Bugyotsuji

It's a genuine sword, but your question seems to be deeper than that. What exactly are you asking? "Is this sword really by such-and-such a famous Japanese swordsmith as written on the paperwork?" Is this your real question? Are you hoping we will produce a smith name that will coincide with what you were told?

Three "Heiei" no Jo? father, brother and son, (the others being Ueimon no Jo and Masatsugu Shichibei) Kawaguchi & Iida's Toko Soran, p 566. Dates of Heiei's listed works given as 弘治　Koji 3 and 天文 Tenbun 11. ...and you've looked at Fujishiro for Oshigata, Koto, pp 400 & 401 (in the Japanese version)? Edit. NB Honma and Ishii in the Nihonto Meikan record the second gen Heiei signed without 南部　Nambu before Kanebo/Kanabo

Superb effort. Something to be rightly proud of.

Hi Peter, if you want a starter hint, try 政次　Masatsugu of Yamato

Nice bits! 上 in a circle generally indicates some branch of the Murakami family, including the Murakami Suigun pirates of the Inland Sea. In this sense there is not likely to be a Murakami Mon on the back of a Shimazu Maedate.

Does the tick go left or right, Ian? If left, then the Christian possibility is strong.

Ah, excellent, Ian. I'll see if I can get a name for you if someone else does not beat me to it!

Solid silver I agree, but what is the copper washiness inside?

This tube you describe is new to me and I would love to see a shot of it if you have one, Ian. As to the Koshiate, some years ago our teppotai leader pulled one out and showed us how they work. It was slung from a sort of circular cross-section, double thonged leather belt. He has since bought several of different shapes and sizes at the dealer auctions, mended or adapted them, even making new ones, and handed them out to the members. I have worn mine regularly ever since.

The more the merrier? Gilt leather. (NB There were already two holes in the diagonal position, so I used them to pin it harmlessly to the pistol stand.)

That is a very good question with a complex answer, Brian, and I'd be happy to throw this open to the house, although you have kind of answered it within your question. In my opinion, or perhaps experience here as a casual observer, I feel the better stuff goes to the top and probably fetches top dollar abroad. It will either go straight abroad, or will sit in top antiques shops in Tokyo/Kyoto and wait for the foreign buyer to come in and pay OTT prices, by Japanese standards. All the rest is totally undervalued. Pieces like this to me are historically and artistically interesting, but it is my hunch that very, very few Japanese people would be willing to buy such a thing and keep it in their house. My wife despairs over the boxes and chests I have brought home. Sometimes I feel I am rescuing history, ie giving an object a new lease of life, albeit short, before it goes downhill and possibly the dump. She certainly would not want me to take anything back to the West if and when we leave. It costs money to ship abroad. Some will get damaged en route. Some countries like Australia do not allow imports of wooden objects. There are so many considerations and difficulties, but where there is a will there must be a way. A Japanese collector of Menpo that I know will expect a dealer to give him a super cheap rate of perhaps 500,000 JPY, but if that dealer knows a foreign collector/dealer is coming next week, (many visitors will announce their appearance in advance to make sure they do not arrive to a shuttered shop for example) the dealer will refuse to sell to the Japanese collector; instead he will apologize and say he is expecting someone to come and buy it for 1 mill~1,500,000 next week. Still, we are talking about boxes/chests. I have two Tebako Momoyama ladies' vanity cases which cost me peanuts. I saw a particularly good one in an antique shop in Kyoto last month for 380,000 JPY!... but even that was probably too cheap for what you get. I saw another one displayed respectfully in the Noh artifacts exhibition at Shokoku-Ji behind Doshisha University. As the armourer Morisaki San lamented, there will always be a few rich people around, but until the general populace comes to understand and better appreciate these things from the past... Abenomics cannot be considered to have begun to work.

Brian's voice in my brain saying "pics please!". So it's a bit battered... but I gave it a quick wipe. :| Originally it would have had a lacquered leather (?) cover to protect it from the rain. I asked about carrying poles but he shrugged and laughed as if to say "rare as hen's teeth".

(As you all knew, that was the nobori or hata-jirushi of the Kyushu Lord Matsu-ura, pronounced in one word with no hiccup "Matsura" apparently. "No better than a gangster", according to a Japanese friend!) Today I found a bit of a treasure, well, for me anyway. It caught my eye at once, sitting on the back edge of a dealer's pitch. Black, with a sloping roof and square holes for the porter's pole, it was a carrying chest for the Sankin-kotai. Well, it was good-looking enough on its own, but the story that came with it tipped my hand. The dealer got it from the descendants of a woman who worked in the kitchens of the Ishii family Honjin in Yakage. http://www.town.yakage.lg.jp/sight/ishii.html The Daimyo processions used to pass ceremoniously through Yakage on their way to and from Edo and stop at this place overnight. If ever you are down in this part of the world, catch the Yakage Daimyo Gyoretsu procession festival and have a look inside the Honjin Inn. Like a step back in time, with the original records of Daimyo trains passing through hanging on the walls, and massive equipment to cook and wash for large numbers of people, etc., it will not disappoint you. Inside it is huge, and the cool and tranquil atmosphere is as if the WWII never happened and you are transported back to Edo. Anyway there came a time when the local staff were dismissed and many took whatever they could carry. They left anything too large, or anything bearing Kamon, it is said. This chest had been left behind by the Shimazu Daimyo train, the woman who brought it home used to tell her family. The dealer told me that most of the smaller decorative stuff in the Honjin as you see it today was actually brought in later from elsewhere.

Nice! How's this then? (From another book!)

John Stuart on this site has a friend who illustrates these beautifully for each of the various Daimyo, name slipping here, Evalerio? I have to say though that it looks like an Ikeda banner, but I can't be sure as there were so many variations. Have a look on this site: http://www.samurai-archives.com/index.html As to the terminology, Jan, try a Taremaku 垂れ幕 (type of Umajirushi 馬標　or 馬印)

Ian, the kanji may be easy for you as you know about armour, but most people could surely never read that, the old form of Mae, with 止 on top and 舟 underneath!

Chad, my bad, apologies (thanks Brian) and you are totally forgiven. :lol: Actually I used a cheat method for this and covered up my own tracks. I was able to read Inoue 井上 and the next character 祐 Suke but I wasn't sure on the reading of the last Kanji, so I added katana 刀 and popped these Kanji into the URL window above. Within seconds several references had come up, including the link above and the correct reading of your smith's name. Easy peasy. I thought it would spoil the fun to give the final answer.

Often in the jungle during WWII swords were worn slung across the back.

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.