This Week's Edo Period Corner

[Bugyotsuji]

John, yes, forgive me. I thought there might be a little more curiosity out there! Shall I award you Kantei points? Actually the blade does not suggest who the Mei might be, so an absolute exercise in impossibility!

 

The date is 文政三年二月

[John A Stuart]

No, but, something like Toshiyoshi, 寿吉 Long life and luck. What a wild guess this is!! Of course it could be the ubiquitous Jumyo 壽命 and there was one in the Bunsei period, Joshu Orui ju Minamoto Jumyo. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Early Christmas present then...

[John A Stuart]

Ah! Amahide 天秀, also known as 水心子正秀 Suishinshi Masahide. I should have known, I lie!! Very good Piers. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Been very busy recently, and almost penniless, but in the last week had a chance to visit three antiques markets and to spend some leisure time wandering around. One of the markets has had to finally close down so I went along to say thanks and good-bye.

 

A few Yanone/Yajiri had suddenly appeared so as genuine ones tend to be few and far between I went for them. Too many fakes around nowadays.

 

One was in polish (semi) and was more than a little over my budget, but I asked the dealer on Sunday to throw in a tiny (signed) bashin with it and he agreed. Because of the cold? Because it was the year-end?

 

The other two today had evidence of Mei (?) on the blades 重on one? so I asked if the dealer would be willing to sell me both, for a combined reduced price. Again, the cold? Year-end? Not opened them to check them properly yet...

 

Small purchases which should slip under the wife's radar. Am I very sick, doctor?

[Lorenzo]

Small purchases which should slip under the wife's radar. Am I seriously sick?

 

It's a common disease I fear

[Brian]

Piers,

Which market closed down? I hope not the one we visited...thought it was great.

Love to see a pic of those yanone...you know I love them.

 

Brian

[Bugyotsuji]

No, that would be a tragedy. That's where we were yesterday.

 

The one that closed down was at the Kannon-in in Saidaiji. It started with about 50 stalls some ten years ago or more, but in recent months they were down to four of five. They blame the recession, but there were more forces at work. The Yxxxxx in charge had to go into hospital and that was the final blow.　

 

I'll post some piccies here when I get time to take the shots. Very soon! :lol:

[IanB]

Piers, We have Yxxxxa shutting down all manner of things here but we are far more polite and call them politicians.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Piers, We have Yxxxxa shutting down all manner of things here but we are far more polite and call them politicians.

Ian Bottomley

 

Oh dear, that doesn't sound very good. Hope the recent activity does not impinge on your wonderful world, Ian.

 

In the meantime here are some Yanone/yajiri shots. Later I unrolled my other ones to compare them, and to do the winter dusting and oiling, and these new ones suddenly looked small. Remember the old adage with Yanone that the longer the Nakago the better...

 

The smallest one was the most expensive, perhaps because of the polish. The cross-section is diamond, close to square. Tried to shoot this with my clever camera but it was averse to focussing on the very tip of an arrowhead. The other two had been crudely polished by a previous owner, (arrowheads tend to go rusty quickly without TLC) but you can see the remains of Shige- and Suke.

[Bugyotsuji]

Apologies for the quality. I keep the pixels at their lowest setting for the site.

 

The other two arrowheads from yesterday were surprisingly cheap!

[Bugyotsuji]

Yesterday I had a phone call to say that my Tanegashima is ready.

 

He had cleaned up the barrel on the long gun that I usually use for demonstrations, scraping off accumulated rust down one side and cleaning off the gunk that a well-meaning friend had slurped all over it. As a result, all the various Kumamoto Castle numbers and maker's numbers, and the date, and the Mei now show up sharply and clearly. Where I had rubbed the silver Mon and exposed gun barrel steel, he has toned it all down for me and made it look how it was originally. He has stiffened the pan lid so that it does not swing open as it used to, and he has added putty to the Bizen screw so that it stops tight and square with the breech and with the square receiving hole in the stock. It looks so much better.

 

As to the three-barrel Chinese/Korean pole arm, he has spent hours flaking/chipping and working away at the rust until he has reached firmer and darker metal underneath, and then 'fixed' it to finally stop the creep of the red rust. It really does look healthier and smarter and leaner, almost as if it belonged in a museum. The insides of the barrels are not quite ready so he has asked me to wait on that. I am eager to get it back and fix the old oak haft into it to see how it looks.

 

In return I handed him the boy's Chigo-zashi and asked for a Shitate-age rather than a full polish in order to take the roughness off that one side of the edge of the Ha. The blade should come up looking good, I hope.

 

Also I asked for a new Tsunagi for the Tachi. The old one had snapped in two during a demonstration in November just before Portugal and it had emergency repairs to it. The wood used for Tsunagi is only to hold the Koshirae together on your display stand and never very strong; certainly not designed for the hard knocks during Enbu (demos). I have asked for a stronger type of wood. Kashi?

 

Finally I handed him the matchlock pistol and asked him to do the same with the Bisen which goes round too far when you tighten it. The square head then does not fit into its receptacle cavity, so you have to back off about an eighth of a turn, which allows for some escape of gas etc. backwards. After 400 odd years some tightness was inevitably lost.

 

All the relative Toroku certificates have to travel with them too, BTW, in order to stay on the right side of the law.

[estcrh]

Been very busy recently, and almost penniless, but in the last week had a chance to visit three antiques markets and to spend some leisure time wandering around.

Small purchases which should slip under the wife's radar. Am I very sick, doctor?

Piers, there are far worse things a man can spend his time and money on, reading your reports always makes me feel better about my questionable purchses At least I know I am not the only one!

[estcrh]

As to the three-barrel Chinese/Korean pole arm, he has spent hours flaking/chipping and working away at the rust until he has reached firmer and darker metal underneath, and then 'fixed' it to finally stop the creep of the red rust. It really does look healthier and smarter and leaner, almost as if it belonged in a museum. The insides of the barrels are not quite ready so he has asked me to wait on that. I am eager to get it back and fix the old oak haft into it to see how it looks.

.

Piers, any idea what method was used to "fix" the rust? I have a piece that has the same problem.

[Bugyotsuji]

Piers, any idea what method was used to "fix" the rust? I have a piece that has the same problem.

 

No Eric, but I will ask him.

 

Ian at the Royal Armouries in Leeds should be able to tell us what they use in Britain for this kind of thing.

 

In the meantime I found this pdf which looks quite good. (Not read it properly yet...)

http://gpigun.com/Preserving.pdf

[John A Stuart]

After stabilising an iron artefact, there are various methods depending on what caused the deteriorisation, sea water, burial, etc. the iron artefact is covered by a resin to create an impermeable interface to air and moisture. Impregnating resin: a naphtha suspension containing 30% Palaroid NAD10 acrylic resin, for example. John

[IanB]

John, Resins etc are indeed used to consolidate and protect particularly corroded iron objects. The Armouries has quite a few Viking and Saxon blades that look to have been treated that way. For less fragile objects, micro-crystalline wax seems to work quite well.

Forty odd years ago I acquired a russet armour that was beginning to show active spotting. Working on the basis that the russet finish was no different from the 'browning' on gun barrels, I coated it with boiled linseed oil thinned with white spirit - applying it with a cloth then wiping it off after giving it time to soak into the rust layer. That armour is still in beautiful condition, is stable and has a soft chestnut sheen. It may not be an approved conservation technique since it is non-reversible, but it has proved to be the best treatment I have found so far for protecting smooth rust patination.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Here is an example of one being fired, but probably before the guy had gripped it properly.

 

You may see another clip there about firing a 'genuine' 15th C three barrelled gun. This came up before, but it is a modern Chinese repro. The 'nipples' are also wrong, apparently, from what I understand. They were probably fired with a fuse or a hot wire...

[John A Stuart]

Sometimes I am amazed at what can appear on you-tube. I would think a longer pole with it braced under the arm and held by one hand as being fired wouldn't look half so dangerous. I looks like that fellow was lucky. John

[IanB]

Piers, Quote: 'a 15th century hand cannon' ignited by banging the nipples on a wall - really. My goodness but the Chinese were so far ahead of the rest of the world. If this technology had spread, the wheel lock and flintlock makers of the 16th ,17th and 18th centuries could have saved themselves a lot of effort, not to mention poor old Alexander John Forsyth who struggled for so long to perfect percussion ignition. Where do the dig up these so-called experts?

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

Piers, Quote: 'a 15th century hand cannon' ignited by banging the nipples on a wall - really. My goodness but the Chinese were so far ahead of the rest of the world. If this technology had spread, the wheel lock and flintlock makers of the 16th ,17th and 18th centuries could have saved themselves a lot of effort, not to mention poor old Alexander John Forsyth who struggled for so long to perfect percussion ignition. Where do the dig up these so-called experts?

Ian Bottomley

 

It's lovely stuff! :lol:

[estcrh]

Piers, John and Ian..thanks for the rust stabilization info.

[Bugyotsuji]

Going back for a moment to the subject of Nihonto and 'seeing' hamon and workings in steel and correct lighting etc., a funny thing happened the other day. :|

 

I was at a year-end party for a group of sword-related people, smiths, shirogane-shi metal-workers etc, and I showed them the boy's sword. The room was very dim, each table lit by a sole flickering candle. One of our members said 'Let's see how well a candle works', and lifted up the blade to examine it. I held up the candle glass.

 

'Mmmm... actually quite good' he muttered.

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, I am 99% satisfied with the way this project has turned out. The rust is black and settled.

 

I had a terrible job trying to whittle Kashi oak. Spent hours and hours as I am not using power tools.

 

Thought long and hard over how to fix the haft to the sheath, and eventually came up with a decent temporary fix solution. The sheath has a long oval slit in it. The answer needed to be something strong, which could also be easily undone as necessary, so I went for a kind of bamboo pin in Mekugi style, hard into the near end of the slit. The 'gun' cannot slip off. The pin has a groove across the top to allow one or two turns of the binding over it to hold it in.

 

As I was playing with decorations I decided to use a Chinese good luck charm out of respect for the spirit of the object and the people who created it. Just hope it isn't Korean! :lol:

[estcrh]

Piers, it looks great, I had to carve down the end of an old pole once to fit a new end cap and it too forever, that was some hard wood. Can you post a close up picture so I can compare to how it looked before, after all this is such a rare weapon and one of the few real ones pictured any were, thanks!!

[Bugyotsuji]

Eric, you don't want to look too closely as it has some serious holes in it!!! One of the touch-holes is badly corroded too. Let's see what I've got for you...

[estcrh]

Piers, thanks for the pictures..it sure does look a lot different, so its good for another few hundred years now?

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, I sure hope so, Eric. It's lost all that crumbly flakiness and looks much better in this dark almost black guise.

 

On Sunday I got up v early and drove about 50 miles to see some antiques stalls which appear once a month. Among the treasures I picked up were a lacquered armrest for when sitting on tatami, a small Kama scythe/sickle for flower ceremony (?) and a badly battered Bajo-hai or stirrup cup. There was also a Menpo in really terrible condition which after some debate I decided to purchase. Please have a look at it and then guess a) how much it was and b) what eventually happened to it!

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, put another way, would anyone have bought this Menpo? :D

[Brian]

Umm...err...

No

But then I guess it cost next to nothing

 

Brian