A TANEGASHIMA MASTERPIECE

[Bugyotsuji]

What a magnificent example of a gwalior. I wonder if the pricker was draped over the barrel between the sight and the (?) panlid handle in some way to stop the lid opening? I always carry a pricker separately in the Doran (beltbox), but there is certainly an attraction to having it attached near the pan.

[IanB]

Piers, Yes it is a superb example, lacking only a slightly bulbous butt-cap. I think I am correct in saying it was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was purchased, with a mass of other stuff, for the Tower collection when the Crystal Palace was finally closed. It even retains its sling of green velvet and gold braid and has probably never been shot. The koftgari work all over everything is very similar to that done in Lahore - dense masses of flowers and foliage that cover the iron almost entirely.

I said in my last post that there is probably much we don't know. Note how long the stock is - and some others from the same area are even more attenuated. You didn't snuggle this against your shoulder but either tucked it under your armpit or rested it on your shoulder. If you examine early depictions of people using guns you find all manner of ways of holding and shooting them. A lot of early wheel lock pistols were held with all the fingers over the top of the butt and the trigger pulled with the thumb.

Ian

[Bugyotsuji]

Just for quick clarification. (Thank you for posting your good-looking gun, Ron.) Earlier I suggested that there were even elements of Sendai in it, and gave as an example the hollow loop trigger. Well, today I was shown a pair of special Tokugawa pistols made by the famous Kunitomo Ikkansai, and I was surprised to see that they both had looped triggers. Whether this was a weight-saving feature that gradually became common throughout Japan or not, I do not know, but it is now clearer to me that such Sukashi triggers were certainly not limited to Sendai.

 

As an aside, I also noticed at once that they had snuffer hollows very similar to my late Edo long gun, and quite different to some of those highly-decorated medallion holes that we often associate with Sakai etc.

 

Why these should be on the left side of the gun had me thinking, and if all the logic so far holds up, then I would like to suggest that it is a Japanese psychological thing to separate lighting a fire, and extinguishing a fire, by a wall or barrier. Say you are about to fire, and suddenly the order is rescinded. You would shut the pan, remove your matchcord, and you might be required to turn the 'dangerous' side of the gun away from you, ie downwards, in order to demonstrate to all and sundry a deliberate act of snuffery. Shades of martial arts and judges, & schools of gunnery. (Idle thoughts on a Saturday afternoon.)