This Week's Edo Period Corner

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Funnily enough I just bought a small plate/dish painted with the Japanese destroyer attack and blockade on Port Arthur, the one where Lieutenant Commander Hirose Takeo died so heroically. (1904, the year before Admiral Togo's defeat of the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Straits)

http://www.jacar.go.jp/english/nichiro/ ... etakeo.htm

 

Photo on its way...

 

Hi Piers. if you feel I'm going too much off topic with my non-Edo items, let me know.

 

 

The Mikasa has no guns. Maiden voyage?

 

Much more likely the artist never seen it , anyway they are rendered on the flanks/sides of the ship

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Now you need a Mikasa tanto to match. John

 

Well, this set didn't really beloged to somebody that served on the Mikasa.

No evidences of this.

 

Likely an affluent officer wanted a souvenir of the victory just after the war.

 

I've read about those blades made out of the Mikasa cannons.

 

But there is at least one guy out there that will never let one of them slip unnoticed ... :D

[Bugyotsuji]

Carlo, here is the little dish I mentioned above. Not very good quality work, but interesting for me historically. (If you are off-Edo, Carlo, then so am I... )

 

This age was, however, when the Samurai spirit was indeed blended with Western inventions, but expressed in a new and glorious way. Probably learned from Nelson and the British navy traditions. To die for your country had replaced dying for one's lord.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Not very good quality work, to put it politely, but interesting for me historically.

 

On the contrary, a nice one. No nicks or chips ?

If you ever want to part with it, let me know

[Bugyotsuji]

Two funny things happened today. Needing some material for a class this afternoon, I pulled out a series of prints called Kanadehon Chushingura by, I thought, Utagawa Kunisada III. I mentioned in this thread somewhere that I bought these some years ago and had cleaned them up a bit.

 

Well, as I was preparing the class, I stumbled across an Italian auction house on the internet which had sold Scene 8 in the series of these Ukiyo-e hanga, and the identical picture was listed as printed by Utagawa Kunisada I. Either the auction house is fibbing, or my set of prints is a lot older than I had thought.

 

Not only that, but some time ago I had also by coincidence bought a single print from another series of the Chushingura, of scene 6. The signature says Ichiyosai Toyokuni. Now I could be wrong, but the more I read, the more convinced I am that this is actually the same person, Utagawa Kunisada I, using the later Toyokuni name. (Toyokuni III?) Are my prints possibly all done by the same artist?

 

A third funny thing is some old wrapping paper that a dealer had used to wrap up an antique I had bought. It turned out to be two cover scenes for two different sets of woodblock prints by Hiroshige, stuck together. Originals, but in poor condition and black with dirt. Using a method that I saw on TV I cleaned them up until hidden scenes appeared out of the grime. Hiroshige, who the Japanese like to call Ando Hiroshige, and who was also called Utagawa Hiroshige, cooperated on some series with Toyokuni, with Hiroshige doing the backgrounds, and Toyokuni/Kunisada doing the figures. These two cover scenes for two of the woodblock series are signed by both artists. I could pull the backing sheets off and maybe separate them like Siamese twins, but I don't dare.

[Bugyotsuji]

Happy Christmas, Carlo.

 

Well, it's gone beyond that time of the week, but things have been fairly quiet down this end of Honshu. Wish I could get up to Edo more often and perhaps one day meet the boating fraternity on the Edo-gawa.

 

Since we got rained on and my armour/armor got soaked, I have been looking at completing a replacement set for wet days. Most of the stuff I already have, but I had sold my helmet to help pay for the black outfit. Yesterday I spotted a rather unusual helmet, a 'Toppai', which is said to have European influence in it. (Think Spanish conquistadors?) Part swap and part cash sealed the deal. Got a Mae-date thrown in, and bought another as a spare. (Goodbye to my good old Netsuke flintlock lighter, though. )

 

It is adorning the helmet post on the armour/armour hanger in the hall. Just a question of when the wife spots it... hehehe gulp :|

[kusunokimasahige]

If its as elaborate as this one:

 

 

 

She Will !!

 

:D

 

KM

[Bugyotsuji]

I wish!

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Happy Christmas, Carlo.

 

To you too Piers.

 

Here a very unusual one. Looks like a polish "Winged Hussar" flew over Japan losing it and somebody adapted it

to the new environment... :lol:

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Oliver Cromwell?

[kusunokimasahige]

I just love Namban Gusoku....

 

KM

[IanB]

Carlo, The helmet you illustrate from the Stibbert collection is the only one I know of that imitates a burgonet. It would be interesting to know what kind of mask it had originally. Note the rings for its attachment on the cheek pieces. All the other genuine namban gusoku I have seen have either used, or copied cabasettes ( half-almond shaped skulls with a small flat brim). Tokugawa Ieyasu gave Sakakibara Yasumasa a complete namban gusoku with such as helmet. The namban armour in Nikko, also Ieyasu's is interesting. I have never managed to see the interior of the skull but it is definitely in two pieces (joined along along the medial ridges) and unlike the other European parts, the breast, back and gorget that are left plain russet, is covered in bykuden urushi. By far the larger proportion of real cabasettes are of one piece construction. I suspect that at Nikko is actually a Japanese bowl made to go with the other genuine European pieces.

Ian Bottomley

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Hi Ian. Can't help on this one. AFAIK The "grill" that likely was put into the now empty rings

is either missed or never acquired. Might be the item was originally european (dutch

from Nabeshima trade?) and adapted (lacquered) to Japanese taste ?

There are quiet a few nice Momonari Kabuto but I've to search for shots, as I took

them when digital cameras weren't available yet (yes, I'm that old)...

[IanB]

Carlo, The Stibbert helmet is not European but a Japanese made helmet imitating a burgonet. I have a helmet that once had a nasal bar although only traces remain. As far as I know it is the only one that exists to have had such a feature. There were plenty of European helmets with nasal bars from around the 1630's onwards, but I feel sure my helmet is earlier. I suspect the idea was copied from an Indian helmet imported by the Dutch or Portuguese.

Ian

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

The Stibbert helmet is not European but a Japanese made helmet imitating a burgonet.

 

So, maybe it never had a grill. I wonder how the rest of the armor would have looked like...

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ian, May I ask you a question apart from the kabuto topic? It is; Japanese armour is typicall thought of as being constructed with ozane, sane (lames) woven together of either leather or iron that has been lacquered. Each sane being weak by itself, but, overlapped to create a fairly robust protective suit much like scale armour. Was there a time when either lacquered bamboo or wood was used as sane to reduce overall weight? It just seems that parts like the sode or kusazuri would be effective made of these materials, be lighter and less subject to corrosion due to Japan's high rainfall and salt atmosphere. This may be before the ashigaru was so predominate and during the period when the bushi was basically a mounted archer. Also having lighter sode would facilitate ease of movement if the bushi was engaged on foot. John

[Bugyotsuji]

John, without going into detail, I have heard that the koza-ne were alternately leather and iron, leather, iron, certainly the ones in the Nodo-wa throat piece, to combine strength with lightness.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Hi John. Guess you're thinking to the statement by Conlan in his last book about later

armor made of wood.

 

I'm intrigued too, but it's a big . Waiting to read it to discover bibliography and

original sources.

[John A Stuart]

Yes, Carlo, Since arriving back home, where the book was awaiting my return, I have been reading it and one of it's faults is it is not annotated. So it does not have references to follow up on. It has a bibliography, but, too, that is in romanji for Japanese sources and does not provide a synopsis of what these texts contain or to what they refer. Frustrating. It is fact that Conlan says there was wooden sane used. Pg 40 Left upper. John

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Yes, Carlo, Since arriving back home, where the book was awaiting my return, I have been reading it and one of it's faults is it is not annotated. So it does not have references to follow up on. It has a bibliography, but, too, that is in romanji for Japanese sources and does not provide a synopsis of what these texts contain or to what they refer. Frustrating. It is fact that Conlan says there was wooden sane used. Pg 40 Left upper. John

 

No sources given ? Strange for Conlan...

Let discuss this on the proper board...

[Bugyotsuji]

This is the Toppai helmet I am hoping to use for displays. Unfortunately, it may be slightly too 'good' for the wear & tear of the travelling circus. Can't compare with the wonderful examples above, though. :lol:

[John A Stuart]

Piers, That looks to be in pretty good nick. I prefer plain well constructed harness, rather then the dandified shugo look. Befits the rank of teppo ashigaru, don't you think? John

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Still a nice one, Piers.

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks, Carlo. Actually, John, this kabuto would be too good for teppo ashigaru, I think. The samurai would probably wear this, and his ashigaru would wear something more conical and tinny...

[John A Stuart]

Right, those conical jingasa. John

[IanB]

John, No, armour was never made of wood or bamboo (except for kendo armour). It was always either rawhide, neri gawa, or iron/steel. Early O-yoroi had certain parts constructed of alternate kozane of rawhide and iron - an area down the front, back, in a triangle down the shoulder guards, similarly down the back of the shikoro and down the kusazuri. We took quite a few X-rays of pieces of armour at the Royal Armouries which substantiated this (although you can test it with a magnet as well). The rest of th armour was all rawhide - and was very heavy even so. The Tibetans made similar armours with all iron scales laced with leather. They are unbelievably heavy.

 

One characteristic is that every section of kozane is topped by an iron plate that supposrts the rows (except for the kusazuri which were extensions of the do). Initially the scales were individually lacquered before being laced into rows but they tended to sag. Later they were laced first then lacquered into more or less rigid strips, except in the nakagawa of the do (those rows passing right around the body) so that it could be bent to put on. There was one short lived experiment where a piece of iron was inlet into the left side face of each hide scale. When laced into a row, overlapping by half, this presented a solid surface of iron. It didn't catch on and must been very labour intensive. Later armours often used iyozane or double width scales that are often all iron. These were hardly overlapped so needed to be laced onto a leather strip to keep them in position. They were normally wrapped in thin leather before lacquering.

 

This idea of alternate iron / leather scales is actually quite clever. When hit by a missile or the edge of a sword, the iron stopped the cutting or piercing action, the energy of the blow being absorbed by compressing the leather scale between the iron ones. The lacing acted in the same way between the rows of scales.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ian, Thanks for that. I think there was no oyoroi made of wood, except maybe at some time in the past experimentally perhaps or Ainu leather and wood (bark) armour. I was thinking peripheral parts. I had heard that superlative armour could take two years to construct. Strange, but just today I have bought a book on Takeda arms and armour that had an interesting wooden armour for ashigaru and probably is more like haramaki. I have not received the book yet, but, surely this is just armour that conscripted farmers would use. I post the pic for interests sake. John

[IanB]

John, I knew it ! When ever you say something never ... up pops the exception that proves you wrong. Could you post that image when you get the book? I have a sneaky feeling that what is illustrated is part of an old kendo armour to which have been added other bits. I have never seen an armour for ashigaru or the like with 3 or 4 gessan. They look as if they have come from a revival O-yoroi. The Royal Armouries has an armour I figured out belonged to Takeda Katsuyori. If there is anything in the book about his armour I would be grateful.

 

Looking at the whole picture, what amazes me is that such lowly troops were issued with such good equipment. Yes the armour was simple but it was usually quite well finished. Just imagine the cost of having 1,000 or so ashigaru armours lacquered, never mind the cost of the iron or rawhide. It would of course have been accumulative and would no doubt have been used for a very long time but still ... The grunts in Europe would have killed for gear like that.

 

I have a half do, rather like a hara ate, done in russet iron with a gold lacquered kamon on the front and simple mail and plate gessan. It is relatively inexpensive stuff but the quality of the metal is excellent and the russet surface as good as you get.

 

Ian

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ian, I most certainly will. I'll have to leave a post-it on my screen as post is so slow here. The book is only about Takeda clan arms and armour, so, it might have what you want. It is funny how as this question arose someone pointed out this book to me with a page showing the pic in question as part of the advert. Wonders never cease. BTW, how does one obtain your new book,"An Introduction to Japanese Swords"? John

[IanB]

John, You should be aware that it is only a trivial introduction to swords written for the average visitor to the Armouries Museum. Please don't expect any revelations in it. Just log onto the Royal Armouries Museum website and look under publications. Sadly it is one of those jobs that went a bit out of control. I had written a basic text when I developed stomach cancer and was out of the frame for a while. I did manage to supervise some of the images but essentially by the time I was recovered it was over and done with. Still what the heck. I have now done the final part of the trilogy, on guns, bows and spears. It will probably be a while before it is published, but I like what I did on guns - that came out well.

 

Ian