Jump to content

Bugyotsuji

Gold Tier
  • Posts

    11,579
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    144

Everything posted by Bugyotsuji

  1. Yes it's odd. He did say when he sold it to me that whenever I got bored with it he would happily have it back. I think he gets into situations where he mentions something that he has owned recently and the dealer or whoever becomes really interested. He then tests my resolve or desire to really own whatever it is. Generally he knows my motivation is weak and I am always short of money, so then he starts reeling me back in.
  2. Carlo, I am obliged, indebted to the person who wants it back. Since he will continue to be in a position to hold doors open for me, I feel that I must go along with his 'suggestion', even if I do not personally want to. This has happened on three or four occasions before; last time I put my foot down. This time I think I owe him, and I hope he will remember me for next time around!!!
  3. Stupidly or not, I bought it and brought it home for the photos you see. Now I have been asked to sell it back again!
  4. Ukiyo-e? Not particularly, but why do you want to sell?
  5. Just did a search through J sites on Namban Tetsu and came up with an interesting article. A Shizuoka Museum group analyzed steel from some J swords on which it was engraved that they were made with Namban-Tetsu. Their conclusion was that the swords were in fact made with J steel, and the appellation Namban-Tetsu was a sort of brand-name to raise the value at that time, "Namban-tetsu" carrying a special cachet ever since guns had arrived in 1543. Links for the study are provided at the bottom. (None of which seem to now work) http://mimizun.com/log/2ch/newsplus/1151754259/
  6. It does say that 'owners' are required to register them. If the museum where they have temporarily resided cannot find the original owners, then at some point I suppose they would have to declare them. I suspect that the time period has never been properly clarified under law, and the general position of museums in this regard is also not clear. The system has probably worked pretty well until now, even better than any new legislation might succeed in introducing. As the element of flexibility gets inked out they may fall into the same trap as other countries where increased legislation has rendered systems unmanageable and arbitrary. This may be a chance for common sense to prevail. Good luck to all concerned, for the sake of humanity's common heritage.
  7. May I join in and wish you a very Happy Birthday Brian. Hope you can find something especially interesting to do today! Or just chill if that's what you need.
  8. Thinness, hmmmm.... Splidge, another very interesting read there. Thanks.
  9. A quick clarification. Although it has a Hyotan shape, this is not the original shape of any ingot or mold. An original patty of iron, (280 grams in the box above), seems to have been hammered out when still hot, pinched, and extruded again with a final twist. Kind of like a candy wrapping twist. Perhaps to demonstrate the purity and malleability at a glance. Oh, and I just hit it with my dinner spoon... Perhaps the sound of it also told the potential buyer something about the quality. (Imagine flicking a Tsuba)
  10. When you put this set round your neck you may find that it slides down your front or down your back. You can hang a tassel or tool at the back as a counterweight, and a small primer flask from the ring at the front. We all tend to make our own rings or get one of the artisans to run one up. You can pull your Hayago down for filling the the barrel, and the flask down for priming the pan. The counterweight may tend to pull them back up afterwards if you have everything in the right balance.
  11. It looks like eBay is alive and well! Congratulations Eric.
  12. Thanks for posting your finds, Eric. There are fakes around, but yours look good. PS Is there a ring on the Hayago rope?
  13. This box? You collect boxes too? Anyway, what makes you think I bought it?
  14. Aw heck, just missed it! Happy Birthday! :D I am loving your stunning photos by the way,Carlo!
  15. After a struggle I have somehow managed to get these pics. It is tied on a bed with a deerskin surface.
  16. Just a quick note. I went round and took a series of shots, holding it in my hand for different angles, but my computer has suddenly decided not to recognize the memory stick any more. Been struggling for an hour: very frustrating. Someone I know paid 700,000 JPY for one of these little Hyotan Nambantetsu ingots. Are they so rare now? I was told they were in this Hyotan shape already as they arrived in Japan. The main lump was extruded and pinched to a flat area the size of a quarter dollar; this was further extruded and given a quarter twist to end like a slightly rounded but very thin/flat tip of a screwdriver. We are told that Hyotan had a high Phosphor content, but the survey shown in Nobody's link was done on a sample of only three ingots. Not a very wide base, I feel.
  17. This has set me to wondering why they were made into different shapes originally. Did someone 'know' the element content? Was the shape an indication to others what type of steel it was, I wonder? Does 'Hyotan' have some sort of associative meaning like 'lemon' in English? Brian, I've now got the camera in the car so I'll see if I can get some time to go round there tomorrow.
  18. Gulp!!! Always a step ahead! Now I do not need to take the photo any more! :lol: Many thanks, Koichi san.
  19. Carlo, what is Yotan? You are saying Hyotan, right? Yes, I seem to be back here, for better or for worse. A few hours have passed. The ancient Britons often carried their yet-to-be-worked iron/steel as rings, I have read somewhere. Japanese swordsmiths plunged their incomplete swords into giant (eg Bizen-yaki) pots full of oil. The little ingot I saw yesterday was in the rough gourd shape of a Hyotan, with a larger clump at one end, then a waist, and then a smaller bulb, finally drawn out to a stalk. I'll see if I can remember to take my camera next time I visit.
  20. Nice link Stephen. Thanks. Those puck/ingot sizes are quite small aren't they, Eric. They are quite close in volume. It was the specific shape that interested me, as much as, if not more than, the reverent packaging... and I am not sure if either puck (rounded object?) or ingot sound like what I saw. Perhaps the Dutch steel of differing shapes and sizes was melted down and reshaped for fair distribution throughout Japan, but of a recognizably different shape than a ball of Tamahagane? I wonder if what I was told is too much of a generalization or is in fact 'true'. Hmmm...
  21. A propos of nothing, I was visiting a friend's house and he showed me a piece of 'Namban-tetsu'. Nothing remarkable, you might say, but indeed it was. It was in a special black presentation box and tied onto a green cushion, much as a Kozuka or a Tsuba might be, with ink brush writing on a white label describing the contents. I have never seen Namban Tetsu like this before, but I was told that it usually came in this shape, and was considered *extremely precious. Question: Has anyone ever come across one of these before? If not, can you guess what shape it was in? If you know the answer, please hold off for a few hours to see what people's guesses might be! :D Thanks. *Well, certainly more precious than its worth in weight as a lump of ballast steel!
  22. Look up Kanzan (Chinese: Hanshan) and Jittoku (Ch: Shih-te).
  23. Fpr more examples, click on Images, 4th down. http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=%E ... D%E8%8A%B3
×
×
  • Create New...