IanB

I hesitated on commenting for the simple reason that my first reaction was 'this is too good to be true' and that it needs some careful consideration. Before I comment, it is worth pointing out that however good the photos are it is impossible to reach definite conclusions without holding the object. I also hesitated because it would be wrong to cast doubts on another's treasure without definitive proof so please note I am not arriving at any definitive conclusions from these observations - they are just thoughts that strike me as worth comment. Firstly the embossing and the shaping of the bowl are superb but I find the washers of the zaboshi rather heavy and rather over-done. Normally they are made of flat sheet and marked with radiating lines done with a chisel. These seem to have been either shaped with a file or embossed. It is as if the maker is emphasising the 'boiler-plate' look. I don't think Ichiro is involved with this one as his work tended to have the surface covered in faint planishing marks rather than being totally smooth. I also find the slightly pitted surface finish a little too uniform. A russet helmet tends to develop any secondary rusting in patches leaving differently textured areas where it was cleaned off, especially in crevices which are difficult to get at.. Having said that I once owned a perfectly genuine helmet that had an almost identical texture to this that I concluded had been deliberately textured with acid before russeting so this may be the case here. What is not in dispute is that the cross-knots of the fukigayeshi are absolutely genuine - you cannot lace with rotting silk and there is clearly less fading where the braid crossed over itself. The uname toji is however totally intact and in fact looks new but that may be because of the dyes used. I would query why the fukigayeshi are black lacquered whereas the rest of the shikoro, except its interior, is textured gold lacquer. Similarly why has the fukigayeshi got cross-knots and uname toji but the shikoro has not - not even a mimi ito. Again it is clear the lining is genuine and old but why is the gold on the interior intact on top of the rivets where it would be rubbed, but is missing in the angles between the plates and around the rivets where it would be protected? Finally who was Yoshisuke? Apparently a relatively unknown Kyoto armour maker who Sasama says is known only because one helmet survives. Is this the helmet or is it some other? We don't know because Sasama doesn't say what type of helmet he is referring to - but I think he would have done so if it was the quality of this. If it was by Myochin Yoshisuke, surely someone with the skill this shows would have been better known and more of his work would have survived. So to summarise - a very fine piece of uchidashi work that raises a few nagging questions as to its age and / or it subsequent treatment, that seems to have been fitted with a rather more dubious shikoro, but is still a very nice thing to own. Ian Bottomley

I see the whole inscription as: 伊賀守 藤原包光作 Iga (no) Kami Fujiwara Kanemitsu saku. Ian Bottomley

Good luck in your venture. Ian Bottomley

Ben, There factors concerning the condition of the naginata at Leeds, and quite a few other fine blades in store. Firstly since its arrival in the country in the 19th century until 1995, it was housed in the Tower of London without a saya ( its pair belongs to the Victoria & Albert Museum and that too has no saya as have most of the yari given at the same time). The Tower may seem to be a glamorous location for the display of arms and armour, but a 950 year old castle is not exactly the easiest place in which to maintain a stable environment, especially one washed by the Thames. I have to say that ideal storage conditions are now being met, but the damage has already been done. Another factor is money. Our present government are passionate about austerity and polishing a naginata is not exactly high on their priority list when it comes to spending public money. The British Museum was fortunate in obtaining generous sponsors. It may be possible to raise money in the future and since the various blades are now stable, we must wait and see. Working on a museum teaches you to accept that you cannot do everything and that future generations may well achieve what you cannot. Ian Bottomley

This must constitute the biggest load of corporate bullsh*t ever conceived by an ad agency !!! How you relate an orange plastic cross-shaped button to a 19th C. haramaki just defies belief. They really must be on something pretty potent. Ian Bottomley

Piers, I think humidity may well play a large part. I was once in a major sword shop in Tokyo and was shown a very large shirasaya for a blade but the owner regretted being unable to show me the blade because of the humidity that day. As for papers, they simply records an opinion reached by people with (hopefully) considerable experience. I personally do not feel the need for having a blade go through shinsa - if I like the blade, I like it, irrespective of who made it and when. In the same way my favourite sword is in tasteful yet simple iron mounts decorated with snowflakes and an unsigned blade that I find absolutely beautiful, but probably made by nobody special. To me it has the look of a sword that a samurai took from his obi in the 19th century and placed it on a rack for future generations to love and admire. What more can you ask for? Ian Bottomley

All, An interesting topic that begs a few comments. The standard Cambridge dictionary defines a collector as 'one who collects objects because they are valuable, interesting or beautiful', three attributes I think we would agree apply to nihonto. Collectors of toshogu on the other hand are exactly that, as they do not collect nihonto as such but components of them. I would include in the same category those who collect only blades since again they are not nihonto but simply a component of a sword, albeit the most important element. In my opinion, despite the fact that nihonto blades are designed to be removable from their mounts, I am saddened that so many collectors see no need to keep the koshirae together with the blade when they have the latter polished. Time and again on NMB I see a blade described as a 'katana' or 'tanto' when they are not, they are just blades, no more and no less. As for whether a 'collector' researches his blades, again we come down to semantics. In the vast majority of cases it is not research but simply identification by comparison with research already carried out by someone else and described or illustrated in books. It is true that this information could be collated and perhaps interpreted in a new way, but very few collectors do. So what it boils down to is back to the dictionary definition - a 'nihonto collector' is someone who accumulates swords because they find them beautiful, interesting or valuable in some other way - in short they like them and want to own them. Ian Bottomley

All, The armour in question was one of the two given to King James I (and VI) and brought back by Captain Saris together with a tachi, a saddle and stirrups and some screens. This particular armour was placed in the Tower of London, the other in various Royal palaces, The latter is now on display in Leeds and retains all the original textiles but has lost the kuwagata dai. This one spent a long time at the Tower being described as Indian (the armour of the 'Great Mogul') and suffered pretty badly. By the 1970's it had lost its sleeves and leg armour and the lacing was getting tatty. I have only ever seen B/W images of it at that stage and someone had mounted a pair of oda gote and an haidate with it that didn't belong. As a result it was shipped to Japan for refurbishment and returned with a new kuwagata dai, and other helmet mounts as well as being completely relaced. Sadly it was a bit over-polished and lost most of the mon on the dou, but one survives on the side plate showing it was an armour belonging to a member of the Takeda family. It was far too small to have been Takeda Shingen's (he is portrayed as being rather corpulent) so it may well have belonged to his son -Takeda Katsuyori. Ian Bottomley

Denis, When I worked for a living, some archaeologists who had been digging at Sandal castle near Wakefield brought some odd musket balls into the Museum. The castle had seen fighting in the Civil War and these finds were consistent with bore of the matchlocks and early flintlocks used in that conflict. What was puzzling the archaeologists was that these musket balls all had a flattened belt around them showing knife cuts. We came to the conclusion that the gunners carried a few of these balls they had prepared beforehand for when the fouling made loading a standard ball too difficult - the shaved off belt reducing the diameter sufficient for them to get them down the barrel and give them a few more shots. Ian Bottomley

Piers, I read the two character inscription as 'superior forging' . Work-hardening by repeated hammering was also practised in Europe. Felix Werder, a Swiss gunmaker, hit on the idea for producing brass barrels which he claimed were superior to any others - keeping his technique a secret and charging the earth for his guns. In the days of muzzle loading brass barrels were less prone to damage by corrosion and could be kept loaded (hence their frequent use for blunderbuss) and in his case very thin and light weight and hence desirable. What he in fact was doing was casting the tubes and then repeatedly hammering them around a mandrel to break down the crystal structure and harden the metal. The research on a pair of his pistols has been done and published but I'm b*ggered if I am quoting full references on a simple observation As for the use of mon on export goods - of course they were! Some items were covered in them. The jingasa illustrated in the Galeno Collection p.128, looks like a page from a book on mon. This poor old thing has obviously had the treatment to attract a buyer. You should read the book by Mortimer Menpes of his time in Japan where he is befriended by a Japanese antique dealer. He describes all the tricks being perpetrated to produce stuff for the tourists. Ian Bottomley

Like many I gave up on mon years ago having bought all manner of books on them. Almost all simply list the mon and make no references to who used them.The only book that does give names that I have is 'Seishi Kamon no Jiten' ISBN 4-87190-714-7. I think it worth repeating that the largest collection of mon in use during the Edo period was a draper's shop - the customers handing the generations of shop keepers drawings of their mon to be added to their new kimono. Over time the drawings had been thrown into a box that somehow survived. Sadly, the shop keepers didn't add the customer's names to the drawings so we get no nearer there. More relevant to our interests are the various battle screens that illustrate combatants with their heraldic flags camp curtains and so on. These have little labels saying who they represent. From these screens we can be fairly sure that the people pictured used a certain mon, but even that isn't all it could be - there were important commanders at Seki ga Hara whose mon we just do not know. Another source are the monsho books issued throughout the Edo period that illustrate the mon and other heraldic devices used by the daimyo. Again to add confusion some generations of daimyo families made changes. This was true of the Tokugawa whose early aoimon had fewer veins in the leaves than those used later (reference for Eric's information - told to me by the Deputy Head Priest at Nikko Toshogu Shrine verbally so no written evidence). Not a happy situation. There is a book I saw in Sendai Museum, whose title I do not know, that had been produced in the 1920's or 30's with vast amounts of information (I was enquiring after a certain mon and the curator kindly quoted a passage describing it). Since I have never seen another copy I cannot be more help on it. Ian Bottomley

Geraint, I too have read this somewhere and that similar swords were also allowed for wear by the headman of a village as a symbol of their status. Sadly I cannot now quote a reference so treat the opinion with caution. Ian Bottomley.

I have a tsuba with three Date kamon applied in shibuichi. There is the usual 'sparrows in bamboo' kamon plus one with the circle crossed by bars as on this gun, as well as the mitsu tomoe maru. Since the 'sparrows' kamon was used by the Date family itself, it maybe that the circle and bars was used to identify clan equipment. Ian Bottomley

Ron, This is a Riman kyu or kago kyu invented by Riman Hayashi. What is missing is another arrow with a hirane (shield - shaped head) rather than the small points of the rest. Ian Bottomley

Grev, Agreed a great day and such a pleasure to meet like-minded people. Sadly I didn't buy anything but that is not a problem. What is important are personal relationships. Ian Bottomley

All, Armour was designed to fit on a human, not on a wooden stand so the latter should be shaped as near as possible to the human the armour was designed for. You can obtain the major dimensions such as the width of the shoulders by measuring from the outside edges of the shoulder straps and adding about 3" on each side. If there are kohire, they will give you the amount. For the height of the shoulder bar measure from the shoulder straps to the bottom of the dou and add about 6 - 8" to the base of the stand. This allows for the lower abdomen and the botton when seated. A big fault with most stands is that the head is positioned centrally above the body. Look at a real human from the side and you will see that the neck bends forward and the head is positioned more to the front. This means angling the helmet support forward. It is details like this that add to the realism of the armour when mounted. Ian Bottomley

Peter, That is wonderful - thank you. What is a surprise are the prices. $500 was a heck of a lot of money at that date and even the price of a more common item was high enough. Ian Bottomley

Matt, Depending on where you live in the UK, do get in touch with others collectors / enthusiasts - they know where to go to see things such as the arms fairs and the dealers who specialise. There is in fact quite a lot of swords out there when you know where to look. Echoing Michael, go along to a ToKen meeting and meet fellow enthusiasts. I can assure you the Northern ToKen would make you welcome. Ian Bottomley

As one who lived through the era when long swords (always 'executioner's swords') were about 30/- (just over 1$ today) and short swords at 1£ (always 'harakiri knives'). At arms fairs they were generally piled up under masses of bayonets and you were looked at as being demented for showing an interest. Then the price started to climb when the first books in English such as Robinson's 'Arts of the Japanese Sword' and Yumoto's book on swords appeared. At that point you could have sold empty Japanese match boxes! As soon as swords started being imported from Japan they reached dizzying prices in the major sale rooms who, 15 years earlier, would not have sullied their catalogues with such 'rubbish'. One leading auctioneer in London described armours as 'a beribboned mess' and it was sold by the tea chest. Now the prices are spoke off in hushed whispers and if you have to ask the price, you cannot afford it. There is one factor that nobody has mentioned and that is the effect of the trade dealers. Quite often new items to the market get knocked down at auctions or enter the trade at bearable prices. It then changes hands within the trade, each dealer adding their profits until the price becomes too high for someone not in the trade to buy. And here I am not knocking the dealers, they have living to make, but it is small wonder that the young, setting up a home and having kids, are not collecting - basically the prices have just risen too high. They were high for me at 30/- but I could afford to acquire things by saving. Imagine having to save $5000 to buy something that isn't essential to your household - its a big ask. Ian Bottomley

Christian, They are available on the internet, but I make my own. Try ebay - there is usually someone selling them. Ian Bottomley

Fred, Not Muromachi Jidai I suspect but just possibly Momoyama Jidai. I have always believed, and still do, that the whole namban tsuba fashion kicked off from war trophies collected during the invasions of Korea. Some tsuba have every appearance of having been taken from Chinese swords, having narrow rectangular seppadai that are decorated - sometimes with hitsu ana punched through the original, pierced decoration. Had they been planned as Japanese tsuba from the start, why would they not have regular seppadai? John Lissenden had a namban fuchi (and possibly the matching kashira) and the Royal Armouries has a namban kogatana, both of which have iron panels fretted with tendrils in the usual way and then applied to gilded bases. The latter has been made to fit a tanto mounted for the Matsura of Hirado that has a modified German blade and a saya covered with Dutch leather. This compliments an armour in Hirado made up from a Dutch pikeman's armour - presumably parts of a gift when the Dutch were made to leave their factory on the island and move to Dejima in the 1640's. This suggests the production of these items continued well into the Edo period. Ian Bottomley

Christian, As Uwe said, Sendai dou are heavy and even the type of stand shown by Guido throws a lot of weight onto the shoulder fastenings. It pays to add a couple of cross bars to the uprights of the stand so the bottom edge of the dou can sit on them and take all the weight off the cords. I also add a pair of padded sleeves to the ends of the shoulder-bar. These fill out the sleeves and the drag of fabric on fabric takes weight off the sleeve fastenings. Also make up a couple of padded cushions and put them under the haidate over the corners of the armour box. In short do all you can to reduce the weight on the fastenings as I notice the lacing is a bit ripe so the various ties and cords will be as well. Ian Bottomley

Oh dear! Talk about drivel. Even the first diagram has terms such as 'mettonniere',' tuille' and 'knee cop' that had fallen out of use when Edward VII was a lad. Other images are equally misleading - Fig. 19 having less to do with hourglass gauntlets than a wheelbarrow. Then we come to Japan and learn (on p.68) that they invested their resources in making weapons, armours and Bushido - the latter being very tricky to make without the right tools and a good stout vise. We also learn that bows were 'usually more than 6.6m long' and reinforced with palm stems' - these 21 foot bows must be a type I have yet to encounter. An excellent example of a so-called dissertation compiled from snippets culled from the internet without a shred of understanding or apparently actually reading them. Ian Bottomley

Ford, Whilst cataloguing a number of mail and plate coats bought by the Royal Armouries I was intrigued by the fact that the plates were polished on the inside (most armour being left rough from the hammer) and that some plates showed areas of grey deposit around the attached fastenings. Knowing that these armours were sewn to padded undergarments, and were covered with rich textiles on the outside, I concluded these deposits were the remnants of tinning on the surfaces of the plates to prevent rusting. As a check, they were examined by XRF and to everyone's surprise the coating turned out to zinc, Not only that, but that the mail was also originally coated with zinc. There then arose the question of when this galvanising was done. The earliest known European use of zinc for this purpose was in 1786 when it was used on iron saucepans (Day,J. and Tylecoat r.f. 1991 The Industrial Revolution in Metals. London, The Institute of Metals.). However, it would seem that zinc had been isolated in India by the 12th century ( Craddock P.T. (ed) 1998 2000 years of zinc and brass. British Museum Occasional Paper) and that the metal was being exported to Europe at least as early as 1620. These armours had been originally trophies from Bikanir and had been captured in the 1680's at the siege of Adoni in the Deccan by Anup Singh one of Emperor Aurangzeb's generals, as attested by inscriptions on some. Other, older inscriptions have so-far resisted translation being written in a language that has yet to be identified. Many showed damage that in some cases had been repaired, implying they had seen considerable used before being captured. It is difficult to estimate just when they were made, but around 1600 would seem reasonable. The quality of the mail in some of these armours was of the very highest quality with alternate rows of links being welded or riveted. Very cleverly the plates were fastened to the mail by links flattened at the joint but not riveted so that they could be easily removed for repair of re-coating with zinc. How they were coated is conjecture but dipping the cleaned metal in molten zinc and then beating them to remove excess zinc as they were withdrawn from the coating bath seems most likely. Ian Bottomley

Alexander, I once tried to make a Japanese wheel lock based on the images and diagrams from the above publication. I had no trouble with the wheel and its release but could not arrange the dog properly. I made the wheel from a section of steel tube with a brass disk set into both sides. This turned on a short spindle fixed to the lockplate and had a spiral brass spring inside that fastened to the spindle and wheel. The same sear as on a matchlock engaged with a hole in the rear disk of the wheel when wound up. All that worked great, it is the rest that I had trouble with. The wheel is positioned just behind the pan and the dog holding the pyrites was in front reaching over the pan to contact the wheel.The wheel has to rotate anticlockwise - but I couldn't get the thing sparking properly and gave up. Ian Bottomley