This Week's Edo Period Corner

[IanB]

Piers, The law is such that technically the group would have had to apply for a powder licence. As it happens we have one so it was no problem.

Ian

[Bugyotsuji]

Thank you, Ian.

[Bugyotsuji]

What are they?

[watsonmil]

Dear Piers,

They look like Chop Stick " rests " to me. ... Ron Watson

[Bugyotsuji]

Ron, they look like boats to me!

 

(Impossible to slip one past you!)

[Bugyotsuji]

August 7th. Himeji Castle Festival and fireworks night. Weather forecast cloudy; temp 32 degrees & high humidity. If the clouds break then 34 or 35 degrees. To tell you the truth I feel sorry for the spectators. Will they be there to watch the stage events in that wicked heat out of genuine interest, or because they are expected by the organizers to be there?

 

We will be in full armor/armour mid-afternoon and standing outside waiting our turn for perhaps 30 mins if we are lucky. A 20 min demonstration on those hot metal plates covering the stage, and then back inside and off with the Kabuto and Do. Attempt to dry off some of the sweat before they send us out again in full kit for the photo session and Gyoretsu procession; another hour or two if we are lucky. Finally the stand-up buffet in the evening in any spare dry clothes we have brought. Lastly a two-hour drive back to base to offload the van, and then the final drive home. Midnight. Any energy left over to do a massive laundry and clean the guns?

[Stephen]

Bugs

 

here 32 is freezing

[Bugyotsuji]

Stephen, sounds like hell! :lol:

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Stephen, sounds like hell! :lol:

 

Humidity is the key... In Venice 32° c are perceived as much hotter then the same temperature in Sicily. Maybe Stephen's house is in a much drier environment than Japan.

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

I think Stephen talks in ° farenheit and Bugyotsuji in °celsius.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Didn't get the pun. Mods please delete my last two unnecessary and offtopic posts

[k morita]

Hi,

 

32 °C = 89.6 °F

[sanjuro]

Does part of the world still use Farenheit???????????

 

I thought all civilised people used celsius............. I really must get out more often. You too Carlo! :D

[Stephen]

just like us folk who don't give up their guns, not to give up Fahrenheit. Us non conformist us.

[Jean]

Does part of the world still use Farenheit???????????

 

Unfortunatelly as well as inches/yard/Gallon .......

 

The only measure I understand is the pint

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

Morita san, 32° fahrenheit = 0° celsius. It is cold.

[sanjuro]

32 degrees celsius is just a warm spring day here in Oz. Cant wait for spring..... its 12 degrees at the moment and damn cold.

 

Jean.

The pint of course is an institution not just a liquid measure. Dont let's take civilisation too far :D

[Bugyotsuji]

One small crack for a man, one giant crack for mankind.

 

What do you think of this?

 

It's Ko-Imari, quite large, ie 29 cm long ( 11 1/4 ")

24.5 cm wide (9 1/2"), 6 cm deep (2 1/2 ") so maybe good for a pot pourri or fruit bowl.

[estcrh]

Very imaginative, someone had a sense of humor. Is the abalone shell real or just part it.

[Bugyotsuji]

Eric, the whole dish is designed in the shape of an abalone shell; the barnacles and things on the bottom are all handmade too. Whoever made it must have taken some time over it, and I bet they were eagerly looking forward to seeing what would come out of the kiln.

 

One 'leg' for you.

[Bugyotsuji]

The only air-conditioned room in the house is strewn with underclothing, pieces of armour, bags and boxes and supporting bits and pieces. Trying to dry some of it out really before packing it this evening. The guns had been in their cases, but the barrels and locks were bright red with rust and the brasswork was turning bright blue. Quite shocking how quickly this humidity gets to anything metal, and how quickly any leather starts to grow mold. How can Japanese swords exist in the pristine condition that we see them in? An exercise in impossibility, the human will over hellish conditions. Perhaps that is why in the West they have not been taken care of in the same way.

 

Humidity for the festival and parade tomorrow is forecast at ninety-two (92) percent. Maybe that's bone dry to Stephen! Dressing up in metal suits, we will be poached eggs. I just had a haircut in order to make the helmet more bearable. 100 people have died of heatstroke over the last three weeks in Japan, and 20,000 have been carried to hospital by ambulance.

[estcrh]

Your statement shows just how amazing it is that so many armors and weapons and related items have survived for so long in Japan in such good condition. A lot of that has to be due to proper care and storing of family heirlooms.

[IanB]

Piers, Thus it has always been. Think of Shakespeare's comment about '..a rich armour worn in the heat of day that scalds with safety'. The interpreters at the Armouries, who wear European armour on a regular basis, finish their sessions before the public absolutely soaking. Their arming doublets fall apart with rot after about 9 months since the armour virtually seals the sweat inside. Another problem are horses. Horse sweat attacks their cuisses and greaves so rapidly that they can be starting to rust by the time they have reached the changing rooms to take the armour off. It really brings it home as to why the armies in Europe needed considerable numbers of armourers and servants to keep operative. The fact that most of the elements of a Japanese armour are lacquered would have at least avoided damage to the basic structure, but what a destructive environment for the textiles.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks for that Ian. What play is that from? This is what really makes the world go round, these little nitty-gritty bits that the public hardly hears about. Romantic dreams are great in their own way, but...

 

Now the old saying makes more sense:

"Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, but ladies merely glow."

[IanB]

Piers, It is from Henry IV Part II - and I managed to make a mistake in the spelling!! It should be - 'Like a rich armour worn in heat of day

That scald'st with safety.' I hang my head in shame.

 

But you are correct - it is a wonder that things survive. However it is only a tiny fraction and often only that through accidents of history. Look at Graz which has survived largely untouched. Rows and rows of munition armours hanging on special racks. By Queen Elizabeth's time some of Henry VIII's armours were being 'thrown on heaps'. It was just so much old iron that had a resale value and was to an extent regarded very much as we regard old clothes. It was only by the actions of a previous Master of the Armouries at the Tower during the civil war that we have anything much. He took a cart to the Royal Armouries in Greenwich Palace and loaded up what was left by the plunderers and took it back to the Tower. By the time he got there even the massive anvil, the 'Great Bear' had been pinched and installed in the workshop of a lock maker in the City of London. Some of the other stakes and hammers turned up in Northamptonshire in the 20th century. Where had they been in the intervening 400 years?

Ian

[estcrh]

I do not have a problem buying a samurai item that has been used or even well used but it always amazes me to find something in almost pristine condition, I can not imagine the set of circumstances that took place for something to remain almost untouched, reading Peirs description of how hard it is to keep his equipment in good shape is a reminder of how lucky we are to have so many surviving examples in circulation still, that might change in our lifetime.

[Bugyotsuji]

We left at 9:00 am. The display in front of Himeji Castle (now half-wrapped in scaffolding) was from 3-3:30. Drenched in sweat we retreated and doffed armour. Then we donned the gear again with fresh sweet-smelling underwear and headed out for the collective 6:00 pm photo shoot with a group of Hime princesses dressed in ornate gold and red kimonos, and Himeji Castle as the backdrop. A treck to the main drag running from the station to the castle gates, and there we were formed up for the procession. Dying to sit down. The asphalt was hot underfoot as the high-pitched voice over the crackly loudspeakers shouted "Kuroda Kanbei for Taiga Drama!!! Ei-Ei-Ohhhhh............" At 8:00 pm (still around 90 degrees, or over 30) they let us walk the arcade blowing our shells for posterity, then we finally peeled/ripped the stuff off, got changed, and loaded the trucks with half a ton of clobber, before the trip to the dinner. Held in an old Saka-kura it was a group of Kuroda Kanbei supporters and lots of sake. Got home at 1:00am.

 

One of the top experts in Japan on helmets paid me the supreme compliment. My Shikoro strings had suddenly given out during the display (rotten after hundreds? of years) and the shikoro were hanging half off. My friend had pulled out a length of wire and did a temporary repair. Back in the changing rooms, the helmet expert fingered the shikoro and said, I'll give you 40,000 JPY for these, er, no, make that 50,000 yen. I smiled at him pityingly. I mean, what would you do gentlemen, with a helmet missing the shikoro that were part of the original package back in 1615?

 

There is an old Indian subcontinent saying that a rock can be lying in the bottom of a river for a million years, but someone can lift it out and in minutes it will be bone dry. I am flying back to the 'old dirt' tomorrow, so I hope that others will provide some interesting object for This Week's Edo Period Corner. (I did have one fascinating object prepared, but the response of late has been quite timid, IMHO. So I will keep it for a rainy day, hehehe...)

[estcrh]

(I did have one fascinating object prepared, but the response of late has been quite timid, IMHO. So I will keep it for a rainy day, hehehe..

Piers, its a rainy day here.

[Bugyotsuji]

:lol: Eric, the mystery object is in Japan and I am in the UK now, but the pics that I cleverly took before I left are in the camera here, and we are also having a patch of rain, so... watch this space, I guess!

[Bugyotsuji]

OK, here goes: