them either. Incidentally there is one more 'original' Denrai gun with the name Captain (Capitao or whatever in Portuguese?) Domingo inscribed under the barrel. Are you aware of this one?

Thanks guys. Reading a book last night that poses a good question. If Japan was full of teppo in the Nobunaga and Hideyoshi years, where are they all now? Granted many probably went over to Korea with Hideyoshi, and maybe some were lost at sea... but there are very, very few that can be proved to be from those early 50 years. Incidentally I was shown a genuine Keicho-deppo this afternoon. It is a Kago-zutsu in the Tazuke Ryu style, and it was made by Shozaemon(?) Shibatsuji, originally a Katana Kaji in Negoro who made his first teppo from one brought there from Tanegashima. He then moved, probably when Nobunaga destroyed Negoro-ji Temple and started the famous Shibatsuji line of smiths in Osaka. The barrel is covered in maple leaves alternating in gold and silver. (My own Bajo-zutsu is also very old, I am pretty sure, but no-one will listen to me, so I generally keep shtum. Probably better this way. )

Miyazaki Hayao in his animated film, Mononoke-hime, shows use of early Onin-type touch-hole polearms. There are illustrations extant of pottery bombards (a kind of grenade) that the Mongols hurled at the Japanese defenders of Hakata Bay during the attacks that you mention above. One shows a horse with its innards being blown out. The Chinese had a huge variety of fire weapons long before this.

It is said the same thing in the book: Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan (Olaf G. Lidin) Thanks Jacques. Oh, and I made a slip of the keys in the name.It's Ya-ita... Kinbei.

Ian, the first actual Japanese gun was said to have been made by a Seki Katana-kaji named Yaita Kinbei Kiyosada in Tanegashima. It's the lower gun of these two. There are much larger photos on the web. http://www.library.pref.gifu.jp/gifuken/predec/01.htm

Thanks Koichi san. (Strange, but the website pictures have been changed since I posted the link. Now the explanation has been covered up.) PS. Perhaps it just wasn't loading properly yesterday. Seems fine now.

The paperwork says 特別貴重　昭和４１年　瓜勝虫図鍔　銘貞広 Tokubetsu Kicho Showa 41 *Uri+katsu/kachi+mushi design Mei Sadahiro * Not sure how to read this and what it means... Melon & dragonfly?