Bugyotsuji

On the other hand, during my rounds of the waterholes today a friend silently handed me this. Bone, some age to it. Length 19 cm. Width 5 cm.

So that's a no? :|

Chatting with a J antiques dealer yesterday and he came up with roughly the same scenario, without any prompts. "An old plectrum of John Lennon's" he said, "with the original designs on it. Old. Worn down, possibly broken. Holes later drilled for extension of life as a Netsuke." Three holes in a Netsuke, rather rare I thought to myself, ( like a three-eyed toad, a world first?) so besides here I also showed it over on the International Netsuke Society's forum, to deafening silence. :|

http://www.l-wise.co.jp/super-jsa/aucti ... ode=detail Does this help? Some swords were worn in older tachi-style, blade edge down, others as katana, edge up.

This may be part of a Bachi plectrum for some musical instrument. (?) My wife wants it off me so I have been forced to take some quick shots before it gets confiscated and squirrelled away. Modern Shamisen Bachi tend to be more splayed and pointed. There are some Bachi for the Biwa lutes in the Shoso-In in Nara which bear some resemblance towards the head. Does anyone have any ideas, for better or for worse? Ivory. 7cm long, by 5cm at the widest point.

Yesterday I spent several hours going back over the possibilities, and following Ockam's razor the natural answer seems to be Markam's 平安城蔵 ie this was kept at Heianjo, or by the Heianjo workshop/community. If the other three letters are 山代国 (old name of 山城国) or 山代作 it would indicate the place of manufacture, Yamashiro.

Lovely work. Thanks for showing those.

Many thanks for your time, knowledge and patience, Markus. I feel as though I have started to 'see' this thing a little better.

So for how long were there smiths signing Heianjo in Yamashiro, I wonder?

If that is so, Markus, then the date is looking much older than I had imagined. Hmmm... Who would have made tessen, anyway? Katchu-Shi, Katana-Kaji?

After many years time to attack the readings once more, with gentle improvements in photography. This iron fan has two Mei, one inside each edge rib. a) 平安　?　？ (Heian/Hiroyasu +?) the owner? 虎撤? Kotetsu? ｂ）山次郎 perhaps? (A Shinshinto swordsmith around the Bunka period, according to the Nihonto Meikan) Can anyone improve on these? Many thanks.

The Mon appears to be crossed Oak leaves in a medium thickness circle, 中輪に　Chigai-kashiwa 違い柏, right leaf over left.

Ah, yes Luc, thank you for filling in the details. That clarifies the matter for me. I remember the name Orikasa in the Japanese article as it is rather unusual. Don't worry, I will pass the proper story around from a different angle!

Congratulations on an obviously very successful exhibition. I wonder how many books were sold? Round at a friend's place yesterday I was shown a copy of the newsletter that goes out to members of the Japanese armour society. There were two articles relating to the SAMURAI exhibition in Rotterdam. I did not have time to focus on what they were saying, but it seems that a Japanese researcher found in the recent SAMURAI catalogue a set of armour that had been gifted to the Dutch King by one of the last Tokugawa. Made by Munekane of Tsuyama, this is the first known example of his work; a great discovery as none are extant in Japan. There was a westerner mixed up in the story, possibly resident in Tokyo or Yokohama, and I remember some discussion about this armour (or a different one) having the Ken-Dai Maedate of the Matsudaira of Tsuyama Fiefdom. It was difficult to both read and take part in the conversation at the same time. (My excuse anyway.) Can anyone shed more light on this story?

Just a quick footnote to say that my above comment about wanting two copies of the catalogue was picked up like a message in a bottle. (?) A bucket-brigade mechanism went into action, thanks to Uwe, Luc and Jo, and these books are on their way to Japan right now, I have been told. The shipping is costing the same as the books!!! I don't think I can ask my colleagues to fork out the shipping costs, as I didn't tell them in advance, so maybe time to be generous and take the hit!

Well, if we are going to link things in, then check out this thread, Mariusz! Lots of info here: http://nihon-no-katchu.proboards.com/th ... -uchi-sale

Yes 1 cm is narrow, isn't it. Sometimes you will find a large arrowhead and mentally you reach crossover land. It could be that yours was for an Uchine, but they were so rare that perhaps we will never know. It could have been used for an uchine, but what happened to the haft? Rotted away? As my Japanese collector friends are fond of saying, "Enjoy the romantic notion". On a more pragmatic level, it has been said that Suyari held diagonally upwards were most efficient when aimed at the opponent's eyes. Soft and exposed, once hit, the victim was no longer capable of fighting. Seen in this light, the size of the yari blade need not have really mattered. Small ones have a deathly beauty to them, don't they. I suppose really small ones would be more useful at close quarters, Go-shin-yo　護身用, like a Derringer? Just throwing out odd thoughts.

Expensive? Hmmmm.... Need to buy two of them, but how to ship them to Japan? Uwe, great shots. Many thanks.

Eric, as Justin says he has earmarked three of them, which are not shown below. The remainder are: Two in leather, both with no lining/backing. Condition both good, but the green one stiff and needs TLC. 1. green, open-ended for the Kashira to show, 2. light brown leather, large. I suspect this latter to be WWI - WWII. Three in navy/grey/gray felt/cloth with colored silk lining. (Propped open with matchsticks) One Katana, two Wakizashi? Condition fair(ish) for their age. The large one has some brown staining; of the two smaller ones, one has some moth holes. 1. small, Wak 2. small, Wak 3. large, Katana

Thanks for all the interplanetary wisdom. PS Arrowheads for Sale

It's a nice short one, so I think I can use it. Can't find such a proverb running searches on the J internet though. Normally people say around here that antique dealers are 'kitsune to tanuki' 狐と狸,　trying to outfox each other, from 狐と狸の化かし合い.

In my own defence/defense, the local Banto of the sword shop took one look at them and said "How much do you want? I'll give you 20,000 yen for them." I think he was also genuinely fooled by them and was making a cheap (to him) offer. I shrugged him off as I wanted to find out more about them, not sell them. He was later put off by the guy doing the laughing. Overall length 27.5 cm; nakago 21.5 cm. PS Maybe I simply alluded to them, without posting actual pics here on the NMB. I must admit that I feel quite exposed posting these shots, probably taking ridicule, but, here's hoping they may help someone one day. :|

After shots

Brian, I can't find where I posted them, somewhere in a recent Yajiri thread... if you have already seen these pics, then please understand. Before and after pics. The cutting edges are sharp. String cutters, the dealer had said. The Tsuka-bukuro are genuine old covers, but they do not have Kamon on them. I'll lay them out and take some shots anyway.

Recently I bought two rusty Yajiri which generally passed the looks test and I posted them on the site here. They had nice long nakago which I had been assured was a good sign. They were no way near as rough as some of the ones being knocked out in China which we often see nowadays so I was a little reassured. The dealer assured me that they were genuine Edo arrowheads and I let his words tip the balance and decided to believe him. Later a friend looked at them and laughed. "You've been diddled", he said, but refused to say how he knew. I got some brilliant lessons in arrowhead binding and tried fitting one to a genuinely old but tatty arrow. Unfortunately the nakago was too thick and split the reed shaft. If you don't look too closely the effect is pretty good, though. Putting two and two together and consulting with other friends and dealers it seems there is a newer generation of more sophisticated Chinese modern repro arrowheads on the market. Now, I do not think the dealer actually knew what he had, and in the meantime I have polished the rust off them, so I cannot really take them back. The tell-tale signs are in the evenness of the red rust, the lack of a yaki-ire under the rust, the machine-stamped steel and the slightly too thick nakago. What I thought was a reasonable deal now turns out to have been an expensive mistake. Part II Last Sunday at an antiques fair I stumbled on a pile of five of what I thought were Katana no tsuka bukuro. No, the (different) dealer said, they are covers for yari. Well, I have two long yari, so I needed to make sure my ears were hearing correctly, so I said, for yari? Yes, he said, they go over the Saya to protect them. I had never heard of such a thing; it was like discovering a lost treasure. For good measure I checked them over and there were a couple that were identical in construction but of different sizes. Are you sure these aren't for katana, I asked? They are Dai-sho, but for spears he said. Never having heard of Daisho in spears, I asked him to repeat that. Patiently he explained again. Not wishing to appear a fool, I decided to keep my mouth shut and buy them. My friend who should know about such things said nothing. The dealer said if I didn't take them he'd be putting them into the auction that evening. Later that evening I checked on the internet and there is no evidence of short covers for yari saya. My friend later told me that he knew the dealer and it would have been bad manners to say anything in front of him. Now it looks as though I have added 5 sword hilt covers to the three or four I already own. This Sunday there is another antiques fair where this dealer often appears. The weather forecast is rain, so no guarantee he will turn up. Again, I don't think he knew what he was talking about. I hate to think he deliberately lied to me. The result is the same, though. Within two months I have been relieved of precious cash for things that are not what they were stated to be.