Justin Grant

I received this from my father who in turn received it from his father. My grandfather was a ships captain in WWII and stationed in Japan. On his stay he collected many things and one being a black and white print if a mountain in the distance with some trees in the foreground. It has some writing on it and any help is appreciated! Justin

I'll dig it out. It was a tattered piece that was headed for the scrap bin, it is a true relic! :D

Hi Eric, I did not see the teeth on the small phone screen, just the overall look. Ian has already outlined this, but I wanted to make some comments. The hooks on the mask, while most real are 90 degree, I have a menpo that I got from Trevor that are rounded and don't have the washers. It is also devoid of ears, so my initial thought was that someone took a relic and added features to get what we have now. Point it, the tells were there for the most of us that have a basic understanding of what to look for. For the new collector, this Mengu was the real deal, and the maker knew who he or she was after. I don't think the intent was to try to pass this off to an educated collector. The red monkey face kabuto running the web is more for that crowd. Still has many tells, but it requires a higher degree of education to understand what to look for. Thanks for the good topic! Justin

Ill post some of my thoughts. Your mileage may very. The nose piece was added to an authentic menpo. The wrinkles on the menpo do not line up with the nose, something of this quality would have had this attention applied. The lacing on the throat guard is not what one would expect, it looks simple and unadorned. I also suspect that the guard may not even be original to the menpo. The gold was is in my opinion poorly applied to indicate age. I am sure I missed a bunch but this is my early assessment ny looking on my phone. Jg

Ouch!

Now that I am starting to study Teppo, the little things like the internal spring design jump out. Never noticed this difference before.

Ken- I had no issues getting the book, and my software did not alert me to any malware. Thank you for the link, much appreciated! Eric, WOW, thank you! If anyone knows of a list of smiths book, that too would be great! Thanks!

Thank you Piers I am a "new owner" of a Tanegashima and just looking for reference material. The item has yet to arrive and it will take some time to get here, so the reading was to keep me in check until the matchlock arrived. I'll keep an eye out, and as for the various inaccuracies, I had been warned about such, and I appreciate you letting me know.

If you have the english book, I am looking for it, would consider the Japanese book also. Justin@stardustracing.com Thank you

If I had any money, I bet for leather! Ian is the most knowledgeable person about these things, and if he says he has never seen, or read about one being leather, I would say very rare! If you have the means, I ask that you quickly send in for a professional repair to stabilize the leather exposed to the air.

Hi Jasper, As Ian said, it would be a one of a kind Zunari to be in nerigawa, can you provide clear closeup photos of the areas I circled in red, it might help in identifying the material. Again, if it is leather, it is critical that you do something with it ASAP to repair the chips, once the leather starts to swell, there is no going back... Same with the Dou. Good purchase, happy for you.

If the Kabuto is leather, the chips in the urushi spell disaster if not repaired ASAP. Once the leather gets some moisture in it, it will swell and flakes off the urushi.

I sold several armor items via ebay and was paid via PayPal from the buyer in the Soviet Union. I was told I needed to ship the items and supply ebay/paypal with the tracking number, to which I complied, PayPal then notified me I would have access to my money in 3 weeks. What a ripoff. I was out my money for almost a month and the buyer had the stuff in 5 days..

That would be great Brian! I am sure we have most of the experts on the subject of Tanegashima on this board.

I ordered my set the day word was out. Can't wait!

I take Japanese classes from a lovely young lady named Akiko. She saw my gusoku in the case and said she had never seen one in person and said such things are not taught about in Japan now days. She talked to her father (family still lives in Japan) and he was most interested and said he too knew very little about the history and the only armor he had seen was in a museum. On contrast, I have only ever seen American Indian items on TV or museums, and I know people collect the stuff. I know the basic story, but could not tell you about each tribe, and outside of a few famous leaders, that is all! I must admit, if you are not interested in the detail behind your history, you will know very little. So maybe these individuals selling off pieces of family history know very little about it and don't know. Still sad.... Now I must make a conscious effort to study the American Indians!

Eric- Greed.... The reason most part the armor is because they can charge more for it in auction, you have to have 5-6 active auctions going and are bidding against many different people on each auction. Sad....

The statement above about David is correct, not sure about Jon, but I seem to recall the same information, and Bob is professionally trained and has received several awards and acknowledgement from the National Museum on his abilities.

Good Luck!

I agree, I realize it is off topic, but I love the picture!

Brian, The way around PP's issue with raffles is to sell the "buyer" something, and a yearly membership to Izakaya is a tangible asset. They are subscribing to membership, and as a reward for this membership, all members after joining are included in a raffle, but the raffles is only available after a membership is secured. The membership has different levels Basic $10.00 Basic + $20.00 Silver $30.00 etc. This is one way to get around the PP rules. If you want to get this honest, restrict access to this section based on membership

I am in love with this lamp.... If you have any detail pictures of the consturction, I would love to see them. It might make a wonderful fall/winter build project. Thanks!

There is a Myochin tsuba signed in the ad by Grey (number that has a simple mei. This tsuba has nothing to do with the work in question, but it was a rather simple mei so maybe it has something to help you with. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9729&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Again, leather was almost always glued down, not swen. The tare is modern and very poorly done, the lacing is very poor. Just my opinion.

I too am sorry I missed it, but Chris has my Wakizashi and I am also waiting to hear if I can use it to clear the brush on the back 40... Justin