Varshavsky site and collection

[BIG]

Very nice site and collection. Also very informative and knowledgeable...

 

Please read the "export industrie" notice saying about 150000 swords were made within a century by a large number of artists ...

 

Best

[BIG]

Sorry..

 

http://varshavskycollection.com/collection/tsu-0353/

 

Best

[Ford Hallam]

Interesting and eclectic collection for sure.

 

But this.... http://varshavskycollection.com/collection/tsu-0392-2019/   no chance 

[Rivkin]

Please read the "export industrie" notice saying about 150000 swords were made within a century by a large number of artists ...

 

Best

 

My very personal and erroneous opinion: everything stated by Haynes, Elliott, McKinney and more so by Japanese nihonto authorities in regards to continental fittings, blades, and their trade interactions with Japan has to be treated with more than a grain of salt. All of it is based on "its logical to assume" argumentation since no one actually bothered at all to browse any of the major collections of the continental tsuba or Japanese items unearthed in Korea or greater Manchuria. There was recently a government grant in Japan given to archaeology student to go and study along this lines - and even in this case the student managed to partner with a continental university that does not have anything decent....

 

Without checking the relevant books, here the issue is more about how these well known texts about Japanese blades being exported to China have to be interpreted, and there is a large uncertainty. Well mounted blades as far as I remember were listed separately and their numbers were quite few, for the most its not exactly clear what was going on there in terms of mounts. Unlike the earlier Japanese exports around during the early Heian period, for some reason contemporary Chinese documents are mostly silent on these numbers altogether, and there is indeed huge and rapid increase of Japanese items being unearthed on the continent, but it corresponds to the 16th century rather than 15th century... 

 

Taking in mind that it was not completely uncommon for various Japanese sources to give drastically different records with regards to foreign trade, copper trade export disaster of the late 1600s-early 1700s being a great example, these export numbers might be accurate or they might be not.

 

Kirill R.

[BIG]

Markus article..

 

https://markussesko.com/2013/11/01/Japanese-sword-trade-with-ming-china/

 

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[Rivkin]

In as much as I like Markus's writing, always very meticuluos curbing through old and new nihonto literature, I think there many non-nihonto sources that he did not address here.

15th century saw a collapse of Japanese economy and virtual halt in sword production. Ashikaga's were consistent in issuing mobilisation order combined with pardons of debts, so that bushi could requisition blades and armor from pawn shops. In return, pawn brokers were introducing tighter restrictions on accepting armor and blades as collateral (for various reasons, most of the sales were apparently classified as loans), which still did not help with that no one was actually buying them.

Bizen was an exception since it still had a stream of customers for its top work, but in this atmosphere to talk about prevailing prices on blades or armor is difficult. Also it is not unexpected that a good portion of exports could have been older blades.

 

Second, Japanese trade and commerce was always a matter of state's monopoly (especially since China for most periods did not accept non-state agents) - and the overall system of production was more akin to ever-decaying socialism with regulated prices and state licensing, but numerous exceptions for individual dealings, rather than a truly competitive market.

Government license more often than not meant the right to requisition goods at the "official price", so the problem why much greater quantity of copper were requested from Edo period mines for the purpose of being sold abroad than actually arrived in Nagasaki has a simple explanation. Some businesses could resist if their patrons were strong enough; however in Kyoto-Nara area nearly all commerce was still patronized by a few major temples, and since they were instrumental to these missions abroad it is unlikely they had to haggle with swordsmiths beyond the basic expenses. At the same time, how much was actually shipped and actually sold can also be questioned, especially with Chinese sources notoriously silent on the issue and a complete lack of period finds. It has to be admitted any period finds on the continent are rare, but they do exist, and it is clear that only around 1550 there comes a flood of Japanese hira-zukuri wakizashi to Amur river and beyond, as well as various tsuba found anywhere from Korea to Vietnam.

Third is that the money paid also had very relative value at the time. For the government it was on a very formal level all the same. In Japan later there will be copper, silver, gold and even paper money, with official equivalence but real life substantially different purchasing ability (which was still a crime). During the 15th centruy, its not exactly clear what was happening in Japan with copper. Yes, there were exports, but Korean sources indicate that these copper exports were reprocessed to yield silver. Whatever the reason, copper coin was exceptionally prized, but Chinese silver currency was avoided, Chinese silk was prized, and to some extent Chinese scrolls and paintings, which served until the Meiji revolution as a default gift to Kyoto aristocracy and Tenno's relations.

Yet the mixture in which the payment was conducted is also to some extent uncertain - sometimes there are clear Japanese statements saying so much was received in copper coin, but not in others. And comparing the same nominal price in copper coin to the nominal price which could've been paid in kind is very difficult.

 

Kirill R.