Bugyotsuji

Many thanks for that, Chris.

"Gimei, Echizen Kanemasa", yes but sadly no suggestion as to who it should be.

Not wishing to butt in here, but the question of age is what scares me off cannon, having seen many clever fakes. My immediate feeling, and entirely subjective, is that someone has more recently made up a gun carriage for a barrel. Whether the barrel itself is old or not is another more difficult question for me. Do the swirly lines around the muzzle indicate a poor cast, or is that how it would look after the addition of the muzzle surround and foresight? Personally I cannot say, but I will certainly show it to the regulars and get some feedback from here if you like? Ron's opinion, I too would highly value.

Justin, I wouldn't know how to go about deliberately smoking bamboo (weed analogy aside!), but you could set up an experiment along the lines of smoked herring, smoked cheese, etc., I suppose. Bamboo poles that have been part of an old house's kitchen, or living room with central fire, turned dark brown or black over a couple of hundred years. When those old farmhouses were knocked down, such bamboo was prized. Not too long ago they commanded relatively high prices in Japan, but now you can get the stuff fairly easily and cheaply. Good for Mekugi and also for Mekugi-nuki; I have one on my keyring that I patiently whittled myself. Possibly it's even on sale on J Yahoo. 'Susudake' or 'Susu-dake' might bring it up. https://www.google.com/search?q=%E7%85% ... 2&ie=UTF-8

Horn often gets attacked by small creatures that eat it, so old horn can look bad. Bamboo, better still smoked bamboo seems to be the best all-round option if you can get it. Fun to make the mekugi yourself, though.

:lol: or why they changed their names and moved to other provinces so frequently...

Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere, but a good gentle read. http://www.japantoday.com/category/arts ... rd-experts

That was quick, Eric. Many thanks.

Yesterday at the sword society meeting, the 一号 sword was a lovely thing that obviously attracted (and puzzled) the members, and line 1 was conspicuously long. It turned out to be 天文 Sue Bizen, and was signed 在光　 Questions. Have any honorable members ever seen a sword by this smith, and would you have been able to read the Mei? Spoiler below

NB Although the dragonfly above is correctly identified as a トンボ Tombo, in this context it would be more appropriate to refer to it as a Kachimushi.

Some more images https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%E6%A ... 31&bih=399

Apologies for my late contribution to Ron's really fascinating article(s) and thread. There is a Bo-hiya (the remains of a shaft and head) that was dug up in 2003 out of an Edo Period firing range in Okayama City. It has been on display in the Castle there and I have an article in Japanese about it back in Japan. ousar.lib.okayama-u.ac.jp/file/43548/arccr_030.pdf Apart from that one, obviously genuine, I have seen and handled three or four of them, all slightly different in design and methodology, but as with your excellent effort illustrated above, they tend to be later recreations from the literature. As for fire lances and fire arrows, endless varieties have been hurled by one or other method of ejection since Roman times and ancient China. Gunpowder was surely just another method of propulsion within that evolution. Bo-hiya in Japan were lit by their own gun's explosive gases, I was told over there, but from what time onwards I am unsure. It would be good to find some definitive source material. Which usage came first, Japan or Korea, is like the chicken and egg question to me. In popular thought they were effective against a castle roof, and the Osaka summer and winter campaigns fit that profile perfectly. This may explain why castles suddenly lost their efficacy/usefulness, not simply because of destructive cannonball against stone wall, but more probably heavy iron-tipped bohiya flaming rocket onto tiles.

Hello Brian. On a notebook in London.

The first part is Niju Makibari, ie double bound/twisted steel barrel. The second part is GoShu (Ohmi), Kunitomo Ta-Ko-Suke, KatsuMasa. (Also recorded as Tayosuke) He would seem to be a smith in group 3 at Kunitomo, according to one list here, although I do not yet understand what these groups refer to exactly. There are other known guns from this group or family, including a 50 Monme gun in the Nagahama Museum, a 5 Monme cavalry gun (also Niju Makibari) owned by a Mr Yoshioka, and another Niju Makibari 100 Monme Ozutsu, once owned by the famous Mr Anzai.

Is anyone going to the Token meeting at the Senate House Library near Russell Sq this Thursday? Never having been to one of these gatherings in the UK before, I thought I might dare to venture along and observe.

Chris, sadly there is no better list, which is why I am carrying this one resource with me at the moment. The other gunsmith list is back in Japan, but it is less comprehensive and generally covered anyway in Urabe's work which Justin quotes above. One of the Ikawa smith family produced a gun there on that page dated Bunkyu 2 Nen, putting it at the end of Edo. Sawada Taira produced an illustrated booklet about the Settsu smiths which may give you more information, but I do not have the details here. I have a copy back in Japan if you can wait until late March. Otherwise an internet search brings up... hmmmm. It may be this book here, an old auction listing, although the blurb below does not mention that it covers your smith, merely confining itself to the three or four most famous Sakai smiths. http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/g111808426/

His records cover only guns recorded within Japan, but there must be hundreds around the world that escaped Japan before the present registration system was introduced. I doubt that he has any way of including such finds abroad, such as Chris's one above. For this reason I doubt that later volumes will be radically different from yours, Justin. My own copy is from Heisei 20 (six years ago) and looks the same as your entry above.

The larger one of the left, the main coarse powder flask looks pretty rough and ready, but difficult to tell from those shots. The smaller one on the right, the priming powder flask, looks to have a decent body to it, but without taking it in hand I can not be sure. Several of the part are missing from it and the string is completely wrong, though. You would need to rebuild it. Not impossible but it would take study, time, a delicate touch and patience. They may have come together, ie they were from the same 'lot' in an auction, or someone later kept them in the same drawer, but there is absolutely nothing linking these three objects together.

Eric, a lot (but certainly not all) of such decoration was added to existing teppo barrels at the beginning of Meiji by work-seeking kanagu artisans. Our teppotai leader looks down on such decoration as distracting for the serious gunner. "Bah, Hamamono!" he says. (One theory is that they were more highly decorated in order to catch the eyes of and be sold to visiting ship-borne Westerners along the shores of Yokohama Bay, thus short for Yokohama but also having the meaning of Hama (=beach) mono (=things). Naturally there are still some here floating around Japan, and there are also collectors who like bright and cheerful guns. In fact there is a rather senior red-faced gentleman in the Prefectural Education Department here, head of one branch of the sword society, who sits on the committee for registering (or not) guns. He actively collects Sakai guns with lots of lovely flashy brasswork all over them, much to the secret disdain of others.

Bill, in order not to be disappointed, do not get your hopes up regarding a signature under the barrel. Most Tangashima-stye matchlocks did not have a Mei under there, though many that have found their way to the West do. Just imagine that there is no Mei, and you will not be disappointed if there isn't. All those brass rings look like protection against a barrel burst. Why are they necessary? Just decoration? Next time, do not buy a gun without clear photos of the inside of the pan, the state of the touch-hole, and shots of the BISEN breech screw in the end of the barrel. Without these, you are essentially buying sight unseen, like buying a car without getting the engine checked out first. Fingers crossed that everything inside is better than these outside pix! (That's a lovely gun, Mark. Bet you were sad to part with it!)

Only just spotted this thread with Ron fighting his corner sturdily but almost all alone! It was interesting to read this and see that Ron is almost 100% on target with what he is saying, and hedging his words wisely when he is not sure. :lol: (I just bought a Tanegashima long gun yesterday with an iron external spring.) Not diplomatic perhaps, but his words are weighed and fair. To me this gun looks like a tourist gun, or something a pirate might have carried, cobbled roughly together with a few leftover genuine bits. Too dangerous for a child's toy, too big for a child's gun. The whole thing is wrong, as has been said above, from the texture of the wood, to the shortness of the barrel (sawn off?) to the odd decorations on it, to the shape of the serpentine, having very little Japanese feeling to it. If you had said Chinese, or south-east Asian, then just maybe perhaps. How much did you pay for this, Bill? You must have liked it when you bought it.

You cannot reason with people who are in love. :lol: Take a cold shower. :| If you think it is not worth the price they are asking, make them an offer and see what happens. Often in Japan, silence means "No". Have you bought from them before?

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.