Edo Period Corner Part II

[IanB]

Ron, Yes, the UK does sink that low. The police were told 'if it comes in take it in whatever it is'. A few owners were told to contact us directly but very few. No, the Japanese gun isn't on show since it has no lock. Someone was in the process of making a new one and had made a blank brass plate for it that is still in the cavity but somehow never finished the job. I should be going in next week and I will get some pictures.

Ian

[watsonmil]

Dear Ian,

Only at your convenience, but I would love to see photos. It is sad the lock is missing, ... and hopefully one of the amourers will take it upon himself to reproduce a suitable lock ( under your supervision of course ). A while back under the bloody Liberal Government in Canada ( since defeated ) , ... just such an amnesty was introduced. Fortunately MOST people realized the fascist nature of this invitation and withheld their firearms. I am fearful of the backroom dealings of President Obama of the USA and his intent to circumvent the Constitution's SECOND amendment. Enough politizing on my part, ... but vilgilance is the only thing that keeps North America from falling into the UK trap the way our Autralian cousins have already done.

... Ron Watson

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

So with your resoning, the actual pistol is named "No Retreat"?

Very interesting, That I've heard regarding swords, but never firearms.

 

Thank you all for this info!

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

[John A Stuart]

Hi Anthony, Not really. It is named Kyosha. Signifying the intention of 'no retreat' as a metaphor or is it a simile. John

[Bugyotsuji]

I suppose in the west we have certain 'named' guns, but named later by their reputation gained rather than beforehand by a smith or owner. (?)

 

But then again we would have had nicknames, as in this conversation: "Which gun will you be taking today, dear?" "Betsy, I guess..."

 

There are such single guns and also sets of three or five guns in the record with a different name on each, so whether 'named' is really apt nomenclature or not... baptized? What is the opinion of the house here? In the meantime I will make a mental note to go back and consult the Japanese, both living and written, sources to see if anything is mentioned.

[Viper6924]

Hmmm.... Why am I having another "bog-iron moment" feeling here? A rare "named" teppolito and my dear friend Anthony got it for the price of a bar of candy.

And I´m still stuck neckdeep in a smelly bog ditch. God, there is no justice

 

:D :D :D :D :D

 

Really happy that we manged to save this teppo from the dark bogman. Well worth restoring considering the history behind it.

 

/Jan

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Jan, I sent you an e-mail just now and pressed 'reply' but for some reason it was rejected... my pm box is always jammed and overflowing but I will try and find one to delete in order to send you a pm.

[Viper6924]

Now You have to delete another one, Piers :D PM sent!!!

 

 

Jan

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

Thanks john for that clarification.

"Kyosha" is soon going to get a proper repatination and a new serpentine before resting together with her more anonymous, not babtised, brothers and sisters.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

[Bugyotsuji]

One other thing, a name or word on a gun like that usually denotes affiliation with a particular "Ryu-ha" school of gunnery.

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

The latest act in the bog iron, only emperor touch, teppo drama;

 

The bog iron man has made som metallurgic readings of his teppo at SSAB (large swedish company). They had 2 machines, one old, making readings deeper and a new, making the reading more superficial.

The result is as enclosed; Deep reading all FE ( the bog man clearly states that the machine also detect carbon, so no carbon in the FE!?.)

The superficial reading states a rather high silver content AG, Interpreted by the b-man as a silver inlayed or even silver patinated surface.

 

Any comments? I have invited him to test my teppos, long and short to compare in order to se if they are the same or if indeed this is a rare bog iron teppo.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

[kusunokimasahige]

Was the specific bog also located ?

 

If not, ask this man :

 

 

 

KM

[Bugyotsuji]

Was he pleased with the results, or did he seem somehow disappointed?

 

Do I detect a rather steely silence from the general reader? The gun looks like a nice small example of an Inoue-ryu Tanzutsu.

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

Piers, the b-man was very pleased indeed, it was on a "I told you so..." level.

 

For him this is evidence that this teppo is quite unique due to the pure iron content in the barrel (without knowing the Fe content in teppos per se).

 

Is it anyone that have any information regarding the metallurgic distribution of teppo barrels in general?

 

Bye the way did anyone notice the price for the medieval sword with provenance from the mamluck armory i Alexandria, on Bonhams auction yesterday? a staggering 135000£+fees...

The 3 teppos went for 1200-1300£, two sold, one not.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

[Viper6924]

The Tanzutsu is rather nice. Only really flaw is that they polished out the inside of the barrel and changed the bizen. The bog-man has used it for targetshooting.

This whole bog-iron, 99,9% FE story starts to take on religious proportions. I would be very surprised if measurements on some other teppos don´t point at an iron content of at least 97-99%. The God damn gun is made out of iron!!!

Then we have the question of the bog-iron itself. I guess we will end up with the fact that the gun was made from gound up mountain ore from Fuji-sama. Collected by shintomonks on the emperor of Japans birthday

I this thing getting on my nerves?

 

 

Jan

[Bugyotsuji]

Jan, Anthony, take a deep breath, and humour the man! :lol:

[Viper6924]

You are probably right, Piers! I´m thinking about sending an Italien hit squad to the dark forrest of the bogman or humour him :lol:

 

Ahhh I go with the humour thing...

 

 

Jan

[kusunokimasahige]

Next item up for auction :

 

A Shakudo Teppo............

 

KM

[Viper6924]

Just to clear my head of bog-iron teppos... Here´s a picture of my new zunari kabuto. I´ve been looking a long time for a gritty kabuto to match my nerigawa menpo. Think I managed to create a rather sinister looking samurai Now I must find a maedate to match. The maedate-holder is rather beefy. The maedate I already have for my other kabuto wasn´t even close to fit.

Well another project in the wonderful world of collecting samurai-armor.

 

Jan

[Bugyotsuji]

Jan, thanks for posting your new ensemble. If you cannot get the Maedate to fit, that is par for the course. There are many adaptors out there to help connect the two, but you are unlikely to find just the right one, so, failing that, you can make one. Everybody does it. I have made two or three out of copper sheeting or wood. (A good brass one can cost quite a bit of money.)

[Bugyotsuji]

If I can remember I'll take a shot of a Maedate adaptor this evening.

 

In the meantime this is what I have been working on. In the first two photos you can see a collection of Tanegashima Karuka (Sakujo, or ramrods). Karuka would have worn down or broken in regular use, so there would have been a constant need for new ones. At any point in Japanese matchlock history you would have seen an assortment of new, mature and old ramrods, and gunners would have carried two or three spare. Toward the end of Edo under Western influence, metal ones became widespread. Occasionally you'll find an old wooden one even today, and we all study them for when we have to make a new one for some reason. For the 'correct' length, old paintings of founders of schools of gunnery show guns on racks with the ramrod tip being level with the muzzle.

 

These nine Karuka range from short Tanzutsu up to 20 Monme size. Three are genuinely old wood and the tenth is just a brand-new rod of Hinoki for reference.

[Bugyotsuji]

This long pistol had a pretty makeshift ramrod in it when I inherited it, probably made by the previous owner with a light generic wood from a hardware store. Not a problem in itself as we all try and make our own ramrods with greater or lesser success. But as it is (or was) a better quality gun, I wanted to make a fitting ramrod for it. This involved lots of thought and consultation as to what they were made of and how they should function and how they should look. This time I made sure to get the finest materials and put a bit of elbow grease into the job. Using a 10mm diameter length of genuine Japanese red oak, or more properly red 'yew oak' (don't ask, ...the discussion is on-going), in six hours I sanded it down by hand overall to a diameter of 8mm to fit into the ramrod hole, leaving a flaring towards the head. This was made with off-cuts of ebony and the i-word. The finished Karuka is very smooth overall and looks pretty close to what I wanted. My sword teacher and habaki maker who supplied me with advice and materials was quite pleased with the result. (He had refused to make it for me.) Now I hope that the Karuka in this gun is no longer 'Burei'.

[Bugyotsuji]

PS As you will have guessed from photographs in general, most Karuka are simply plain sturdy wooden rods. You may occasionally see how someone has shoved a length of bamboo in there to look the part. Some may have a flared head; some heads can be made of materials such as water buffalo horn. To lessen wear and provide a constant flat tamping surface a cap might be fitted and I have even seen brass cartridge case base cut-offs, indicating that the weapon may have been used into the 20th century. (Farmers, hunting?)

[Bugyotsuji]

Here is the best Maedate Kanagu connector that I have. The rest are all different sizes, hand-made to fit the occasion.

[Brian]

Nice work Piers. That quest for original ramrods or good repros isn't confined to Japanese guns of course...it is the bane of all percussion and flintlock collectors too :lol:

 

Brian

 

PS - On a totally different subject, I was wondering if there are ever locks, or parts of locks found in Japan for sale ever?

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks, and point taken. Believing in the existence of such a thing as a quintessentially 'Japanese' ramrod :lol: I made one with Japanese materials in discussion with a Japanese artisan, but it does have a worldwide look to it, reminding me somehow of a new cricket bat! (Should I oil it?)

 

Parts of locks found for sale? Brian, yes they are. Not often but occasionally I see bits, a serpentine or a pan cover. Since there were so many styles and types however, and since the dealers were not willing to let them go for tuppence, I have desisted so far, but an interesting thought. I suspect there are many odd parts out there in the backs of people's drawers.

[Baka Gaijin]

Morning all,

 

Here's a little something for Eric and Piers to drool over :lol:

 

I saw at Tokyo National Museum last week:

[Bugyotsuji]

Whoever Mrs Henry (アンリ= Henri?) was, she (or her dear departed husband) certainly had an eye for something special. Many thanks Malcolm.

[Baka Gaijin]

Morning Piers

 

In the first image, the red is described as らしゃ

 

I was told "Rassha" refers to the original Red wool cloth imported by the Portuguese in the time of Oda Nobunaga.

 

Cheers

[John A Stuart]

火事装束 Fire Costume 緋羅紗地注連縄模様 Scarlet felt boundary rope design. The look of this seems more like a priestess would wear to a Fire Festival like Dosojin (Jan 15) or are we to take it as a generic fire watching attire. John