Bugyotsuji

Thanks Carlo for the link, and thanks to everyone else for offering suggestions. This afternoon I showed it to a rather grand old chap, a customer at the local Sword shop who is fairly knowledgable in these things, and his immediate suggestion was Kanzashi-kakushi, (Shikomi-kanzashi?) I think he said. Definitely an 'Eiri' 鋭利 (sharp) weapon and probably for a woman, made to be concealed in her hair ornament. PS Just had a search around some J sites and under the first set of pics here it says that her hair pins are actually concealed weapons! :lol: Warning, do not look if you are easily shocked! http://www.hobbynet.co.jp/orikomitirasi ... 1/cat_227/ And, "Hissatsu Shogoto-nin... Hide's Kanzashi" http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f75142059

Philip, just read this thread for the first time. Looking forward very much to seeing the results. You must be excited. You haven't had any advanced piccies from the polisher, then, even though he has reached foundation polish stage and the chips are gone???

When you do take the new piccies, place an indicator pointing to the particular feature you are concerned about!

Couple more pics.

Hmmm... yes this did cross my mind and it does make sense.

Paul, lacking the correct vocab I am going to have trouble, but just before I hit the sack, the forearms and shins were in wafer thin iron sections with little hinges, and the iron had Yasurime file marks. The Sune-ate looked really heavy, but were as light as a feather. They had flying iron knees, and a gorgeous square of red leather in the inner ankle areas. The designs of the elbow bosses were carved from iron, like a Katchu-shi tsuba, as were the backs of the hand covers. Not those lacquered pushed out rosettes that you usually find. The backing material was unused and gorgeous. The attached Sode were in large generous black lacquer plates, hanging quite far down the Kote, and with a curved draping shape to them. I was told that these Kote, sode and sune-ate were identical to those on a famous set of armour which was rumoured to have cost 1 Oku Yen some time ago. Will try and get some shots for you in a day or two, but I suspect these pieces will now be going to a bigwig in this area, who is directly descended from a Daimyo family. :|

Henk-Jan, thank you for the suggestion and the link. So, you think that there may have been a ring on it which has broken off? There is some unevenness on the end there to support your idea. The shape of some of the Kunai blades are similar, but they seem to be much larger in general. This thing is tiny, 10cm long, of which the blade is 4cm. Kunai are also said to be ordinary iron tools, but this seems quite specialized and hardened, and it is very sharp. Also it is very similar in feel and looks to my Higo Bashin, if half the size. The colour of the steel and the rust, and the workmanship all point to a common origin, perhaps. One influential collector friend took one look at it and said, "It's for quick despatch of someone very close up. You would maybe pull it out from under your pillow, find the exact spot and push it rapidly into the head or neck of your opponent, as if to administer the death stroke to a fish. Not enough weight for throwing", he added, when I suggested a Te-ura ken, or Shuriken.

As to this week's Edo Corner, I found an interesting bladed implement at Ako this morning. Neither the stall holder, nor the ever-present 'experts' who flock around to see what you are buying could say exactly what it is. There were two or three theories. "It is a kind of Kanna (plane)." "It is a kind of Bashin (fleam)". Does anyone on this site have any clue? What is clear to most people so far is that it is a) 'kitaete-iru'. It is b) a weapon. It is c) something quite rare. (It was bent out of shape, and somehow I have managed to bend it back close to true, using a cushioned vice and pliers, but it took huge muscle power, and equal and opposite delicate strength to stop it cracking or snapping!) Below are some photos. I was going to make this a quiz to see if people could guess the size, but maybe I'll just stick with the above question of function. Brain storming welcome! The photos make it almost double life size. PS The Tsuka is elliptical/oval in cross-section, having no perceptible flat side or obvious front of back, being mirror image.

Well, you may have noticed that last week I was offered something exquisite. The Kote and Sune-ate. Unfortunately, a week after the bloke sold them to me, he asked if I could let him have them back. Well, I owe him a lot of favours/favors, so it was a no-brainer, even though I have some seriously mixed feelings internally. I never took any photos of them, so perhaps they were never meant to be mine??? So tonight I am a lot richer, but also a lot poorer.

Recently I have seen a spear in shirasaya which looked decidedly odd, as you say, and I was very suspicious. It was also very cheap. Spears tend to be cheap recently anyway, but is it possible that someone has found a way to make cheap spears (and import them?) and pass them off within Japan as traditional Japanese spears? If the blades are short enough they will not need paperwork either. :|

If those aren't scratches in your photos, maybe you have too much oil on the blade?

Wow, amazing hamon. A lovely thing to have in anyone's collection! Welcome home!

Great link. Thanks.

Hi Malcolm, great site for boxes, & nice little link there for a NSEW four-hole box. Essentially the same. Go straight into the bow without our Western intermediary step. Thanks. Actually someone gave me a quick lesson last night in tying the knot (after that picture was taken). Personally I love old boxes and have quite a few around the house, much to the wife's annoyance.

Just your 2 yen, maybe, but your opinion carries the weight of two of those large heavy silver Meiji yen. The rarer ones. Even if I fix it, as I am planning, in deference to you Brian and Stephen, the offending photos will still be staring brightly at everyone, so maybe they should be photoshopped, but I don't know how to do it... Ah, yes, everyone please wear sunglasses when observing the new Tsuba work...

OK, OK, got the message............... grrrrrrrrrrr ........ I'll ask the wife to make my egg runny tomorrow morning!

Stephen, does the brightness bother you? I really like it, and am planning to enjoy it for a few days, hehehe Might as well enjoy it while you have it!

Hmmm... well, there is something! Thanks for the link.

Dunno, Stephen. I could wait for it to go dark green like the other one... brass goes dull pretty quickly, doesn't it? Gold to smoky gold to bright green to dull red to dull green. Might take a century or two, though. :lol:

The Momoyama wheel Tsuba on p.2 of this thread has been 'refurbished'. Someone (a previous owner) had taken a file to it and zealously removed the rust, but this rough & ready removal process had also taken off most of the patina and much of the iron Ji and the Shinchu Zougan. The marks of the file could still be seen here and there. A collector friend asked me if I would mind lending it to him as the sight of it offended his sensibilities. A week later and here it is. First Impressions: 1. The remaining Zougan looks brighter. 2. The iron looks darker. 3. The Tsuba feels very soft and smooth to the touch. In the phone call of Sunday he said the rust needed to grow a bit more so could I wait a few more days? Today he called to say that it was ready. I don't think that the Shinchu is actually any brighter, but the loss of the bright shine of the exposed iron has increased the contrast between the dark rust patina Ji and the remaining Shinchu Zougan. It looks a lot better, IMHO. He smoothed off the surface file marks so that now it also feels a lot better between the fingers.

Awright already folks! Here she is with her extra bit replacement in Shinchu, hot off the workbench. (Usual apologies over photo quality.)

Interesting that in the States there's no duty if it's old, whereas in Europe there's a heavier duty for 'old' stuff! Malcolm, I am not sure if Sanada Himo is what they gave me. Look at the picture and see. In the meantime I will ask on my next trip!

For Malcolm. The wife doesn't like the Teppo-bako so it serves as a compromise. Body 130 cm long, or 133cm if overlapping lid measured overall. Total 38.5 cm high, and body 32 cm wide (34.5 if lid measured). As I remember there is some brush writing underneath attesting to being a gun box, with a Keio date putting it right on the end of Edo. The box is quite battered, but retains the iron rings for carrying from a long pole. PS Went round to the sword & gun shop today and showed them the Katana box, hoping for advice on how to tie it up. They pulled out a roll of flat grey-green obi ribbon and whipped up something exactly suitable. The Banto looked long and hard at the box inside and out and then pronounced, "Quite an old box." I said that it might be Edo. "Certainly Edo, yes, of course, but kanari noborimasu", he said, "judging by the worm damage etc." He seemed to be suggesting very early Edo or even older. "It's made of Kiri" (Paulownia wood) Then he rather wistfully added, "Of course it's not worth much. Too big. No-one has the room for this sort of thing nowadays. Maybe worth 10,000 JPY". I imagined it getting trashed from lack of a willing owner and quickly said that I will be giving it a home. Now, how to keep the wife happy? Get rid of the Teppo-bako, and replace with smaller (!) Katana-bako?

John, yours is really nice, and ideally that is what I have been wanting.

Hi Malcolm, yes, all the 5 dividers move and there are three sets of slide guides. The central solid double-viaduct one could go at one end. The others are interchangeable. It's surprisingly large, nearly as big as my Teppo-bako. Stephen suggested it could be used for Futon!!! :lol: 126cm long, 34cm high and 26cm from front to back.