Bugyotsuji

Ford... No, but there must be candidates, and I'd like to see them, and hear the reasoning for each from the 'expert' mentioned above in the Asahi article.

Malcolm ...

Personally I have no doubt that crosses were openly incorporated into (not only) tsuba before Hideyoshi's edicts restricting the practice of Christianity. Since religious symbols had always been used for their talismanic effect, it would be quite natural for people to switch their allegiance from Buddhist to Christian for a period of years after the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese. Christianity had became wildly popular, dangerously so. Following the tightening of such bans and more serious persecution into the 1600s, my feeling is that only those with a death wish would flaunt such objects openly, up to and including the rebellion at Shimabara Castle in 1637 for example. Any tsuba from then on would have to be more neutral, or to have serious deniability, in which case we today will be no more successful in pronouncing judgement. The question then would become, what age is this tsuba, and does it fit the known story? https://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/s_isan/en/assets/005/

Yup, chicken-and-egg time again. Sometimes a pretty strong case can be made one way or the other, with circumstantial evidence, but often we are led to middle ground where we can either romanticize or back-pedal. The other day I was shown a box full of objects that had come out of a neighborhood Kura and asked if I wanted anything. It had already been rooted through and looted by someone who got there before me. Everything was filthy, some things bore brushstroke dates, and many of the objects were a puzzle as to use, but their association with each other convinced me that everything was Edo or older. The owner eventually put it into the dealers' auction, but I managed to rescue a few bits first, including a ripped spear cover with Mon, some indigo dyed string bags which Sasama describes as Koshi-bukuro and Kubi-bukuro, and a very old Triton Horagai with a pretty good timbre. One of the string bags is now a Horagai protector... But what do you say when someone asks you for proof of age?

Quick follow-up on the above steel striker. Last month I showed it to an elderly and respected Katana-kaji swordsmith who is a member of the local NBTHK, and asked if a swordsmith would ever make such a thing on the side and if so, why? It's not as if Katana Kaji are just general blacksmiths for any old farm implements... . He replied that it was an interesting object that would not be so simple to make, extruding the loop like that. It could have been for the smith's personal use, or possibly as a tag for an order. Today we had a joint meeting in Osafune of the Hiroshima and Okayama sword societies, with some fine blades brought by our western visitors. There was Mr A again, the swordsmith, and he motioned me over. Obviously he had been thinking about the iron striker sets. "Did you know", he asked, "that from early times a small fire-starting kit in a bag was hung from the Kurigata of most Tanto? This custom continued right into Edo times, and extant examples have been found in old Kura." Well, I went away fascinated by the idea, and later found some examples on the net. Particularly Taira no Kiyomori and Tsunemori were shown wearing them in the "New Heike Story", a screen adaption of the novel by Yoshikawa Eiji, a movie said to be historically accurate in unusual detail. And that was way back in the mid 1100s. Was this not also one of the roots of Netsuke, I wondered? The Kurigata (literally Chestnut Shape)was already a fixture with a hole for passing the sageo cord through, and it stopped the sheath from sliding down and out of the obi. That most men hung something extra from it, positioned there on the top of the obi, ie a fire starting kit bag, started to suggest Netsuke origins to me, happening long before most theories in the literature. Pic 1 here: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tunemotoou/9957021.html My translation of captions = The movie version of Yoshikawa Eiji's "New Heike Story" is thoroughly true to life, my favourite historical drama. If you visit the homepage of the assistant director, Miyajima Hachizo "Miyajima Hachizo Japan Film Yomoyama-banashi Chats" you will find all kinds of historical material and backstage stories. In this scene, Kiyomori and Tsunemori (around 1150 AD?) have flint sets fixed to the Kurigata on the Koshi-gatana (Tanto) at their waists.

She explained that to draw a cross with a brush, you start with God the Father and draw down to the human self. You then go sideways to symbolize the equality of human brother- or sisterhood.

A conundrum for the authorities indeed. John, my source was verbal, a Japanese Christian nurse who mentioned in passing what was handed down within her family. (There is an old Catholic Church and much evidence of hidden communities and a Christian tradition in this area.)

Love that one, Ford. A perfect example of deniability!

Ian, if the tick goes left, it's a Christian cross. If you write one = 一, and then a downstroke to complete 10 十, there will be a little uptick on the right end of the cross-stroke as the brush lifts to head for the top of the vertical stroke. If you write the top-down vertical stroke first, as the Christians tended to do, then you get the left up-tick at the bottom as the brush rises to start the cross-stroke from the left. There is a very Christian reason for this. If anyone has read this far and wants to know the hidden Christian symbolism, apply here: (although we have surely discussed this already.) As you know, the Christian Mori who moved into Tsuyama Castle had this cross with the bottom left uptick too.

Yes, and my university colleague's family name is 蒲 'Kaba' Sensei.

Surely 蒲一 would be Hoichi or Gamaichi?

Not to forget that the Japanese were masters in the art of deniability. Within Kabuki plays could be hidden criticism of the present government, set safely in the distant past, and many Ukiyo-e were full of images which somehow managed to dodge official proclamations against this or that. The closer to the bone the better and braver, until you inadvertantly overstepped the mark and drew the eyes of the authorities. The greater the built-in deniability factor, the less we today will be able to see anything obviously 'Christian'. Shimazu continued to use their cross Mon, insisting that they had used it way back from the early middle ages. (Although Chritianity was formalized a thousand years earlier and could have come to Japan by any number of means.) Even the writing of 十 (10) was problematical, stroke order and harai direction becoming vital.

Poor English? My old school English language teacher warned us to avoid saying 'very unique'. Unique means 'one of a kind', he used to say. In Japanese though, (to be fair to Aoi Art's secretary), ユニーク　'unique' tends to mean 'rare', 'unusual' or 'intriguing'. One quick question, though. Would 925 silver not be likely to bend under tension?

Late to the table as usual, but for me this thread was most informative. Many thanks, Darcy.

Apologies. The Sukemitsu that I was offered was a Bizen smith, Sukemitsu, disciple of Sukekane, apparently.

Ah, that was good. Thanks, Stephen.

Swords by him are recorded in Meiji 2 and Meiji 4. Recently I was offered a katana made in Meiji 3. He must have been active almost to the very end of his life.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/new-film-about-Japanese-historical-swords-forging-techniques-now-playing-in-select-theaters

Three sizes? Looks larger than a Netsuke, but too small to be a serious weapon. More of a toy for a rich person, but capable of being fired in anger, it seems. It's missing its lockwork, plate & pins, serpentine and panlid & pin. Fixable if you can just find the right person to do it for you. A highly specialized job. This type of small pistol is not a dime a dozen, and yes, it is exceptionally ornate, for better or for worse. Someone has really gone to town on the decoration.

Daimyo in Onomichi has one for sale at the moment. Some damage to a side wall(s)? and to the design. Used to belong to a friend of mine. It would cost to have it sent, so you might do better to wait a little and source one in the continental US.

Ah, no, sorry I misunderstood you. Sono hoka, (Sono ta) その他 = extras, for anything, even at the bottom of the agenda for a company meeting.

Hello Malcolm, good to see your post! Unfortunately I cannot answer your question as I am not sure to which site you refer. Shogi has a long o and a short i, important differences in the Japanese language, but using the characters 床几 will give md02geist good visual results on a Japanese search engine.

Try 床几 in your search engine. I have four of these at home! My wife thinks...

In which case it sounds like the name of the owner, or of an amateur carver.

The certificate of registration? Do you have a photograph of the paperwork? Is this gun still in Japan? (It has to note the overall dimensions and bore anyway, so nothing special about that.) That one photo is hard to make out. You may have better luck trying three different shots of the Mei under very different lighting conditions.