Bugyotsuji

浦?

KOZUKA 100, Claude THUAULT Collection, has many examples of Kao in it. (If this is too obvious, please ignore.)

They won't place a monetary value on it, Bernard, but some of them will give you their opinion on its merits. Umimatsu is fairly rare. If you cannot get a hold of the MCI, someone there probably can show you a photo of the pages I quoted earlier. If not, then I will take some shots of the example, and of the written thoughts of Meinertzhagen regarding Sessai.

How old does it look? There is a very similar 'Umimatsu two dried fish, apparently representing Iwashi (sardines)' by Sessai on p.724 of the Meinertzhagen Card Index of Netsuke in Archives of the British Museum. Ed. George Lazarnik. He warned back then that there were many fakes around.

It just happens that in Urabe's gunsmith list there is a Daishido Jinzaemon in Settsu Province who signed a gun with the date 安永4年, (1776) which (assuming this is the same smith) tells us that he was making guns before and/or after 1776, (An-Ei ran from 1772-1781) , the year of the US Declaration of Independence, shortly before the French Revolution in Europe. In the middle of the long Edo Period, right about where Ron's educated intuition was pointing him.

Great to hear you are happy, Jon. Some of your questions will be sadly unanswerable. Unlike swords, very little is known about Japanese gunsmiths. Even having a name you are lucky. This Jinzaemon could be old, as far back as the beginning of Edo, but that would take quite a bit of detective work to suss out. Very interesting to hear of your exploits, and I was surprised to learn that there are Tanegashima shooters in the UK. Where are you based? The pan has been drilled out as step one in refurbishing it. They corrode over the centuries until a) The Yaku-ike bowl is too large and deep, and b) the enlarged vent allows too much blowback. The operation is called "Bugu Naoshi" in Japanese. You get a new circular plug inserted below. Then the pan is drilled and plugged sideways, entering through the outer edge of the pan. A new vent hole is drilled into the new plug, and finally the rim is plugged and smoothed over. You can recognize pans that have been renewed by the circle under the pan, and the dotted circle on the outside rim of the pan. The silver rim around the muzzle looks in the pic to be a decoration to balance the one at the other end... but is the metal actually different? If so, it's a first for me and I have seen hundreds of these guns. Sometimes you will find a barrel that has been cut down, and workings or artificial ageing around the cut edge to make it look old. Stock, Japanese Akagashi, red oak, yes. "No 23" highly likely production number of gun, with the same number written inside the stock. Cannot see the stamp well enough to comment, but quite unusual. Whether to have the inlay freshened up is your decision, but often people polish them to death when they reach the West, removing much of what was good. Consult an artisan and see what he would charge. The dragon is chasing a 'Hoju' the precious jewel of life and mystery. As to quality, I would say medium. Many of these decorations were added in early Meiji to please Westerners, but they are slightly frowned upon in Japan purist circles. It is not low quality, but it is not top quality either. Even so, probably a better example than some of the guns that have found their way to the West, a good standard gun IMHO. PS The file marks around the muzzle and the darker staining area may indicate some repair work done to the muzzle...

Yes, Ron, I know of many smiths who were attracted this way and that by competing Lords for their gunsmithing know-how. Often smiths will write a place name with Ju 住 indicating that was where they were living, whether temporarily or permanently. Lack of this may simply indicate he was not living in Settsu at the time. Interestingly a quick check of the Kunitomo smiths list shows some Kunitomo Jinzaemon names, possibly descendants of this chap. (?) Was he an early migrant smith then? If he was early this might also explain the lack of any strong regional or Ryu-ha characteristics in the gun. As if starting from neutral? I like the shape of it, but many Tanegashima really do have no strong defining characteristics. I also find them puzzling. Things are easier when the hints are clearer. I would have expected the brass retaining band to be much wider for Sakai, for example. You would never guess Sakai from those photos alone.

Not much to add really, as Drago, Ron, Morita San etc., have already answered most questions. On the face of it, a nicely presented gun, I agree. You may want to source a proper hollow hinge pin. Strange marks on the barrel were often made by the vice when trying to open the large Bisen breech screw that Ron mentions above. (The screw sometimes gets split and destroyed in the process if not done correctly.) How is the inside appearance of the pan? Can we get a shot of that? Most importantly, once you know the barrel is clear, how badly pitted is it? If I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, please forgive me. Many extant examples were not kept clean inside, for a number of reasons, and blackpowder residue is especially unkind to steel, so you may want to take it easy on the charge in the beginning if you are planning to fire ball from it. As we know, these Tanegashima are pretty toughly made, though. Although it looks more like a Kunitomo gun, as Ron says, (lacking any of the gaudiness of Osaka guns), the smith Daishido Jinzaemon is a true blue Sakai/Settsu smith. Slightly unusual with a signed gun not to have the region 摂津住 inscribed above the signature. Congratulations on your purchase, by the way.

Not according to my wife.

Dango? Yes, Malcolm, that sort of thing! "Okashi-Ya" I think the couple said. All the instruments came from the cupboard of one old shop, but of them I found these three to be the most interesting, the rest being slim brass spoons of which I already have a couple. Not quite sure if a brass pastry cutter counts as Nihonto though...

Scraping a sake barrel is good, but noodle cutter is even better. John, you are in the right cricket ground... (just add a little sweetness). These were used in an Edo Period shop for producing

Until Sunday (yesterday) I had no idea what these were, and only when the dealer told me what it was did I decide to buy it. Since you gave it a try, Bazza, perhaps I should provide a very small hint. Look at the bottom edge...

Vagues is "waves" in English. Ohmori were famous for their amazing waves on fuchi and kashira.

Here's a slightly harder one. What is the purpose of this article? （Made of 真鍮 Shinchu）

Hello, your very elaborately worked kiseru is signed 大森作 Ohmori Saku, ie "Made by Ohmori". (Oh is a relatively longer sound)

Does this page help to get you moving again? http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/A71229_PUP1.html

Hit 50 views, or close enough. So here is the answer. Been doing some running repairs on my armour. Each square of thick leather has been shaped to a dome with bent-up edges and dried. Nerikawa/gawa, then gold foiled and red lacquered and punched with eight holes. Some of the lacquer seems to be covering a piece of something reflective underneath...?　Haidate, (hakidate), goes under the gesan or kusazuri.

Good answer. It could be, or it could have been in a previous configuration, I can imagine. In this particular case though, it isn't horse armour.

Here's something different. No hints yet, other than it is Japanese and old, possibly even pre-Edo.

John, yes with that inserted you would not want to bend over. The 0, 10, 20 numbers that you can see go up in increments of 10 to 60, and that's it. :|

:lol: Ron, I didn't answer your post because I was, embarrassingly for me, still looking for the correct reading for that Kanji! The answer to your question above is yes, it is incised into the surface of the thermometer. It could be the old kanji for shizumu, botsu 没 but I am not sure why it would be written here, unless it means "insert from this end into the carrying tube". (?)

Just for interest here is a Maedate made from an old mirror, with a simple sear spring on the back of the handle. Probably Hachisuka. In the Tokushima Castle Museum I saw many examples of Manji in different contexts portrayed both ways, left and right.

He says he has the oshigata in digital form, but not everything was covered in those materials until the Bunka Cho ordered the Honma edition. If I got this right over a rather bad telephone line, there is a former Bunka Cho employee named Yuichi Hiroi (he has written books on Nihonto) who continues today to issue certificates for Juyo Bijiutsuhin that may have lost their original paperwork. He will certify that a sword someone possesses is indeed the same object as originally listed, although this paperwork is a private certification.

Dirk, you might be right, but my contact has not seen the 8 Volume work you mention. Is it all swords, or just a volume or two for Juyu Bijutsuhin swords? He said that after the war so many good swords appeared out of the woodwork, originally listed in old inventories, that from about 1950 onwards they gave up on that system of evaluation. They are not allowed to be sent abroad, but there has been a bit of a thing in the press just recently in Japan about the number of Juyo Bijutsu Hin that have mysteriously 'disappeared' off the charts, over 100 I believe. Each one needs to be re-evaluated at the point of sale to certify whether it can be released, or if it needs to be categorized upwards to Kokuho/Juyo Bunkazai.

Now Ron, that's not fair. I haven't told a soul. How on earth did you get that?