stone tool menuki

[Peter Bleed]

Friends,

Please allow me to present a couple of tsuka from my collection. As tosogu, I am quite sure that they would NOT be considered anything more than trinkets, and odd country trinkets at that. But they illustrate how swords were actually treated.

These two tsuka came to me separately, and they are less that identical. Still they are similar enough in "look and feel" that it is hard not to wonder if that had been a "daisho."

Both handles were in the US when I got them. I came by the larger tsuka first, but it came to me as an isolated fitting. I got the wakizashi tsuka with a sword (signed by Shigekatsu, dated Manen Gennen or 1860) in a plane black saya. It looks to me like a country samurai's sword.

The fuchi-kashira are plain rough iron. The wrap in not identical but on both tsuka it is lacquered tape. And both are covered with black shark skin rather than traditional, stingray "same."

Here' the interesting thing, both tsuka have stone projectile points ("arrowheads") mounted as menuki. The points are certainly Jomon era tools. Point typology is not very useful in Jomon archaeology since a few basic types lasted fr thousands of years. Still, my guess is that these points are from the Middle Jomon period, or about 4500 to 3000BC.

I have no information on where these fittings originated, but I think they may have come from northern Honshu. Points like these are common in that part of Japan. I happen to have done some research on the history if archaeology in Japan, and in that regard I found that collecting arrowheads was a rather popular pastime in northern Japan during the later Edo Period. They were understood as weapon tips and ideas were put forth on when and how they got to Japan.

As stone tools, the points are not identical, but they appear to have been carefully paired with small points on the shoto tsuka. The points on the bigger tsuka are - well - bigger. They seem to point in inconsistent directions, tho. It also looks like the bigger points were ground slightly smooth before they were mounted.

I find these tsuka lots of fun, but I am not sure that there is a clear "take away message" from them. I can easily believe that an Edo period rural samurai could be in places where stone tools could be found. Can we assume on the basis of these handles that samurai also had the wherewithal to trick out their swords with objects they found interesting?

Peter

[watsonmil]

Dear Peter,

How very unusual to find two tuska with stone projectiles as menuki. I have not seen this previously and what is more unusual is that they both end up in the same persons hands ... coincidence ? I will relate what I consider a similar circumstance of strange coincidence. I was restoring a WWI Maxim MG08 Machine Gun. All I needed to finish the job was the Loading Block which was missing. Now MG08 parts are scarce to begin with, ... and I used to keep a personal " wanted " ad on my Militaria Internet Site. Of the many items I listed was ANY MG08 or 08/15 Maxim parts. Low and behold I got a phone call from a chap in Chicago stating he just happened to have one ( among other odds and ends ). I promptly bought it and when it arrived was pleased at the condition and so installed it. Now here comes the spooky part, .... the serial number on his Loading Block matched the serial number of my Maxim. The chances of re-uniting the gun and its original Loading Block after 90 odd years have to be astronomical .... yet it happened.

... Ron Watson

[george trotter]

Hi Peter and Ron,

Nice tsuka and an amazing "eerie" story Ron.

Not to divert into the supernatural, but in the same vein I had an eerie event last Monday. I was just about to shut down the computer for the night when I suddenly thought of the family name "Wright" (these are a family relation of ours from Helsingor, Denmark...yes originally English, from Hull in Yorkshire to Helsingor as traders 1750s)...well, for some reason I chose one of them called "Major" Wright (his name, not a rank), and I typed in "Major Wright Helsingor Denmark" and up came "Major Wright Helsingor Denmark 1875" on ebay...and click...there on ebay was a photo of him...listed in England only 1 hour before...what are the odds (have a click, I bought it but a link will still come up I think) . Some people used to say I was psycho, but maybe they meant psychic haha.

Sorry, now back to nihonto...

[Brian]

Very interesting tsuka. I am not convinced they were once a set, but does seem to follow a pattern. I wonder if this style was popular in a certain area or at a certain time.

It would be logical that any little trinket that appealed or had meaning to the owner could be used when mounting a sword. These work well, and probably had great significance to the owners. I think they are wonderful. Interesting that they both use shagreen instead of same. Not sure what conclusion can be reached, but they really do call for more research.

 

Brian

[nagamaki - Franco]

How appropriate that these should end up in your hands!

[christianmalterre]

this here..is indeed intriguing!

Very interesting indeed!

 

if you don´t mind Peter,me would ben happy so to receive some further images if possible...

 

(@ Ron -1:1000000...Murphy´s Law!.... )

 

Christian

[Ruben]

Hi Peter,

 

interesting find.

I never expected such mountings.

If they are "native"???

An expert could tell this by shape maybe, I just now that some similar shapes were found in the Sahara.

But there are not too much different possibilitys when making such an arrow head.

What kind of stone can this be? Who nows!?

(Once I tried to make some, I wastet 3 kilos of Japanese obsidian, got 3 or 4 arrowheads out of it,... and a lot of cutting my self

But it´s not that hard if some one got the right tools and enough material.)

 

Ps: seems like the tail end were it meets the arrow shaft is broken off, typical for arrowhead findings :D

Maybe the owner/ owners of tsuka were bowman as well.

Also they fit perfect on the tsuka, I didn´t think about that at the first look.

 

Greetings

 

ruben

[bubba-san]

Peter ,

When I was stationed in Yokosuka during the 60'S , I saw a sword in shop that had stone points for menuki ,

It got me interested in Japanese swords . Made a post somewhere here relating that . Those are the only ones I have seen since that time . Very Interesting . The points were stemmed and resemble a type of point found in Texas panhandle . Thanks for posting those ..... James

[Henry Wilson]

Here is a related thread on arrow heads:

 

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15805&p=139148&hilit=arrow+heads#p139148

[george trotter]

Henry has pointed to the link...this was the first thing I thought of when I saw these pics here...Ainu arrowheads...maybe mounted for an Ainu man...maybe the arrowheads are significant to him?

Regards,

[Peter Bleed]

Henry,

Thanks for giving us the link to the earlier discussion with Barry's terrific links. I KNEW that something had got me thinking about these tsuka, but it was long enough ago that I had forgotten the specifics. Mark it up to early onset wha'cha call it.

I am sure that the menuki I showed are Jomon era artifact. Their shapes are all pretty typical of Jomon points. and as I said, Jomon points did not change very much.

Peter

[bubba-san]

Most Japanese arrowheads were made from either Obsidian or silicon dioxide. Some were also made from volcanic stone . I have a few Japanese stone arrow points . The longer points were actually Knives as some were cantered off to the left or right showing some use polish .Some were made from more exotic material such as Jadeite and Jasper containing small amounts of hematite . They also had stone celt forms that were very smooth and polished jade. Most were from the Jamon period about 6,000 bp. here is a link to some fine Japanese stone artifacts . I have been studying stone artifacts for 40 years or so . I have a huge collection of stone projectile points . There were a few side nothched points , but most from Japan were stemed types .

here is a link to some museum quality Japanese stone points , projectiles and various artifacts. The Jamon

period dates back to 12,000 years BP.

 

There is an ongoing dig at this prefecture site. Sannai Maruyama... Here is link to site containing a large dig

http://mcrocks.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3567693 ...... http://www.dances-with-snakes.com/jomon.htm

.

Respectfully submitted James

Member of Central states Archeological Society member since I was a young man .

[Ron STL]

Peter and all -

I'm happy to see these arrowhead menuki finally come under discussion, Peter. For the others info, Peter's shinshinto wakizashi was part of a 60-odd sword collection, the property of a elderly (100 year old) retired stockbroker. He bought most if not all of his swords at local St. Louis gun shows, I'm sure. His "collection" was a haphazard bunch of stuff. Nothing was ever taken care of and most still had $5 and $10 price tags on them along with years of dust and crud. I was first shown this collection back in 1978 and asked to pick out a few swords for the upcoming 1979 Chicago shinsa, which I did. In 2004 this fellowed died and I bought the entire collection from his estate. Four of the swords including Peter's wakizashi went to Benson for polish. Later, I decided to sell the wakizashi and knowing Peter's archeology background, directed this one to him because of the arrowhead menuki. Could it be that this sword and the other tsuka were once together? Anything is possible. This old man bought his sword right after WWII so I'm sure they were plentiful (and cheap) at St. Louis gun shows. (Sadly, I didn't know about Japanese swords back in the '40s.) Just sharing some sword history today. Good to see you still have these things, Peter.

Ron STL

[Peter Bleed]

This thread has twisted and turned into a couple of interesting directions. Thank you all. I was hoping that these tsuka would get the Board thinking about other odds and ends that have turned up as sword fittings. None of that has happened. Maybe there aren't very many of such things so that these points are what they seem to be - pretty unusual.

And YES, the wakizashi did come to me from Ron. I was not sure if I should mention names, Ron.

Let me add a few archeological details.

Indeed, obsidian - 'natual glass' was a fairy common stone tool raw material in Japan. But during the loooong Jomon era, I think that 'hard shale' which is a grey chert was ther most common raw material. I am sure that these points are Jomon.

I assume that these fittings origininated in northern Hoshu. Shigekatsu who made the wakizashi was from Yamagata - as I recall. And the blade is dated 1860. I suppose the tsuka could have been remounted, but it IS a Bakumatsu koshirae. I agree with Brian that these two handles are not a perfect match. But lots of sword that were worn as a pair were not what we would think of a "Daisho." If they were not a pair, they must have fit a model.

Brother Trotter's suggestion that this was a sword made for an Ainu is interesting, but I am doubtful. By the late Edo period, Ainu had not had anything to do with stone tools for 1500 year. And the swords they WERE carrying did not look like these.

But others have suggested that stone tools had Ainu connections. A Japanese scholar named Matsuoka Gentstsu suggested that arrowheads found in norther Honshu were weapons Ainu hunters had shot into large birds that had not been killed and managed to carry them into "Japan."

It also turns out that the famous scholar Arai Hakuseki (author of the old book many of us have, 'Sword and Same') was a fairly serious collector of old weaponry. He was given some stone points as collectibles. He researched these and concluded that they were - tahhh dahhhh - archeological evidence that ancient people had lived in northern Japan.

I'd still like to know if people have seen other odd "menuki". And short of that, do people thinks these are collectible as kodogu?

Peter

[bubba-san]

You bet they are , I mean how many have we seen ? Before those 2 ? I have seen only one many years ago .

grey chert is a crypto crystaline material common in the USA . In the Us we dont have true flint its also chert.

james

[ROKUJURO]

.....Grey chert is a crypto crystaline material common in the USA. In the US we dont have true flint its also chert.....

James,

 

what is in your opinion chert, and what do you call flint? In Europe it is all the same, it is amorphous (or crypto crystalline) silicon dioxide, but can have a wide range of colours. The French call it silex in regard to the chemical composition.

[bubba-san]

.....Grey chert is a crypto crystaline material common in the USA. In the US we dont have true flint its also chert.....

James,

 

what is in your opinion chert, and what do you call flint? In Europe it is all the same, it is amorphous (or crypto crystalline) silicon dioxide, but can have a wide range of colours. The French call it silex in regard to the chemical composition.

 

Good flint is much smoother and easier to chip , where as chert is rougher material .

the only flint I see here are, from flint lock rifles and is usually imported from europe.

They are both cryto crystaline material . As an advocational archeologists we get kind of technical .

james