Bugyotsuji

Just a quick update, but not yet complete as I am deep in another project. Q1. The stock/butt were usually covered in lacquer of some kind, most commonly a clear 'suki-urushi'. Always remember that guns sourced in the West may have had work done on them outside Japan, so without taking your gun in hand I cannot be sure of what surface covering that you are seeeing. (E.g. Shellac glistens more than suki-urushi, and may be thickly and unevenly applied.) Q2. Cracking in the Dai in the places that you mention is sadly quite common. It sounds as if you have arrested the movement successfully. Often you will find a small brass plate at the top of the dai-kabu butt to cover just such cracking. Repairs around the pan and panlid are also common especially if parts of the lock have been changed or replaced for some reason. Q3. Mekugi can be thought of as easily lost, remade, i.e. disposable. Susu-dake (smoked bamboo) is thought to be the best material. Loose dogane are also common. A shim sounds like a good fix. Q4. In an ideal world, the karuka should have one flat face for ramming the charge. The other end usually, but not always, has a hole in it for threading a cleaning cloth through it. (The word Sakujo or Shakujo is also sometimes used, but it seems to be a nickname taken from a type of Buddhist staff, the action of loading imitating the 'ramming' banging on the ground and ringing of the bells as you walk along. Early guns were used by armed monks as in Negoro-Ji temple. Perhas a religious connotation has a nice 'ring' to it!?!?. The word Karuka is more practical, and prosaic, said to be a natural word progression from the original Portuguese.) If there is any way of keeping (reshaping?) the original karuka, great, but like mekugi they were often broken, so replacements were carried. I have made about twenty or thirty in my lifetime of gunnery in Japan. Q5. The copper and silver (yes) zogan inlay has been over-polished and lost its patina. It would be nice to darken it down a little if possible. Gunners did not like a shiny barrel surface to aim along. I like the straight undecorated muzzle. The 'valley' sights are a nice feature. The holes are said to be for small upright pieces of stick incense to help align the sights in the dark. Q6. Notice 三十五 35 and 四十七 47 on the parts. Your pan lid may have been changed, but it is a nice shape and a good job. Even the hollow pin is correct. Q7. Interestingly it was registered in 'Kisarazu' Prefecture, which only lasted under that name from 1871 for a short while until it became absorbed under Chiba Prefecture in 1873. There is a good chance that your gun was made in the same area. 木更津県 - Wikipedia In a hurry. Apologies.

Generally a pretty good condition relatively small-bore military weapon, with some repairs. Part numbers do not all seem to coincide, so it may be an assembly of good parts. To answer all your questions would take me around an hour, but I do not have so much time right now. Anyone else feel free to address in the meantime! Ah, Brian answered in the meantime. Agreed, a very well researched and well-presented post. PS I'll be back.........

Yes, Jon, I know several people who do, ranging from the casual collector to the super serious. There is an organization called The International Netsuke Society, and within that, Euronetsuke. Both put out magazines and discuss Netsuke, people and meetings, etc.

Ah, thanks Jan. Nowadays one would write Rentai as 連隊. 歩兵第3連隊 - Wikipedia

小井戸 Koido in Hagi, a pottery. 菊水 Kikusui chrysanthemums and the river emblem, recalls Minatogawa Jinja, Lord Kusunoki, and the Chinese legend of loyalty, inter alia. On the front it says 歩兵 Hohei in the gourd, meaning footsoldiers. The gourd may refer back to Hideyoshi…(?) but maybe overthinking it.

Gold cups and torques will last for thousands of years buried in the soil. Independent. A Japanese sword is a testament to the knowledge, artistic ability and experience of the smith, yes, absolutely, but also to the generations of guardians, keeping it pristine above ground, when one small slip could ruin it forever. A present living miracle… Thank you for this insight, Paul.

Nice find, Dale, but it is described as 'after Nobuie'.

Birds of a feather flock together. Can't beat that feeling of satisfaction. Sometimes it's the serendipity that first draws your attention and opens up your eye and your understanding, allowing you to form certain goals ahead. Did you choose, or were you chosen, to educate us re these Mito smiths?

Shibayama style work points to Dōshō. See this from Wrangham’s ‘Index of Inro Artists’.

Some of the photos are mixed up or repeated. Show them one by one. Create a new post for each object.

Heart-warming story with photos of a flag returned by a Texas museum to the son of a soldier who died in Saipan. The son is now over 80 but since he was a baby when his father was drafted he had no memory of his father. Now he feels like he owns a part of his Dad. Sadly his mother who had prayed to her husband every day of her life in front of the family altar passed away recently. In Japanese, but with many photos. The flag in the US was shown to match the lettering on part of a flag in the only family photo that the son possessed. Moral of the story is that even if some families really do not want to know, sometimes returning such a flag may be exactly the right thing to do. 「日章旗」がかなえた亡き父との“再会” 手がかりは家族写真の中に | NHK | WEB特集

Nice Peter! How thick is it?

Thanks Simon! By the way, Kashira is just one way of reading the Kanji 頭, (Atama) head. This is spelt with ‘sh’ in English because it has a soft mushy sound in it. (Like my head.) So the title should be Fuchi/Futchi/Futschi and Kashira, for anyone who is confused by the title of this thread!

Size, colour, theme, material, and with or without blade?

"The first goose comes flying..." This is the scout, apparently, checking that all is safe.

Dale, there is another expression that the Japanese love, which is 見え隠れ mie-kakure (glimpses), a sort of "now you see it, now you don't".

Interesting question about Jitsugetsu 日月 and the different colours and materials used to represent them and their meanings. The moon of course is often depicted in waxing or waning phase, something the sun does not do. And as any hunter knows, geese come winging back to home in onto bodies of water in the late evening. A full moon on the other hand seems to go with clouds, like love and marriage or a horse and carriage. The sun is often depicted with rays. We have a thread running somewhere here with the small udenuki-no-ana holes near the edge of various tsuba, and I posted one with two rimmed holes, the relatively larger one in shinchu brass, the other in silver.

They do have many recognizably traditional elements in them. Pleasing designs? Deliberately puzzling designs?

エン is the reading but in this context it means koré, or this. Like Saku koré. https://ja.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/焉

What does this mean? “highly conserved from different makers“ The second (newer?) tsuba seems to imitate the first.

Found this one too. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Agreed. (Some of those above could be Mon/Kamon.) Gold on iron And one more for Stephen’s pot. Silver and gold on iron.

I was going to suggest 萩 Hagi for no.1, and the bundles look like charcoal.

Going with Grev’s ‘crafts’ above, and having visited the movie set village in Kyōto (Eiga Mura, recommended), I would want to go with shop signs.

PS 縁 is usually written 'fuchi' in English, and pronounced like 'futchi' or even 'futschi'. (Fushi is a different word 節 meaning joint, knot or melody.)