This Week's Edo Period Corner

[Bugyotsuji]

I only just found a site about such devices. The spoon might not be so particularly old.

http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/SEKIYADO/di ... _3_2_4.htm

 

You are probably right, Koichi san. I was kind of joking (laughing at myself) when I suggested that by cleaning it I was wiping off 'hundreds of years of history'. I was exaggerating my crime for comic effect, but also to compensate for my secret guilt.

[Eric H]

Karashishi (Kutani ware)

 

Eric

[Bugyotsuji]

He/she's great fun, isn't he/she! Kutani? It's a big piece. Do you know how old it is? Did you inherit it, or purchase it, Eric? Surprisingly realistic pose and expression.

 

(Unfortunately, aside from a few blue and white vases and tokkuri sake bottles, I can't collect china, pottery or earthenware as I feel completely unable to make judgements on them. I pick up something I like and my Japanese collector friends all shake their heads sadly, or in the worst cases laugh. You should be going for this, they say, handing me something I don't like at all. My wife maybe has the right idea. She only buys chipped or cracked pieces. That way she's built up a collection representing some of the best potteries and ages, and they look great, from a discreet distance. Since she paid very little for them, and has no intention of selling them, she is happy having them decorating the bookshelves.)

[Eric H]

Piers,

 

Bought it at an auction, there was stated kutani-ware, meiji era, but I'm not experienced in pottery and porcelain, I liked the fierce expression.

 

Eric

[Bugyotsuji]

When you start something, you should have the intention to carry it through! Thus, I am bumping this thread. Bump. :lol:

 

In London at the moment and unable to really contribute 'fresh' material.

 

I have brought several bits with me from Japan, and to test the waters I'll be heading to some antique stalls whose owners I know fairly well from past visits. Retirement approaching, so I will be looking at what I want to keep for my collection here in London or back in Japan, depending on where I decide to stay, and what I want to return to the pool.

 

In my bag I have an Edo flintlock Netsuke lighter, a Muromachi? Tessen iron war fan, and that steel Bashin with the 47 Ronin leader's owner's Mei (gimei probably).

 

My other plan is to purchase a large Spanish? matchlock musket with crook, with a date on it of about 1590 if memory serves me. Saw it in a stall last summer. Fingers crossed it is still there. In an ideal world I would take it back to Japan... but how to register it?

[Bugyotsuji]

Unfortunately (well, fortunately for my pocket) the long Spanish matchlock musket with stand had sold. I did discover a couple of shops with some lovely (mostly continental) flintlocks for sale, but reluctantly had to conclude that I could never bring one back and register it in Japan.

 

My prized Bashin/Umabari I gave to a friend for his 60th birthday. I don't think he really knows what a fleam is! There was a Glaswegian girl staying at his house for the lambing, a trainee vet, and she had heard of a fleam. (Must be connected to the word inflammation, and the removal of the flame.)

 

Yesterday we had to demonstrate our martial skills at the Kobudo-sai at the Achi-Jinja in Kurashiki. Lots of Iai and stuff.

 

When our turn came, our names and Dan rankings were read out. We were to do a short version of our normal displays, with long gun and pistol. Then the programme was for the bigger guns, demonstrated by individuals. I was asked to bring my black lacquered 20 Monme which normally I don't like to do as our equipment often gets damaged in transit.

 

"Now we will have Spider Godwin firing the 20 Monme!" I have to go first, before the two 30 Monme and the 100 Monme cannons.

 

I place my chu-zutsu on its block, and move forward to lift the black O-zutsu off the shogi.

In front of the crowd I place it upright on the leather pad, and rest my left hand over the muzzle, bowing and flicking my right hand away. I move my right foot back, and place my hand on my hip, then bring my arm round and point at the imagined enemy target. Slowly I circle the extended arm around and up to a point above my right shoulder, then swiftly bend down and lift up the gun in one movement. I fix the lighted matchcord to the serpentine, balancing the heavy and still fairly upright gun with my left hand. The pan lid opened, I grip the stock, splay my legs fore and aft and heft the gun up into the air gradually dropping it to where it is pointing above the heads of the crowd in front. A gentle squeeze on the trigger and there's a click as the serpentine drops. Fizzzzzzzzz........... blaDAMMMMMM

Gasps and claps from the crowd. My body swings right to absorb the recoil. I retrieve the dangling burning cord, place the gun upright in front of me, repeat the bow and then retreat.

 

Well, that was how it was supposed to go! LOL. Our leader gave me 90%. Later his wife who had been filming in the crowd told me that a lump of my wadding had stayed together and a flaming ball of it had come zooming over and down onto them!

 

We were given two Issho-bin of Jinja sake in thanks, and requested to come again next year as we are becoming a popular feature. It had rained on and off all day and we just managed to squeeze ours in between two showers. Rain and matchlocks DO NOT mix.

 

Now I have to sort out the armour/armor, and wash the sweaty underclothing. Here is what the guns looked like before dismantling and cleaning,

[Stephen]

Bugsy

 

good have you back even though you did not leave....nice post i envy the stuff you guys get to do in Nippon. Great pix makes one wonder about what war would have been like with them, thanks for sharing.

[Bugyotsuji]

Bugsy

 

good have you back even though you did not leave....nice post i envy the stuff you guys get to do in Nippon. Great pix makes one wonder about what war would have been like with them, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for your kind comment, Stephen. My pleasure entirely. Yes, I constantly think about how it must have been before and during a battle.

[Bungo]

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/to ... Id=4210263

interesting pic from Reuters, they add new pics daily so I am not sure it'll stay up

 

milt

[Bugyotsuji]

A picture of cormorant fishing? An extraordinary way to catch fish!

 

There's an old drunkard who hangs out at the local watering hole who says he was the last of the cormorant fishermen in our city. He looks like the dormouse at the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. It turns out he is very rich and has tea ceremonies at his specially constructed house, which was built by a carpenter he brought in from Kyoto.

[John A Stuart]

One of the highlights of the Gifu/ Seki area. Only survives for the tourists now. You can pay to be on the boat or watch from shore. It also survives in China on the Pearl by Yangchou just south of Guilin. The fish make it to market there, but still a tourist thing mostly. I feel sorry for the cormorants, but, they get their share, I guess. John

[Bungo]

One of the highlights of the Gifu/ Seki area. Only survives for the tourists now. You can pay to be on the boat or watch from shore. It also survives in China on the Pearl by Yangchou just south of Guilin. The fish make it to market there, but still a tourist thing mostly. I feel sorry for the cormorants, but, they get their share, I guess. John

 

better picture of cormorants fishing.......the other pics are quite " interesting " too. ( pic 7/11 )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery ... =334070733

milt

[Bugyotsuji]

Off cormorant fishing for a minute...

but here is an old piccie of the black lacquer 20 Monme gun. This O-zutsu gun is in the overall Tazuke-Ryu style of Koshiki Ho-jutsu, but there are no indications as to where it was made geographically. The gold Sasa-Lindo Mon suggest that it was owned by the Ishikawa Daimyos of Kameyama Castle, west of Nagoya, or possibly later when Ishikawa moved to Takahashi in Bitchu; the elaborate indentations and inlay on the barrel support the idea of a special order. It was recently on loan for 6 months as part of a representative Hinawa-ju matchlock display at the Osafune Sword Museum.

[Bugyotsuji]

This week I have collected various odd things from different places. One thing I noticed was a need to buy Tsuba. Why? The only reason I could see immediately apart from wanting to own it, was to photograph it and post it on this site. This was shocking to me and I pulled on the brakes immediately. Does anyone else suffer from this desire to buy something, fed by a need to post here? Don't tell me I am the only one with this illness, please!

 

The Tsuba I purchased on Saturday is now over in Tosogu under Bugsy's box of Tsuba.

 

Last Sunday I found a large green cotton/linen furoshiki, filthy dirty and wanting an owner after a hundred years or so. Mon in one corner. The dealer let me have it for a trifle, and I took it home and washed it gently while having a bath. Some of the indigo and yellow dyes came out with the grime, but it now smells neutral, and the wife ironed it for me. Has a few holes and tears but could be a good furoshiki for the helmet.

 

Then today I bought a Netsuke (from an old dealer who studiously avoids having any 'modern' repros) and now find myself wondering if someone could enlighten me. It is like a large Tombo-dama bead, cylindrical, about the shape but slightly smaller than a medium sized torch/flashlight C battery, in glass cloisonne. Decorated with flowers and butterflies, but showing no wire surrounds to the designs. Two himotoshi holes on one side with...possibly brass rims. The circular edges of the barrel ends also seem to be banded in brass? What I would like to know is whether a glass cylinder with glass motifs flush with the surface & no discernable wire motif surrounds to them should be classified as cloisonne. Is there another word I should be using? The dealer called it 七å®ç„¼ã shippo-yaki.

 

I have been looking for cloisonne tsuba for comparison, but the only example seemed quite a different thing, being beautiful multicoloured enamel on a metal background. The enamel on the tsuba in the example looks to have been poured into a wire frame...

[John A Stuart]

Hi Piers, I believe that the similar process that does not use wire partitions is called 'champleve' where the enamels are put in cut wells. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Piers, I believe that the similar process that does not use wire partitions is called 'champleve' where the enamels are put in cut wells. John

 

Ah, there's that word again! I saw it yesterday when I did a search on cloisonne. Thank you John for the pointer. Something to investigate and keep me quiet!

 

 

3 hours and a bit of sleuthing later...

Right, so, Champleve' is enamel etc. being set into metal.

 

(The Netsuke 'bead' I am looking at seems closer to mosaic glass, Venetian glass, millefiori, murrine...

Into a dark background have been pushed some cut-off glass rod-ends creating the impression of occasional butterflies and flowers.

If we can forgive Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millefiori ... Millefiori

and also see the French design of Mille-fleur:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mille-fleur

it betrays a somewhat similar feeling to the background of the tapestry illustrated there.)

 

Two hours later

EDIT Had a long look through a magnifying glass and discovered that everything posted above was a lie. I can see brass wires which seem to have been pushed down into the black glass background. Then it would appear that differently-coloured/colored glass or enamel has been set into the wired-off patterned sections to show butterflies and flowers. Many apologies. 七å®ç„¼ã　shippou-yaki it is then. Absolutely no idea of age.

[Bugyotsuji]

*****Having washed some of the surface grime off with soap and water.

The dealer assured me it is old, and my collector friend says he will buy it off me whenever I grow tired of it...

[Bugyotsuji]

PS Forgot to mention that it appears to be a hollow drum, so it must all be worked on a metal (brass/copper?) surface.

[Bugyotsuji]

Well I mentioned a green furoshiki, so here is a piccy of it. Looks a bit like the shroud of Turin.

[Bugyotsuji]

A collector friend wanted my powder flask, and in exchange he recently gave me these two crests. One is the Tsuta Mon, the vine signifying flourishing offspring. The 7th Tokugawa Shogun used the Hishi Mon, but the 8th Tokugawa Shogun, feeling that Hishi (water chestnut) are too weak, adopted the vine, Tsuta, as his Mon as a symbol of potency, according to one explanation.

[Bugyotsuji]

What set it off was my expressing a desire for this crossed blades Mon. There must be a story behind it, which is yet to come out. Anyone recognize it? Any pointers? I cannot find an example of it in the Mon reference book that normally covers most Mon. I suspect it is a Christian Mon, and my imagination says it must be called "Ken-Juji Mon". The Lord of Tsuyama Castle, Matsudaira, used a Ken-Dai 剣大Mon, which was adapted of necessity from an original Christian cross used by the previous Lord Mori, and on some of the old 'Do' breastplates you can make out where the bottom of the cross å has been painted over and forked to create the character Dai 大 . The cross underneath, however, on the Do is not made of blades, but done in brushwork. That is the edge of my knowledge. Perhaps there was an intermediate step from brushwork cross to crossed blades, (this being an extant example) from thence to the famous Ken-Dai?

[Bugyotsuji]

Another week and a sudden desire to post something. This Kutani bowl is about 18 cm across; I came across it at an antique stall about 2 weeks ago. It has some spidery cracks in the base, and the advice was to pour a line of clear cement along the cracks to stop any possible spread.

 

The picture shows the 1703 attack by the 47 Ronin on the Kira residence in Edo, I assume. The man wielding the giant Tsuchi must be O-Taka Gengo, according to the name on his lapel, although it is difficult to read. The 4 Kanji should be 大高æºå¾, but they seem to read 大高言語, 言å¾? here.

[Bugyotsuji]

Rainy season here now.

 

Spent the weekend repairing the saya for the wakizashi tachi koshirae that I wear with the armour/armor at gun displays. Getting changed in a cramped room, I had stepped back and crunch, the saya had contracted and split off bits of the awabi-spotted black urushi. A friend lent me a pot of black Cashew lacquer, a brush and a bottle of thinners. (He also sold me a kozuka to fit in the hitsu side receptacle.) This stuff Cashew カシュー　is a man-made lacquer replacement resin and the house stinks of it. I went to sleep last night with eye-irritation and a headache. Not conducive weather for drying.

 

The saya will never be perfect, but it's a lot better after two or three coats of this stuff on the bare wood sections, certainly when viewed from a distance.

 

Yesterday and today, visited two antique/junk/bric-a-brac fairs, one recycle/antique store and one antique shop. Bought a very small Bizen-yaki pot (which looks a bit like a sea urchin without the spines), a late Edo decent-sized blue-on-white mountain & water view plate/dish, and a signed Netsuke which shows all the hallmarks of being a great find, probably 18thC. Hoping everyone managed to find some hobby time this last week.

[Bugyotsuji]

Another week and we are into July and the rainy season is threatening to disperse. "In July the sun is hot. Is it shining? No, it's not." Maybe that applies to Britain, but here it is hot, and the sun is shining, and it's pretty unbearable without airconditioning, as I am sure our Tokyo members will attest.

 

Found quite a few interesting bits and pieces over the last week or ten days, but you do have to put the footwork in and and you do have to do a lot of sifting. In the first photo you can see a box. Can you guess what it contains?

 

Tell me if you want to go to the next hint...

[Bugyotsuji]

OK, I agree that it's a bit unfair!

 

The box does look like an Ohaguro set, but it is a little smaller. :|

 

What? A more decent hint?

 

A peek inside? Hmmm... OK, a look at the top shelf.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Piers, Schrodinger's cat? No, really, as a guess I will say a sumi-e kit. John

Wrote that as you opened it. An ezel? or is it easel? Not an artist. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Piers, Schrodinger's cat? No, really, as a guess I will say a sumi-e kit. John

Wrote that as you opened it. An ezel? or is it easel? Not an artist. John

 

:lol: No, not close, John, and I have to say I didn't realize at first what it was when I saw it at the antiques market this morning. My friend did recognize it right away, however, so there are those who know, and those like me, who didn't.

 

It would have been owned by a Daimyo, possibly.

 

Another hint? A different piccie? Shall I wait some more? Anyone need to be put out of their agony? Do I feel a 'spoiler' approaching?

[John A Stuart]

Well, It can't be a fishing pole. All those pieces seem to fit together. Too light to support a person. For a daimyo, you say. A kind of game maybe? I hope someone recognises it soon. Good riddle. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, It can't be a fishing pole. All those pieces seem to fit together. Too light to support a person. For a daimyo, you say. A kind of game maybe? I hope someone recognises it soon. Good riddle. John

 

John, you are getting closer. As a reward, here is the next piccie...

[Nobody]

Today’s wild guess; :D

 

knockdown handles for a Chochin (æç¯)