Edo Period Corner Part II

[Alex A]

Piers, yes, those small fully stocked flintlocks. The only relevance to this thread being what Michael was saying.

 

Been looking for several years and you just don't see them, good ones anyways. Then all of a sudden one dealer in particular seems to have a no ending run of them coming onto his site, its as though an old collector is giving it up and consigning his collection .

 

Cant remember ever seeing one with the box, this type, same dealer

A Small Cased Flintlock Pistol (garthvincent.com)

[Bugyotsuji]

One can only dream!

 

I once saw and handled a wonderful long-boxed Tanegashima, shiny and perfect in every detail of woodworking and kirikane metalwork, with various accessories plus two interchangeable locks in the set, one matchlock and the other a percussion lock.

 

It struck me that an ageing gunsmith must have decided to record his life and times, pouring all his knowledge into one Meiji swansong opus.

[Bugyotsuji]

Talking about collectors for a second, the genkan of one friend was so packed with bits that there was hardly room to take your shoes off, even after he had moved stuff because guests were arriving.

Just been looking back thru some old camera memory cards. 

 

The front hall.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

He allowed me to take photos on condition that it was only for personal use, so I never showed them to anyone.

 

Eventually he donated about 2,000 objects to the Meirin Gakusha Museum in Hagi, much of which is on display there. Definitely worth visiting if you are ever in Yamaguchi. Sadly Ogawa San died a couple of years back, but his Japanese matchlock accessories book is still a must-have.

 

PS Memory Lane... he was once the leader of the Choshu matchlock troop, and his wife was a member and used to fire an O-zutsu big gun. She looks great in this one photo that I took a secretive shot of! Sssshhh....

Oh, and I inherited a few things from them! 

[Alex A]

Boxed stuff, great to own.

 

Like you only see in high end collections or via forgotten weapons etc on YouTube.

 

Above, wow.

[Bugyotsuji]

11 minutes ago, Alex A said:

 

 

Above, wow.

Every room in the house was packed with stuff. Eventually they moved out from this rickety old house!

[Alex A]

Wouldn't look forward to moving house with some of those cannons, look really heavy!

[Bugyotsuji]

19 minutes ago, Alex A said:

Wouldn't look forward to moving house with some of those cannons, look really heavy!

Yes. My eyeballs get heavy just looking at them, Alex. Proper do your back in. I can add some more shots if you like.

 

Another friend showed me photos of some Tokugawa cannon in his garden, weighing 400 kg each, I think he said. Covered in inscriptions, apparently.

[Alex A]

Yes please Piers, love cannon, cheers

 

Ps, about stuff in boxes. Was curious about the pocket pistol above and contacted the dealer.  Always have doubts so asked if the box was original to the gun. Appears not, even though looks it. Live and learn, pays to be curious about such matters.

[Bugyotsuji]

For Alex, etc. Change of angles in the genkan.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

He specialized in the Bakumatsu.

As you slid open the front door for the very first time, this is what guests saw in front of them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Turn up the volume!

 

April 7, 2024 on the bridge at Shinjo Village, where the famous Sakura de Triomphe

(Gaisen Sakura) are located. Three ladies start us off with a 'Reisha' or salute.

 

At 14:30 I get knocked off my feet by the 50 Monme hand cannon.

The 100 Monme (19:50) towards the end is good!

 

 

[Alex A]

Amazing Piers, what a vast array there is.. We are very lucky to have you on NMB!. 

 

Do you know if all those cannon were manufactured in Japan ? .No expert, some look Japanese and some Western,  i guess maybe influenced by Western Cannon around at that time, especially the one on the Naval carriage. One reminds me of a lantaka.

 

A lot to take in, appears quite a few could come under the "swivel cannon" type.

 

A really nice ornate cannon, looks bronze.

 

Like the one on the carriage with the wood stock., that's fantastic, i want one.

 

Lots of various cannon balls/shells. They actually remind me of that Sherman round from ww2.

 

Absolutely amazing collection, id have a field day in there lol

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Fuzzy, but an interesting shot of 礼射 ‘Reisha’ at our third event this year, up at Susai Castle on 14 April 2024.

 

 

 

[GeorgeLuucas]

Wanna switch lives with me, Piers? 

Envious of all that cool stuff! I've got to visit Japan one of these years

Thanks for sharing all this. Very cool!
-Sam

[Bugyotsuji]

One good thing about Japan is you can fly over, wander around and step back into this kind of atmosphere, forgetting all about the troubles in other parts of the globe. 

 

Last weekend was another busy one, with a sword display up in the grounds of Achi Jinja on Tsurugatayama in Kurashiki.  Always a pleasure to go back there as I once lived at the foot of that hill. The Jinja and surrounding walks are lovely at any time of year.

 

During the day on Saturday the polisher handed me back the little Nami-no-Hira tanto. One or two spots of rust were deeper than he had thought so he had been forced to use a coarser level of stone, he said.

 

That evening I had a message to say that the Satsuma long gun had been repaired, so sneaking out of the house I did a two-hour round trip to pick it up. The snapping lock now works again, at last, and he had managed to extract the stuck Bisen breech screw. The folding trigger turns out to be a strange affair that somehow disengages from the serpentine lock when in the folded position. I wonder if there was a further external soft cover that held it folded, protecting the exposed trigger for travelling?

 

Now I must create a karuka ramrod for it. Luckily someone gave me a length of red oak, (the proper stuff) which I may attempt to whittle down into a suitable shape.

[Bugyotsuji]

Here are some overall shots of the little Satsuma Nami-no-Hira tantō.

 

 

 

 

[Brian]

Looks great Piers!

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks Brian. It was the gaiso shape and colour that drew me to it originally. It's rare to find such a thing in these parts; they have usually been snapped up by Satsuma collectors.

[Viper6924]

You found some nice items lately, Piers. You always had a good eye 🙂

Love the small Naminohira tanto. Classic red Satsuma color. A matchlock and a tanto from Satsuma; Mr O would have loved em’ 😉

Well done my friend!

 

 Jan 

[Baka Gaijin]

Takes a while to download, but worth the wait Old Bean.

 

https://www.city.hag...photo/bakumatsu1.jpg

 

https://www.city.hag...ingakusha/photo.html

 

Putting this on the visit list for October November!!!!!

[dimitri]

Thank you very much Piers for the photos and the video, it’s a real pleasure, the hindsight for some Teppo is impressive.
Your Tanto is splendid, I love this color, very captivating.
Thank you for sharing.

[Bugyotsuji]

橙色 daidai-iro is a specifically Japanese colo(u)r originally named after a mikan-like citrus fruit. Slightly different from 'orange' in the western world, it has marked redness in it, and when the red quality increases it can be called 赤橙色 akadaidai-iro, or sekitoushoku, 'red daidai'.

 

Many Satsuma saya are lacquered in versions of this colo(u)r. (To me it has shades of terra cotta and salmon pink in it.)

[Bugyotsuji]

You will find that many Satsuma gunstocks too are lacquered in this bright Dai Dai iro or in brown or black. It is said that the thick lacquer protected the softer equatorial wood used there from woodworm.

 

Today I experienced huge relief, which I feel should be recorded somehow. One matchlock seemed to have a blocked vent, and nothing I could do would unblock it. Hours and hours of attempted cleaning from the vent and muzzle ends, (the Bisen screw is also stuck fast). I was almost at my wits’ end, with no light, no air, no water getting through, and about to declare the gun a dummy, a fake, as some are with no passage drilled from the pan to the breech chamber. At a friend’s house today with wires and an endoscope we finally managed to break through the rust and the gunge, and now for the first time (despite the gun registration card) I can finally be 100% sure I wasn’t swindled on the original deal! Vindicated! Phew!!! 
Another lesson learned. 

[Brian]

I've had my bad experience with that. It can be a nightmare. I even tried to use a small flexible cable to "drill" through the grime. It came out somewhere that it isn't supposed to
Sometimes things stick so fast, you have to give up. But not knowing when to give up can be a problem. Glad you came right, that's a huge relief.

[Bugyotsuji]

This. 

Not knowing when to give up. 

It can be a gamble, a fine judgement, and when force is needed your hands can tremble at the risk.

 

If you are rich enough, like someone here that I know, it needn't bother you that you are chopping up or altering cultural artefacts.

 

For me, the one over-riding rule is that whatever I do can be undone, reduced at least to the original problem with nothing permanently invasive. OK, you might overstep the line occasionally, but it is a never-ending guiding factor in my mind. Like the painting I saw at Eiheiji Temple where I underwent a period of zazen. Waterfowl taking off from a lake. The caption said something about how the birds leave no permanent track on the surface of the water.

 

The cannon base I made recently can be unpinned and discarded, going back to the old bronze barrel. Ramrods were and are disposable, although I do like to find an old, original one still in place. Matchlock mechanisms, like clocks, needed constant monitoring and adjustment by people who knew what they were doing.

 

Luckily we have this brilliant NMB website, and here in Japan there are artisans who can still be consulted on knotty problems.

[Bugyotsuji]

On 4/23/2024 at 8:59 PM, Baka Gaijin said:

Takes a while to download, but worth the wait Old Bean.

 

https://www.city.hag...photo/bakumatsu1.jpg

 

https://www.city.hag...ingakusha/photo.html

 

Putting this on the visit list for October November!!!!!

Ah thanks for that, Malx. Down the bottom of the page there used to be some walk-through scenery.

This is the place, and that is Mr Ogawa's collection. After donating this stuff to Hagi, he was curator there until he died. Besides the guns and cannons, there's a series of smaller rooms, each devoted to an aspect of Edo Period life, e.g. one room for medicine, one for astronomy, etc., filled with fascinating objects that he collected throughout his life. It was a privilege to know him, even a little.

 

The first time I visited, as at his house, there was a 'No Photography' rule which I had to respect, but later he rescinded that.

[Bugyotsuji]

On Sunday (Children’s Day) the matchlock troop has been asked to do a full blackpowder display at Kibitsu Hiko Jinja. So I am all packed and ready for that. Three guns and full armour.

In the afternoon the shrine priests have also requested eight tables featuring a static display of matchlock-related artefacts/artifacts. One guy has been asked to bring some rare, large acquisitions from his collection. They want me to provide the wooden peek-shield, certain guns, some red felt cloths, and any gun stands and accessories that I have, plus printed captions on card holders. I have done the latter in both Japanese and English. Some on the request list I can provide, but not all.

Today for a bit of decorative background fun I made a target, based on an Edo Period shooting range print by Hokusai.

Anyway, on Sunday morning early, the car will be loaded with both sets of equipment if all goes to plan.

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Saturday evening and the car is packed and ready.

 

They had asked me to go and pick up another member on the way, but there's really no room for him and his baggage train, so luckily that idea was abandoned.

 

Now, is there anything I have not thought of? ... It's so easy to forget things. On the bridge at Susai four weeks ago the guy next to me whispered, "Hey, I forgot to bring my powder flask!" This meant that each time we loaded, I had to lean over and tip some extra into his pan. Luckily I had enough powder to cover for both guns. Often it's the instant improvisation that smooths things over.

[Bugyotsuji]

Quick 5/5 report. 

Yesterday the weather held, and families with their children came out to visit 吉備津彦神社, Kibitsu Hiko Jinja, the head shrine for Bizen and the Ikeda Daimyo family. 

 

In the morning after donning armour we received shrine blessings and posed for photographs. There was a display of Batto-jutsu (see Malcolm's recent videos), and then we performed alongside the lake, on the route of the Yabusame run. ("Do not fire your guns directly at the little yagura shrine on the island" we were warned.)

 

After a bento and green tea lunch we light-trucked the static dsplay items to the shrine inner sanctum cloisters and set it all up with captions. Some of the bigger gun boxes weighed 50 or 60 kg.

Around 4:00 pm we packed everything up and moved it all back to the changing rooms to gather the armour and load the cars. 

 

Last night I could hardly move after unloading the car at home. Today I have been taking things very, very gently....

 

This wheeled big gun from Osaka dwarfs our massive 100 Monmé on the left. A matchlock cannon.

 

棒火矢 Bōhiya