Edo Period Corner Part II

[Brian]

Bravo! Looks amazing.

[Bugyotsuji]

The Nami-no-hira tantō deal finally went through today. Phew!

 

The dealer tried to put the price up, acting as if he didn’t remember the price he had offered me before. This was annoying because I was getting ready to negotiate and now I had to accept exactly what he had quoted last month, as if he was doing me a big favo(u)r by coming down in price.
 

Maybe need to get these things down in writing!!! 

[Bugyotsuji]

Just to record in one place what I have found out about the 'new' addition.

 

There was a very long line of Satsuma 'Naminohira', (Nami-no-hira, or Namihira) swordsmiths, allegedly started by Hashiguchi Masakuni, who came from Yamato. Few early Naminohira blades remain today from Heian/Kamakura, and none by Masakuni. Their blades tended to be suguha with a Yamato type whitish 綾杉 ayasugi hada. They each took the name Yukiyasu when they became the new master swordsmith, so possibly Yukiyasu, Masakuni's son, was the real founder of the line, which is the longest in Japan.

 

The present blade is signed 安好 Yasuyoshi. Various sources say he was the son of Yasuuji. Yasuyoshi later took the name 六十一代行安 'Yukiyasu 61st generation', working around Bunka (1804-1818). Classified as Shinshinto. Real name Hashiguchi Kansuke 橋口勘助.

 

Few Tanto are said to have been made in the mid-Edo period. I wonder if Satsuma was an exception to this trend?

 

Papered example here from Bunka 10 (1813).

日本刀 短刀 波平安好（六十一代行安初銘）文化十年酉二月吉日｜日本刀 刀剣販売 e-sword

[Bugyotsuji]

Anyone reading this thread casually will be thoroughly confused by now. Apologies. The only consistent quality is the passage of time, as I report whenever things bob up! 

 

Recently I have been juggle-reporting here on three blades, the last of which is the Naminohira Kaiken above.

 

(The In-Shu Kanesaki wakizashi in koshirae with new tsukamaki is happily tucked away, now in the healthy shape that I had been aiming for.)

 

BUT. The 1534 Bizen Sukesada came back from the polisher for the second time yesterday. The first time was for the blending in of the mune repair, and now it has been derusted and cleaned up all over. This blade now looks really good, with a stunning hamon, and if it lacks anything, it is a full koshirae. Oh, it would be great to figure out which Sukesada this was, but as my sword sensei says, it's a product of the Sukesada Kobo (workshop). What pleases me about this blade is that it was horribly damaged when I found it, but after a year, my faith in its intrinsic quality has eventually paid off, in my eyes anyway, justifying the money I have spent on Osafune artisan work. Even though it is not really old in the grand scheme of things, it is from when kabuto were being dated, and ten years before Japan was conscious of guns. This thought I like.

備州長船祐定作　天文三年八月日

[Bugyotsuji]

Nothing blade related, so a big switch of topic. 

 

One of the things I collect is Tanegashima powder flasks, both Kayaku-ire large ones for coarse blackpowder, and small Koyaku-ire flasks for priming powder. 

 

If you can find a genuine old one in an antiques market, it will often be broken and/or missing vital parts. I used to buy these occasional old ones and as a hobby make up the parts, since we use them regularly for our blackpowder displays. 

 

Unfortunately our leader knows that I have an assortment of them and he will say, "Hey we've got a new member looking for a powder flask. Can you let him have one of yours? ￥2,000 will surely be enough?" Well, maybe he can source them somewhere for ￥2,000? In the beginning I did not dare say no, especially as he has given me the odd flask in the past, and so I felt obliged each time to let go of a good (suitable) one, but gradually I have learned to stand up to him. Sadly several of my repaired 'masterpieces' have now gone out into the world. Grrr... why can't people source their own, as I did? A good one on the net can be JPY 20,000 ~ 30,000.

 

Anyway, the point of this post is that an acquaintance approached me the other day with a flask body. Inside it still had the internal support bridge and thankfully a spout, this one made of stag antler. It needed a new collar, cap and pins. "I know you can repair these. Can you do this one, please? I'll pay your expenses." Well, recently I have been in hospital, also facing a deadline with translation work, but I muttered OK and put it aside, mentioning that I would not be able to return it before the New Year.

 

Actually this has been hanging over me, and I was wishing I had not accepted the job. It's been several years since I did one, and this guy is a perfectionist, working in other materials. These flasks are clever constructions, but they take days and days to make, so no amount of money would cover it. It will have to be a gift. I looked in my box of flasks and wondered if there was one I could swap it out for. There wasn't one good enough. Plus there is not much good quality jet black buffalo horn left in the materials bag, and my hand tools are rubbish! AAaaarrrrggggghhhh............. The only electric tool I have is a small drill. Eight accurate interconnecting holes need to be drilled. For the rest I use cheap handsaws and files.

 

So, having sent off the translation, I settled down to work with my hands once more. I do enjoy this, but it's heartbreaking when something snaps, or holes don't line up and you have to redo hours of work. The old fingers ache, but I'm on it! Might post some pics of the process if the inspiration bubbles up. 

[Stephen]

24 minutes ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Might post some pics of the process if the inspiration bubbles up. 

I'll be looking forward to them or at least your collection.

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

People who collect Netsuke will be aware of those two famous tomes, Lazarnick and Meinertzhagen's MCI, each of which will cost several hundred dollars if you are lucky. Interestingly, although they show illustrations of matchlock priming powder flasks under the heading of Functional Objects, they insist on calling them 'snuff bottles'.

 

The ingenious aspect is that they hang from strings, and the strings go through the cap which slides up and down on them, but when it rains, water does not enter the body of the powder flask. The cap acts as a cap to the main spout, yes, but for the strings it also has tiny side channels which are independent and do not compromise the main cap hole. 

 

As it hangs, the weight of the flask body keeps the pins pulled in. When you have finished pouring fine blackpowder into your pan, to save time you can simply drop the flask and the cap will run back into place on its own.

[Bugyotsuji]

To illustrate the above. The flask will hang from a ring on your breastplate, etc. (Using a complete original example here, made with stag antler. Watanabe kamon.)

 

As it hangs, note the pins fixing the internal bridge to the body. Above the bridge is the collar; the spout passes up through both bridge and collar. The cap runs on the strings, now in place over the spout.

 

 

You can see what I am calling the ‘bridge’ when you open the thing to fill it with fine gunpowder.

 

 

And to see how the cap works inside. The spout chamber remains dry even if water drips down the strings. Imagine drilling these channels by eye and experience!

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Now for me perhaps the most difficult drilling job. The collar should also take water from the strings but disperse it externally.

 

You drill the collar inwards and upwards from the outer edges. Then you drill downwards from either side of the spout, and hope to create a connecting string passage. Also, hope the collar holes line up with the string holes in the cap!
 

In this example the collar passage must have been relatively easier than the one I am now in process of making.

 

So the cap takes three drilling operations. The bridge and collar take one main hole for the spout and four drills into the shoulders. Ideally you would also drill a ninth and tenth hole, into the pin heads. Yesterday I broke a pin after hours of work… grrrr…

 

With this fully-evolved stringing mechanism, each workshop would have had a slightly different method and style, but all of these were made by hand.

 

 

 

[b.hennick]

👍 👍 

[Bugyotsuji]

Yes, it’s a nice example, I agree.

 

And here is the one I was asked to make up, before and after. Less of a Daimyo artefact, more standard gunnery equipment, but now fully functional.

 

Perhaps five days' work, on and off.

Before

After

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Eventually settled for susudaké for the pins.
For the collar I took a slice off this. (Solid down to here. Hollow coming up?)

 

 

And for the cap I used the tip of another horn.

 

 

 

[Brian]

Lotta work!

[Matsunoki]

Piers, I think you might find this link interesting…….

https://www.malcolmf...arious-powder-flasks

Regards. Colin

[Bugyotsuji]

Mmmm… yes, loving that. Nice find. Had some correspondence with Mr Malcolm Fairley this summer, but I did not realize he had teppo stuff in stock.

 

(I had a similar set up, but sold the Daimyo tenugui stand itself a couple of years back. That's a very nice example, though.)

[rematron]

Piers, thanks for showing in detail how these work.  And of course it's a great functional design.  I'm very impressed by your patience with such a tedious and delicate project. God speed!

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks Jeremy (& others), much appreciated.

 

Today I handed it back to the guy, and was just saying to him, "Please don't let the boss see it! He'll try and take it off you!" when he appeared and grabbed it. Luckily he gave it back, but later I had to pay the price. 

 

He showed me a primer flask in terrible condition, filthy dirty, missing strings, pins and cap. He'd picked it up in a lot, for a song. "Can you fix this up for me, too?" he asked.

 

"No", I replied.  He looked puzzled. 

 

"What's the problem?"

I muttered something about how I had just spent a week doing one, I was tired, my fingers ached and there was no more suitable material. He seemed not to believe me.

 

I picked it up again thoughtfully. "I do actually have a horn cap, but it has a split in it, so it's in  the rejects box."

 

"That'll do fine!" he said cheerfully, handing me the body of more work.

 

Ans so folks, just when I was thinking that might be that for the end of 2023, I brought home another orphan to be saved. 

[Brian]

Piers, is this inability to say no a personal thing or a Japanese trait?
You need to learn to be more assertive, but I guess that doesn't go down well in the circles you move around in.

[Stephen]

Bugs don't let it go this far.

 

https://youtube.com/...?si=6Bes8li7E62WOmnq

[Bugyotsuji]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Piers, is this inability to say no a personal thing or a Japanese trait?
You need to learn to be more assertive, but I guess that doesn't go down well in the circles you move around in.

This is not an easy question to answer, Brian, although you have partly answered it yourself. I remember my mother saying that I was the diplomat in the family. (One older and one younger brother, and various other step brothers and sisters.) Most of my Japanese friends will say no, quite clearly, and my wife is particularly cut-and-dried in her manner of refusal. I always try to keep a margin or cushion in my personal relations, avoiding conflict as much as possible. I realize that I have not answered your question, but let's just say it's something I am working on! 

[Viper6924]

Love your renovation of the flask. Before you could find genuine Edo-period flasks quite readily. These days it’s mostly ugly fakes.

I’ve also renovated some flask and it’s bloody hard work. Drilling all those holes are  a nightmare. One time I had to start from scratch three times due to the fact that the holes didn’t line up.

Here’s a flask I rescued a couple of years ago. Cost me JPY1000. The cap was missing as well as the spout which was replaced by an iron pipe that was glued in place. The wooden flask was in an overall terrible state with a lot of damages on the wood.

It was only after I cleaned up the flask and discovered the nice wood grain that I realised why the original flask-maker chose this piece of wood to work with.

The most rewarding thing is when you let go of the flask and the cap falls in place with a nice snap

 

Jan

[Bugyotsuji]

Very pretty job, Jan. It looks almost like an apple! You had to make an extra large cap to cover the two string holes. It looks like an earlier type, before the evolution which led to exterior pin fixtures. I have a couple of these intermediate examples. Perhaps someone should write a paper on this...

 

Welcome to the 'Rescuing History Party'!

[Bugyotsuji]

And this is the latest one I have been reluctantly repairing since yesterday.

 

It was in seriously filthy condition, totally gummed up, so I did not think to take ‘before’ photos. 

 

Note the (original) collar is ‘Ittōbori’ carving in wood, which was then heavily lacquered. The cord channels were blocked with remnants of original string.

I used a long-rejected horn cap into which I have bored new guide channels, made two pins from smoked bamboo, then finally restringing the whole thing. 

Now working again. After repeated cleaning of centuries of gunge it actually begins to look good, another piece of history saved from being junked!?!?

 

 

 

 

[Bazza]

If we all saved pieces of history from being junked surely the stack would be over our heads suffocating us!!  I 'save' things and when my wife peers into the shed and says "What is that doing here?"  I have a number of answers:

- it was too good to be junked

- it needed saving to a good home

- I had a plan

and whatever occurs to me on the spur of the moment.  But I do have a question Piers.  What is the nature of the 'black string' on your rescued pieces???  It looks a waxed twine?

 

I'm also reminded that I do have two powder flasks that I should present here for scrutiny - in time...

 

BaZZa.

[Bugyotsuji]

Although I do have some waxed black twine which would probably have been ideal here, and which I use on my regular trusty primer flask for demonstrations, this is a rather useful smooth blue cord which I bought about 10 years ago, also in black and dark green. It does give the appearance of being waxed, I agree. (I have a bag of strings and cords both new and old… or rescued!?!?) It looks better than the more functional waxed twine, although it might not be as resilient to wear and the weather.

 

Please do present your examples anytime, BaZZa!

[Viper6924]

Your latest project looks very nice, Piers. Nice balance between the different parts. It brings harmony to the whole piece 🙂

 

Jan 

[Bugyotsuji]

(Strangely, the guy who received this powder flask kept asking me where I got the dark blue string from. Well, I couldn't remember, could I? So I gave him what I had left and he looked happy.)

 

Last night we had the local NBTHK sword meeting, and among the extra goodies laid out (a selection of Dai/Sho tsuba pairs), was a single tanto koshirae. The saya was kind of bulky and gaudy, causing the sword Sensei to remark, "This would never have been worn by a samurai! More suitable for a rich merchant."

 

Well, I could not resist taking a few shots of it. "No kozuka, though?" someone remarked. "No, the slot is signed inside by the lacquer artist", was the reply. Sure enough, there it was, something I have never seen before in such a place. Tiny writing, so I took a photo and blew it up.

 

I was doubly surprised to discover that it was the same signature I had seen on a black lacquer inro some years ago. 洋遊齊 (Hara) Yoyusai, 1769-1846.

 

Photos follow shortly.

The tsuba collection.

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

This is the Tantō Koshiraé in question.

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

From the top, but notice also the attention to tail detail in an unseen position underneath!

 

Top

 

Underneath

 

The Kozuka slot lacquer artist Mei

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

I admire the craftmanship, but when I was a SAMURAI in a former life, I always preferred TENSHO KOSHIRAE.