Edo Period Corner Part II

[John A Stuart]

Broken up tatara? John

[Bugyotsuji]

Damn good guess, John, but no.

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, do we want hints, or a straight answer?

[Baka Gaijin]

Good morning Piers,

 

What material is this cast or thrown from?      

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah, now there is a very sensible question to get this going. They are solid iron.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I've seen something that looks like that, Piers, but it wasn't Japanese. Now, I'm curious.

[Bugyotsuji]

Just beginning to wish I hadn't brought this up. The 'answer' will probably raise more questions, which will mean further work for me!

 

Pig in the middle.

[Dave R]

 Section of a shattered gun or cannon barrel.

[Bugyotsuji]

I can see where you are coming from, but they are not really connected with guns.

[Brian]

Not the slightest clue

[Bugyotsuji]

Brian, I will take that as my cue. They are cut sections of an old Bizen anvil. Really rough and rugged on the outside. I saw them sitting in the forge of the sword museum the other day. The swordsmith was curious as to how such a huge lump of old iron was constructed and had had it sliced up into chunks.

 

(He pointed to the present-day anvils and said that what we normally see above the surface is repeated underground, and placed upon buried rocks, which are also packed all around. They must weigh hundreds of kilograms. One of the modern ones is a perfect upright oblong, but the other is an isosceles trapezoid.)

[Bugyotsuji]

Iron tree stump?

[ROKUJURO]

Piers,

this is quite interesting! As we can see here, in former times anvils were made by forging smaller pieces together to form one big lump. In these early times, 'big' meant a quite small anvil of 15 - 20 kg in Celtic times (200 B.C.), and even in medieval Europe (ca. 450 - 1.000), an anvil of 50 kg was a very big one!  Cast steel anvils with a hardened surface are a new invention, dating to the 20th century, at least in Europe. In pre-industrial times, the size was limited, because a big anvil needed a huge fire to heat it up to welding temperature (white heat!).

In your photo, one can see that the temperature in the production process was not really sufficient, so the bonding/welding was not good. This may not be a big problem as long as the anvil has a compact shape as we know them from Asia and early Europe, but modern anvils with horns were much more prone to breaking. One of my older 'collection' anvils (dated 1881) has a broken-off horn, and another one of about the same age, but much heavier, suffered the same damage.  

It is interesting to see that the BIZEN museum people did not hesitate to cut an old anvil in pieces to have a look into its construction. That may be good for scientific research, but I would hesitate to do so.

[IanB]

During the English Civil War in the 1640's the largest anvil from the armouries workshop at Greenwich Palace called the ' Great Bear' went missing. It had been provided by Henry VIII and had been used for around a century used in the making of armours for the KIng and Elizabethan courtiers. It seems to have ended up in the workshop of a locksmith in the City of London and was never recovered. Other tools including the massive shears for cutting plate, as well as hammers and stakes, are now in the Royal Armouries Museum collection. 

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Today I was lying warm abed when I made the effort to drag one's sorry mule out of the pit and head out in 2-degree weather for a not so local antiques market. This place is generally quite hit-and-miss, but since I had not been for a while I was hoping for fresh 'finds'. (The wife was raring to go as she knew I would foot the bill for her conveyor-belt sushi at lunchtime on the way home.)

 

Well, bless my cotton socks! There was, or I thought there was, something which for many a long year I had been searching for. To tell the truth I had given up.

 

Can someone can spot the object and figure why it was so hard to find?

 

Answers will duly follow at some appropriate time. Happy spotting!

[Bazza]

If two guesses are allowed...

 

Guess #1:  The inclinometer, if that's what it is, at the bottom.

 

Guess #2:  The umbrella-size jingasa, if that's what it is, standing vertically side-on at the rhs top of the cabinet.

 

BaZZa.

[Baka Gaijin]

I'm with you Bazza, the Inclinometer or sometimes known as a Gunners's Quadrant................

[Bugyotsuji]

I believe the inclinometer was once upon a time a tilt indicator on a boat, perhaps a yacht. Yes, but no. The jingasa looks larger because it is relatively closer to the camera, maybe. No.

 

BaZZa and Malcolm, ぶっぶーー　(Japanese buzzer going off) go and choose a corner each at the back of the classroom.

[IanB]

No, it is the maedate. Dr. Galeno had one of these and I made myself a copy.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Right, this room is hexagonal, so choose a different corner, Ian!   The Yattoko/Kuginuki Maedate is lacquered wood and has been damaged and repaired repeatedly. Base coat of black with a gold sprinkling on top.

The gold had almost all rubbed off after years of wearing this to demonstrations, so I recently added a touch (too much) of my magic gold mix.

 

PS The answer is not obvious, and I am not expecting that anyone will get it, so no egg on anyone's face if you don't. (Time for a hint?)

 

PPS I have not been particularly looking for an inclinometer, a jingasa or a Maedate. Hmmm... does that count as a hint?

 

 

Hint. None of the things mentioned so far have been of the right material.

[Bazza]

Well, anyone else looking for a corner???  There only so many objects and I've had my go...

 

BaZZa.

[Bazza]

AHHHH - I think I have it.  Do I have everyone's permission for another turn???

 

BaZZa.

[Bugyotsuji]

Third time lucky?

[Bazza]

Is there a prize????

 

The wooden clappers below the jingasa with the red tassel...

 

BaZZa.

[Bugyotsuji]

Those are Umajirushi lying on their sides, BaZZa. You win a free one-way ticket to Pyongyang. As I said in the hint above, not the right material yet. (The inclinomoter is made of wood and brass.)

 

Funnily enough I did find a lovely black pair of wood clappers a couple of weeks ago, but they are for a priest, and not the type used for "Hi no yojin!" which I promised Brian.

 

The object that I found fits so perfectly for the intended usage, that it blends completely into the scene as if it had always been there.

[Stephen]

I think is so big you cant see it for the trees, or in Iowa saying, if was a snake it would have bit you.

[Bugyotsuji]

Hint #2. It's small.

[Stephen]

ok im in my corner, thought it was the iron safe.....lol

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah, now you are getting warm, Stephen. It's the cherry on the cake.

[Ian]

The lock that fits the box perfectly?