Bugyotsuji

Jacques is saying that they never use tsuba in Katori Shinto Ryu, but as we saw on the previous page all the ones on those racks (of some other Ryuha) have tsuba. Hmmm... the tsuba in yours looks much like my latest, and the leather habaki also looks like two I just made last week. Nice long pole, though!

Derek, it very much depends on the dealer, but some of them are more intelligent than we give them credit. They will be learning about you, every word you say and every gesture you make. Be the way you are. Often the second and third deal is smoother, if they like the communication from the first, IMHO.

Hmmm... no tsuba then?

Nothing to do with the price of fish, but here are my toys, freshly patched up, mostly given to me over the years. At left, Kinai at 119 cm 2nd from left, Bokuto at 101 cm 3rd Bokuto at 99 cm 4th Old Bokuto at 92 cm 5th Old Wakizashi Bokuto at 63 cm 6th Mozo-to, large at 96 cm overall. No, Ken, I have not trained in how to use them. I hope I would look suitably posed and threatening if some funny guy came to the door.

Morita San, that sounds like an awful lot of work to ask you to do. :|

The Fujiwara Effect. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%97%A4% ... 9%E6%9E%9C Watch out this weekend for two typhoons (#27 & #28) interacting with each other, called the Fujiwara Effect, like two tops hitting and spinning off unpredictably. Sunday could get bad in Tokyo...

Thanks Alan. Yes I mentioned Clive Sinclair too.

This summer I was at a conference in London where Ian Bottomley spoke so eloquently. During one of the breaks I bumped into a good lady 'Objects Conservator' from the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. During the course of our chat we touched on Tsuba and her eyes lit up. "Do you know anything about them?" she asked. "We have drawers full of them and no-one to advise us." "Well, I have about 50..." I was saying when she broke in, "You sound like just the person to come and sort them out!" "No", I protested, "Most are rubbish, and I know very little about them. You need someone like Ford Hallam to look at them." I suggested she Google him first to understnd the breadth and depth of his knowledge. If she has contacted you, Ford, my apologies first and foremost, but I was hoping that you might be able to give them a pointer in the right direction.

Fantastic link, Ken. Thanks.

The 'new' one with the iron tsuba looks like a chokuto with a Chu-kissaki, missing the habaki. The other two have roughly the same sori and kissaki, the tanto missing a tsuba.

Eric, the top illustration is posted earlier in this thread, but Holy Maloney, look at that rack below! Chris, thanks for the link. On their travels through Japan this month, Anthony and Jan from Sweden did some of that in Kagoshima last week.

Thank you kindly, Morita San. It's full of honorifics! Sadly, I am getting less meaning from that than I had imagined. Is it referring to a blade that has been polished, or reset in new koshirae for an occasion?

Mmmm... nice!

Today I bought an old somewhat worm-eaten bokuto with a large rusty iron tsuba. Iori mune. Saved from the tip? This can go on the stand with the old tanto bokuto so now the display feels a bit more 'authentic'.

Inside this empty box was a small sheath of paper, possibly originally around the saya of a presentation tanto.(?) Someone has transcribed the description to a larger sheet fixed inside the lid. Can anyone read the brushwork? (Standard modern Japanese writing is fine.) Many thanks in advance.

A Showa smith named Imaizumi Toshimitsu, see in list under west of Japan: http://japaneseswordindex.com/rank.htm wished to pass on his craft to his son after WWII. The son managed to chop off several fingers, so sadly had to give up sword smithing. He chose to run a restaurant nearby in Bizen Osafune which he calls Meito 名刀 Udon. Five of us (four are members of NBTHK) had lunch there yesterday and one of the ladies ordered the Meito Udon Special, which came with a battered blade in it. We asked the waitress what it was, and she said Anago. Thanks and well done to those who ventured replies!

Both partly right. Much more to it. A close shave though... ...but no bananas.

What is this mystery object? There are degrees of truth in the answer, (only the guilty parties will be able to tell the whole story), but in the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, the floor is open. (Oh, and yes, it is related to the nature of the forum in general.)

John, very interesting to hear your experience. Step by step we approach the heart of things. :

Eric, is that some degree of spiral, or straight grooves, would you know? I believe there were forms of rifling in Europe even before that.

Many thanks for the vote of confidence, Ron. On another note, I thought this might be a good illustration of why a smoothbore musketball was never as accurate as a rifled gun with a shaped bullet. Rifling the inside wall of the barrel will impart spin and a more accurate trajectory. A ball from a musket will head towards the general target area and maybe hit something, but not exactly the same spot each time. Warning, do not watch this more than once in succession, or you will be sucked in forever and ever and ever...! http://sports.cbsimg.net/images//visual ... nuckle.gif

'Kawamoto', yes, but many families with these same Kanji choose to read their name 'Ko-moto'.

If you need any shots of a similar butt-plate, my Tazuke gun's butt protector looks similar.

Mike, if you do get the pan and lid restored, look at Ron's example above this post for what to aim for. Notice the ama-ooi between the pan and the barrel, and the hollow hinge pin. Your gun still has many good things going for it and on top of some thorough TLC as Ron suggests, could be restored by someone with the right understanding and equipment, depending on where you are based, of course. Either way, it will look great on the wall. Ron, I am tempted to re-post my Kozuka Kwan-yu as he looks similar. Well, they all do... hahaha. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16473&hilit=nagatsune

As Ron says, Tazuke School tended to have round-headed breech screws, but there were exceptions, especially as times changed and more variety became accepted. The larger guns on the other hand tended to preserve conventional features more, apparently. George, a sobering story of carelessness. One of the tubes of my Ch/K three-barelled Sanganju was blocked and some gentle twizzling removed what looked like fine black powder. This I kept in a container, hoping one day to have it analysed. It fizzes and pops when a flame is introduced to a little pile. Unblocking the Lantaka yesterday I scratched out a very little and found it was hard packed sand, so no problem there. One of our troop members bought a blocked cavalry matchlock early this year and they had great fun when they heated it with a blowtorch, they were saying. There must be so many blocked barrels out there, possibly in battle ... but no, I do not want to go there.