Bugyotsuji

Pete, yes, I looked at that, but I think the top is Nogi-hen. Nobody will know, but in the meantime I would lay my money on Ko-zan.

Try Kozan (or Kyozan), if the first character is Kaori...

Hmmm... no declaration as to age on this one. Possibly forgot to mention it. And, 'No Claims, No Returns.'

Would it be possible to get a clearer shot of the 'first' Kanji, the 'second' Kanji and the 'third' Kanji, please?

Have to agree, that tsuba looks really special. Congratulations!

I put 'top' in inverted commas as they would be on the 'bottom' for display purposes.

Guido, that is excellent, and has cleared up a long question mark I had hanging over me. So, the loop would be fitted over, using the left hand, before withdrawal, or it would hang loosely until the sword was drawn and the wielder could slip his right hand through it. There is a twist in the illustration, so maybe it needed a special flick of the wrist... The udenuki holes would invariably be on the 'top' of the tsuba, then, I wonder?

Ya got me there! I'm liking your painting!

Great to hear from you Ken. Sounds like you've been having fun! Occasionally a mantis-themed object appears and I wonder where you are. Glad to have you back (with a fine filly in tow?).

Wow, just waves! Beautifully done. That's quite unusual, in my very limited exposure to Japanese painting. The signature? A specialized field. Way over my head. Yoshihisa Saku? You could try posting this in the translation section, Rob. One of our heavyweights might be willing to step in.

John, do you know of any illustrations showing how this worked in practice?

Thank you for the information, Moriyama san.

Ian, thanks for posting those. A sudden thick vein appears! :lol: Your clock is a new world for me. I wouldn't even know which way up that was or where you read the time... It looks like a fantastic object, though. Can you find anyone who might be clever enough to work on it for you? (For love, not money?) The Douran is very nice. I am in the UK, so unfortunately no Kamon books to hand. Do you know the Kanji characters for Yendo? As to your two long guns, which you have sensibly cut in half for the shot... (but where's the muzzle end? Would like to see that!) :? they look like good examples. Do you know their bore/caliber/Monme? I have no trouble with the Sakai gun as everything shown looks representative. The lower gun, though, might be Okayama, with influence of Bizen. Would it be possible to include a shot of the rest of the muzzle end? Can you confirm whether there is a two-inch cut/shaved away section at the top/end of the stock/butt on the opposite side from your cheek? (Do I see it in your shot there?) Is there a kemuri-gaeshi on the back of the pan, and is the pan lid slightly open in your photograph? The rounded 'filed' barrel could be typical of this region. A Rakkyo (pickled-onion) muzzle shape might confirm this. Oh, and you've obviously had them apart.... do they not have any Mei?

Just found it, ...but Markus got there first! Fantastic! Haki means, 'what precious thing that you wear from your belt', ie sword, so "On the front of the sword".

The first character of the first part in brackets has me foxed. It says, "Front surface of the xxx-ki" ..."Back to front?" The last section says "Hirado influence", or "Hirado tradition". Sorry I can't help more.

A good read, and amusing about having to get off the horse before shooting! Thanks, Jacques. So, these are really cavalry pieces, or shortened long guns, as opposed to pistols per se. Both were in fashion in Japan, but even today the smaller and shorter they are, the more they seem to be valued. An overall length of under 30 cm is best, if my memory serves me.

Yes, Guido, this figure of yours of 300,000 is exactly what they cost nowadays, especially since the recession. You might get one for 250,000 and you might find one at 400,000, but anything above that and the dealer is either a blagger or he's trying to get his old pre-bubble money back, or he's got something super-special.

As it's Monday here in the UK, I thought I would quickly post a recent acquisition. Ian and I posted pics of our Muna-ate, or chest protectors, not too long ago, but I can't find the actual posts. You will have seen an example or two in leather, in Sugawa's homepage above, no doubt, which reminded me. I had the original one with the crossed feathers Mon, possibly from Aki in Hiroshima, or maybe Ako Castle in Hyogo Prefecture. Nothing missing and pretty fair condition, considering its age. Very small, though! A friend who knows that I like (and to some extent collect) Kuyou-Mon, or nine-heavenly bodies Mon, recently found this set of Muna-ate and headband at a dealers' auction for me. The neckstrap and obi-stoppers were missing and they were generally in tatters, but with a bit of application and careful study of the original border stitching, my wife was able to repair this set quite presentably. They are made of cloth and some kind of felt, and would never stop a bullet.

Guido, yes, that's the page where I originally got the info, and it was India, (not Iran), thank you. Jacques, no problem! I knew there were some, but I've never seen an example. Brian, perhaps Ian would know the best book in English on the subject. I have Sugawa Sensei's books 1 & 2, both in Japanese and in English, and they were my stock handbooks for quite a while as they have many illustrations from his collection. His editor seems to have missed several translation howlers (?) to the point where you can't really rely on the facts & figures or categorizations, but they are good books to have to hand as he is such an eager enthusiast. Did you ever read Noel Perrin's Giving Up The Gun, BTW? http://www.amazon.com/Giving-Up-Gun-Rev ... 988&sr=8-1

Brian, you have good taste! The shorter hand-held Bajou-zutsu (cavalry pistol) or Tan-zutsu (short pistol) are much rarer than regular long guns. I read somewhere that matchlock pistols were only ever made in Japan and... Iran(?). Within Japan, they were held by men of rank, so perhaps one in a hundred guns was a Bajou-zutsu (the Police in Japan don't like the word 'Tan-zutsu' so we tend to avoid it.) To give you an indication, we are the only musket company in Japan to be able to do a demonstration with pistols, so there's 20 against 400+/- members of other castle groups. Sometimes in the past we made up the numbers with a, shall we say, not so kosher gun. It's taken a few years but I think we are up to strength now. A lot of people are putting out quiet feelers for a decent working pistol, but they do not come up too often. Because of their rarity, and the fact that they command the same price or more as a long gun, there is and has been an underground market in reproductions. Some of these are cleverly made, with an old barrel and new stock, or vice versa. If you do come across one, please let me know as we have a pool of expertise available and may be able to comment on it. If you do go for a long gun, there are so many ways of describing them. Hoso-zutsu, (literally long thin gun) Gun-yo-zutsu (military gun, generally no fancy decorations, but made for reliability, does the business) Shi-zutsu (samurai gun, indicating fairly thick and heavy and a bore of over 6 Monme.) Chu-zutsu or Ju-Monme zutsu (10 Monme, .70 calibre, these are surprisingly heavy) Above these are the O-zutsu or big hand-cannons, which start at 20 Monme. (I have one) Examples also exist of 30 (1.1 inch?), 50, 60, 100, 500 and 1,000, I believe, the latter having a bore about the size of a tea saucer. The following site has lots of good reading, but many of the facts need to be taken with a fairly large pinch of salt. Sugawa Sensei's books are available in both Japanese and English. http://www.japaneseweapons.com/hinawajy ... nglish.htm Long Bizen-zutsu tend to be smallish calibre Hoso-zutsu, and because they were made in the same area and with the same iron as Nihonto, people prize them for the quality of the iron/steel barrels. Unlike most Japanese matchlocks which use brass for their mechanisms, Bizen tend to use iron, with silver-headed pins.

Here's a rare row of hand cannons. Tanegashima Island, 24th August 2008 See the wasp-waisted right-hand grip.

Educational thread, gentlemen, for which many thanks. Kane.ie and Nobu.ie are now more clearly fixed in my mind. For the association with contemporary painting, Ford, you have certainly found excellent material. Spot on...

Moriyama san has already done the last part for us, but: ã¾ãŸã€é™¸è»è»åˆ€æ‹µãŒé™„帯ã—ã¦ã„ã‚‹ãŒã€ Also, it comes with army furnishings, but è»åˆ€æ‹µã«ç´ã‚られãŸåˆ€å‰£ã¯ã‚µãƒ¼ãƒ™ãƒ«ã®å®šå¯¸ã§ã‚ã‚‹2å°º1寸å‰å¾Œã«ç£¨ä¸Šã’られãŸã‚‚ã®ã‚‚多ã„ãŒã€ whereas many swords in army scabbards underwent suriage to fit the standard saber measurements of 2 shaku 1 sun, or thereabouts, 本作ã¯ç”Ÿã¶èŒŽã®çŠ¶æ…‹ã§ã‚ã‚‹ã“ã¨ãŒå¥½ã¾ã—ã„。 this one is good because the tang is in a state of ubu nakago (untouched, as originally created)

Apart from 'Bushu' and the description of the Tsuba itself, there is no more information about it. Can anyone add or subtract anything to the body of knowledge, please? (Such as rough age?) The tsuba looks to be in layers in the photos above, but under 10x magnification I can't see clear demarcation lines any more. It looks solid iron. Should I trust my eyes or the photo? Could this tsuba be copper internally, however, and could the Fukurin have been added to hide the striations? Or shouldn't I be asking such questions? Seoul Airport, Korea

Pronunciation is actually a tricky problem. The sound file idea would be good, if easy to set up. The main problem for English speakers llies not so much in the Japanese, but in the inability of English to express the simple Japanese sounds, such as long and short sounds. Especially hard when we have two or three different phonetic systems, none of which are really satisfactory for all. Japanese is completely consistent and predictable once you've learnt the chart of sounds. (There must be a clickable webpage somewhere.) As an aside, would a DON'Ts page with reasons be a useful addition for beginners, I wonder? (Or NEVERs.) EG Never try to clean the Nakago (tang). Why? It needs to be richly aged. This patina may be the key to reading its history and thus also judging its value.