Bugyotsuji

Facinating to watch, but two weeks to complete! Eek, eek! Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh.....

Thanks Brian. In his book 日本の古銃 Old Japanese Guns of Japan (only in Japanese), Mr Taira Sawada (who himself is Osaka born and bred) suggests that ashigaru (light foot soldiers) used guns of a minumum bore of 3.5 Monme. Army guns of this bore/caliber and above were plain and undecorated. He shows photographs from his collection not only of these, but also some highly decorated guns like yours of smaller bore. The difference is clear to him. Eric once provided an ukiyo-e print illustrating them being sold in an Osaka street shopfront. The writing in the print refers to them as 鳥銃 'bird' guns. The phrase 大阪商人 Osaka Shonin, which can also be read as Osaka Akindo, illustrates the popular concept of the traditional wheeler-dealer nature of the city, both buying and selling. Many of these decorated guns of smaller bore have found their way to the West over the years.

Better safe than sorry, Ed, I agree. Once your stock splits, and most do to some extent, there will always be a glue line from then on!

Thanet, no, there is not usually such a Kanji on the butt bottom. It gives an insight into the original owner's mind, doesn't it! It is probably hand engraved, rather than a 'stamp' per se. (?) ***** Sometimes these guns are difficult to open for the first time. The barrels tend to rust, and the stock wood tends to shrink, so you have to find some 'gentle' way to break the seal.

PS The character on the bottom of the butt is probably an old version of Ho/Takara meaning treasured object. 寶 (Ho-to means a specially treasured sword, for example.)

Hi Thanet, Congratulations on your new acquisition. You must be very excited. It would be foolish of me to say anything before you post pictures of the signature, if there is one, but your gun has most of the signs of a small bore long gun from Settsu/Sesshu/Sakai (Osaka). What are generally called merchants' guns. They are around 1 or 2 Monme in caliber, and they tend to be flashily decorated like yours. The tear shaped trigger, the shape of the rear sight, the thick brass breech band, the inlay on the barrel and the brass decorations on the stock all point that way. Your gun will be needing a new pan cover, and possibly a trigger guard? These are all (un)helpful guesses. Now watch me get egg on my face.

The quick answer is yes, it is in the overall Netsuke ballpark. On the other hand, it is more of an Okimono, in that it is primarily designed to sit flat on a flat surface, rather than nestle softly and snugly on your obi. One of the guidelines for old Netsuke was that they should fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and have no outstanding protrusions.There came a time in late Meiji and beyond when Netsuke were no longer made as functional Netsuke, and their ability to stand alone gained importance. Also many attempts were made to carve Netsuke-like objects primarily for profit, then as now, but you have to look at the details and decide whether the quality is there. If it is ivory, you have to be absolutely sure that it is a gem, and genuinely old, otherwise the elephant question looms large. My personal opinion is that it is not so old, and the carving is not so good, and therefore it is not a Netsuke in the strictest sense, even though there are always people who will see it as a Netsuke and continue to buy things like this. (One person's opinion.)

Is it supposed to be Hide 秀 or Hidekazu 秀 一 ? Either way, please be aware that fake signatures probably outnumber genuine ones on Netsuke, and although an extra stroke or dot was sometimes added, this trick was used deceitfully by subsequent mass producers of Netsuke trying to climb onto the bandwagon. In the same way, signatures are often added to a Netsuke because collectors outside of Japan often expect a signature to add value.

Also, it would be interesting to see the Mei if there is one. Many Choshu guns were ordered from Bizen, where locks were generally made of iron.

Not a "rifle" I would guess. Looks like an original percussion, Brian. No cutaway in the stock where a long pan and lid would have been.

Nice example of a Choshu gun from Bakumatsu.

Although those undoubtedly belonged to a matagi from the hills, they are not exclusive to matagi. Each of them would have been used equally by the samurai classes too. In fact there is nothing in the Yagen, the ladle, or the ball molds to shout matagi. There is no benefit for a dealer to claim matagi use, so that is why I do not doubt his claim. About five years ago I bought a box of bits which were strongly reminiscent of the hunter owner. A long dirty oily rope had been interwoven with rough-hewn Hayago quick-loading tubes. There were two iron tools, for opening two types of Bisen, and a little black leather pouch, poorly woven, for carrying tinder. From a tatty ribbon hung a decrepit primer flask. Everything shouted poverty and hardship, with no evident refinement, delicacy or decoration. My Japanese colleagues looked askance. Why pay good money for something like that? Agreed, though, that at many levels of society gun use continued one way or another throughout the Edo Period. As a martial art, and for hunting, for example, if not for actual war, until the proximity of Western ships set off alarm bells and a governmental urge to rearm from around the 1830s onwards.

Ian seems to be right on target with his comments above. It appears to measure, both in large guns and small, where the ball will strike relative to the aim along the sights, at distances of 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 Ken. (1 Ken was about 1.82 meters.) Agreed that a translation would be nice. Few Japanese today could read this, I would hazard. The paper and the writing look new, almost as if this is a copy of an older MS.

Congratulations on your 10,000th! You must come and visit again next time you are over... ()

Hi Rob, have you read Knutsen's book on J pole arms? http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1018392.Japanese_Spears

Over the years I have noticed my collection of Japanese Hi-uchi-gane flint steels growing little by little. This Tuesday at an antiques fair I found four on the same day! Cleaning the rust off them is a delicate task, but today I was rewarded with a legible Mei on one. (Usually such marks are hit fairly randomly, and no-one to my knowledge is able to read them). 豊前小倉大道作 it says. Buzen Kokura O-michi (Daido) Saku. Well, there was a Buzen Kokura Han during the Edo Period. Kokura Castle, residence of the Hosokawa and then Ogasawara families, proclaims it. There was also a line of O-michi swordsmiths forging there in early Edo at least...

Get to a Token meeting if you can. There are a couple of Nihonto displayed in the Tower of London, and a good Japanese section up north in the Leeds Royal Armouries, both places well worth a day trip.

The Japan Rooms also had a Yosozaemon no Jo Sukesada katana on display when I went last went. Minimalistic perhaps describes their exhibition. A little bit of everything.

Nothing like the work you do following up the posts here, Brian! Don't know how you do it.

Greg, some shots in this parallel thread: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17264-bizen-swords-exhibition-at-the-Japanese-sword-museum-nbthk-Japan/?hl=yosozaemon&do=findComment&comment=178472

Photos of the exhibition, Greg? Sadly, no photography allowed!

Great feedback, Rivkin, which I will pass on to the curator at Osafune.

Well, I guess I am Mr Popular now. Not. Yesterday I went round (40 mins drive from here) to the exhibition to follow up on a promise to edit their English exhibit cards. After an hour or two I handed over five pages of hand-written notes. One classic comment was about a lovely Chogi blade, "It is worth nothing..." (instead of noting). The young lady in the office who had been elected to type out the original captions stepped forward, extremely embarrassed, explaining that she had always been bad at English. "No-one who is bad at English could have typed all that", I said. "A misprint or two is completely natural. Blame Bill Gates for the predictive texting!"

The chairman of the local NBTHK said he is hoping that all this publicity will reach out-of-the-way shrines and lead to further discoveries and restorations. Apparently he took some heavy criticism for this adoption of 'western' crowd funding, but it looks as though he has been vindicated by the strong results so far.

Can't figure out the second character. Sanzui hen, tori? 西X氏　ending with the honorific, suggests that this may be the owner's name. (?) Personally I feel ambiguous about many of these guns, perhaps because I am a romantic, they being a sign of the turbulence of the ending of a Golden Age. Many have a mixture of Victorian and Meiji Tenno feel to them. This one does have a good solid balance to it, though.