What type of Gun on Tsuba?

[Soshin]

Hello everyone on the Tanegashima / Teppo / Hinawaju discussion form. This is my first post on this group. I was reviewing the handwritten notes about a new tsuba I added to my collection at the Baltimore Antique Arms show last month whose subject is a pistol and its accessories. I was able to see some nice antique Japanese pistols while at the show and this likely influenced me to get this tsuba. The notes made by the previous owner are below.

 

Quote

Very unusual design on tsuchime surface tsuba Hinawaju + target. Reverse has hemp cord for fire. Looks to be Ko-Nara work of early Mid Edo. Matchlock + barrel are early design. 1st tsuba of this design I have owned.

 

Here is the tsuba. Here is a composite of both sides to show both the pistol and all its accessories. Any additional information about the pistol would be helpful as it might make dating this unsigned tsuba easier. Thank you.  

 

       

[BIG]

Hi David,

think its called RADSCHLOßPISTOLEN see page 66

 

https://www.armeemus...s_Krieges_online.pdf

 

Best

[Bugyotsuji]

This is a rather large Tanzutsu matchlock pistol verging on Bajozutsu size. It has a slight feeling of Inoue-Ryu (school of gunnery) pistols, which you tend to find more of in the Sanuki region of northeast Shikoku. I have owned a couple myself. The shape of the butt on your tsuba is double, though, letting down the image of Inoue Ryu which typically ends in a solid, almost rounded butt. The hinawa matchcord and the target are generally correct.

 

Matchlock pistols are rather rarer overall, but they were typically of this sort of shape throughout the Edo Period. The details are generally ok but not very well executed in some places, such as the (missing) pinch flaps of the serpentine, and the missing ramrod; the perspective (of the muzzle for example) is somewhat off, reminding me more strongly of Ukiyo-e of the later 1800s which were usually generic and never strictly accurate.

 

My opinion, and I am open to others, is that the tsuba is older but the zogan work is all a later addition, possibly even post Edo. The fresh red rust around the butt increases this impression for me. As an object, it is unusual, and I like it, but these are my honest impressions above.

[Bugyotsuji]

This is an Inoué-Ryū pistol, David. 

 

 

[Soshin]

 

Thanks for the additional information about the type of gun pictured. This is helpful. The Inoue-Ryu (school of gunnery) and other schools of marksmanship used in the Edo Period would be an interesting discussion.

 

More off topic discussion....

 

23 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

 

My opinion, and I am open to others, is that the tsuba is older but the zogan work is all a later addition, possibly even post Edo. The fresh red rust around the butt increases this impression for me. As an object, it is unusual, and I like it, but these are my honest impressions above.

 

Don't think the zogan is post Edo but it is of higher quality and condition is nice. The oxidation on the silver and wear on the brass inlays is consistent with the Edo Period dating and many other higher quality examples I have seen. The workmanship of the iron plate nicely highlights the skill of the tsuba maker to forge iron with different contrasting surface textures. I have seen similar high-quality inlays of mixed soft metal inlays on a papered Aizu Shoami tsuba I once had in my collection. The plate mental of that tsuba didn't have the same dynamic textures and iron bones as the plate of this tsuba. This is what drawing me towards the Ko-Nara Ryūha (古奈良流派) versus Aizu Shōmai Ryūha (会津正阿弥流派).