Bugyotsuji

Re: Care to guess. Not that I can read it, but does it not look like よ　を　+ kao ?

Neil Davey is still going strong, in charge of Netsuke at Bonhams.

27 million JPY starting price?

It's safer not to understand it.

It is an ad for J Yahoo auction, giving all the reasons why you would be wise to sign up for it. Wouldn't you love to buy something like this cheaply? Sometimes you will get surprisingly good deals, and the payment system is safe and watertight, the author says.

Unfortunately there are some unscrupulous dealers who have spare registration certificates which can prove useful on the odd occasion.

Bazza, this one is about 1830 ~ 1840, but you are asking about the other one he mentioned. (Finally got there, apologies!)

Jean, agreed, it is in pristine condition, good point, but so is the whole gun. I have seen stocks (almost) as clean as this, with little doubt as to the age. There are many corroded and battered guns, but quite a few of the end-of-Edo guns look almost new.

Quote: "the name Fujiwara was sometimes bestowed upon someone as a sign of recognition for superior skill or long service." Agreed. (Although there was a time in early to mid Edo when everyone, well swordsmiths anyway, bestowed fancy titles upon themselves.)

Lovely gun, Jan. Congratulations. Well, it is possible that there was a tradition of the Mei being recorded inside the stock in Sendai guns. (?) A good question for further study. There is a 3-Monme gun in Yasukuni Jinja in Tokyo, with a note saying 'superior forging'. It is signed with a longer Mei, "Sendai Ju, Imano (rather than Konno) Chosaburo Fujiwara Nobuaki". He is number 7 in a line of Sendai Imano smiths, and numbers 3 and 4 are listed as signing in Tempo 9 and Tempo 3.

Is this Sendai, Jan? Konno (Imano?) Chosaburo Nobuaki Saku *Edit, Imano seems to be the correct way to read these kanji for this smith.

Is this Sendai, Jan?

Opening at Bizen Osafune Sword Museum from this weekend. 45 swords on display until changeover March 4, apparently, second half going until 27 March.

We like Togo Heihachiro!

Regarding the Bizen Swords exhibition mentioned by Michel above, it does not end forever on the 24th of January, but continues on down to Bizen Osafune Sword Museum for another good chunk of time.

閣下　Kakka

The old Japanese gun literature tends to call them kayaku-dameshi, and so do the dealers at the military antiques auctions. As to absolute proof, I suspect that none exists, meaning that your question Brian, is an excellent one. Oh, and the prevailing theory is that the powder master tested in the time-honoured way by hand, judging the flash, the bang, the recoil and the smoke, much as we check the colour of our toast.

Yup, dems da plans!

Just fishfood for thought. If these are all described as kayaku-dameshi gunpowder testers, I wonder if and when a break was made from old-type testers to mini cannon style. Possibly after cannon foundry techniques improved into the Bakumatsu at the end of Edo? The cannon is signed 三明作 underneath. I have found no records in the gunsmith lists, but one unclickable reference online to a one-time bronze foundry in Bitchu Tahashi called Sanmei, but whether it still exists or whether there is a connection or not is a multi-question for a rainy day.

Nice object to have.

Very crude, but I guess someone saw a daikon in the marble stone! Length, 11cm.

Agreed. I found a Daikon Netsuke the other day. Not high art, but completely guileless. The stag antler material is starting to turn semi-translucent with age. Love it, but probably not worth much in the west. I have noticed how even rich people here can offer each other ordinary fruit or vegetables such as a cabbage as a simple but joyful gift.

Thank you Dirk. Yes, the descriptions concerning each of the 73 swords are also translated into English. Essays. There were originally four essays but that was cut down to three when one of the contributors failed to meet the deadline. They then ran out of time for two of the translations, so only Taeko Watanabe San's introductory essay was eventually translated into English. Still plenty of detailed information for the non-Japanese reader, though.

Unusual to get black and white like that! (Stevie Wonder, ebony & Ivory?) I find such bean pods to be very satisfactory.

To me it looks like a Netsuke, to be strung round its 'waist' on the hyotan principle, though establishing its age might be difficult.