Bugyotsuji

Difficult to get far enough away from these, but are we not seeing Nasu, rather than Hyoutan? :|

Love those scrolls with a bit of history and stories attached. Today I was at the Sword Museum in Osafune (48 Akabane swords, from Kamakura to Edo) and they were excitedly talking about up-coming events. From the 2４th April they are displaying 10 huge Kokuho tachi from a shrine in Nikko, well over 3 shaku in length, and 31 other swords, 10 of which are Juyo. 　特別展 「日光二荒山神社　宝刀展」 期　間：平成２５年４月２４日（水）～６月１６日（日） １０口の大太刀を始め、奉納された名刀３１口（重要文化財１０口）を展覧いたします。西日本初公開。 http://www.city.setouchi.lg.jp/~osa-token/ Over the summer vacation the younger Ando San is hoping to display some of the blades he has been working on, containing iron from one or more meteorites (Ryusei 流星 in his Mei inscriptions) including Ken's. I asked if they will be on sale; he thought for a moment and then said たぶん。

Just double-checked my sources here. Sorry for the panic. The problem was with the sourcing and supply of properly seasoned very top-quality wood. Apparently those Saya-Shi who have long been in the business generally have their own precious stock. Newly-started Saya-Shi cannot get good quality Ho-no-ki though, as it is no longer readily available and is not being created in the old ways. Certain exporters are able to supply wood for Saya, but how to put it, the quality may not always be top drawer.

Look at the list of speakers. No 1 is no less than our Ian here, and No 2 works at the Armouries with him. Saturday 14th Sept... hmmm.... that sounds interesting, and maybe even possible for me.

It is said that there is almost no stock of seasoned Ho wood left in Japan. There are those lucky Saya-Shi who still have some available, and others without, apparently. The race is on...

:lol: Yes, wonderful use of language by Ian!!! I was given an iron one a couple of years ago, (repro); I also bought a superb genuine article which I stupidly gave to a friend with a large enough hand cannon. Generally I find though that inter-dental brushes, pipe cleaners and an air line do the job of cleaning better. (You can also use a pricker for making sure the priming powder has been pushed all the way inside, to help avoid misfires.)

Does this look familiar, Malcolm?

No, not in this case, although it is all distantly related, going back about 50 million years. There was a material that was overwhelmingly preferred for these 'seseri' vent poker/cleaners.

Ron. For larger calibers. One of our members has been studying rare old ones (which have mostly been eaten by horn insects), and making new ones as presents for out 'Tai-in'. Does anyone know what material this is? (Again, authentic, used also previously in the West for many things, and later replaced by plastic versions.)

Unusual to find an ensemble of Netsuke, Ojime, fukuro pouch, Hi-uchi-gane and Hi-uchi-ishi. Oh, and here is a bonus picture.

Yes, that fits very well. Many thanks Morita San! (Is that a signature at the end, do you think?)

This Ojime seems to be made from a small nut. On the front is quite a detailed carving of Daruma's face with tiny brass earrings. On the back is this inscription. Can anyone read it? I can sort of guess at about 60% but it could all be wrong...

Correct me if I am wrong but I heard or read somewhere that a sudden single deadly vertical blow with a Katana was considered the best way to go about things at the time? Perhaps the single bar of iron in the Hachimaki was to prevent such a surprise attack?

Bravo! How on earth did you know that? This place gets scarier each day!

Very close, Jan!

Caught this fellow skulking around my house. Anyone recognize him? :|

The top two of the four that I posted above are described in the J Tsuba book as Kuyomon, the nine-star Mon, which we know was used by the Hosokawa among others. Connect Kyushu and Hosokawa, and we know that there was a strong Christian background there. I have a dated Kyushu Hosokawa matchlock long gun with several Kanji numbers cut overtly into the barrel, along the top and underneath, several of which are 十, which could be ten, or could equally, covertly, be an excuse to engrave a cross or two.

Here are some for consideration. If you look for Christian themes or crosses too long, you become cross-eyed. Then you begin to wonder how an artisan can make a tsuba that is a 'not-a-cross'.

Children of the post war baby boom, many retired and enjoying pensions, perhaps this is what is reflected? But we are assured that since the bubble burst and Lehman collapsed and shocked us, the middle classes have been gouged leaving only the mass poor and the super rich. Perhaps this graph would change with a younger demographic. Maybe we need three separate graphs, one for 20's & 30's, one for 40's and 50's and one for 60's and above. Or should I get my coat? :lol:

'anonymous', Brian, don't you mean 'synonymous'? :lol:

Fred, perhaps you should change that to 'less than' 400 years ago. As you said, Christianity was very successful in Japan, in fact so successful that Hideyoshi became alarmed and started issuing stricter and stricter edicts against it, from around 1585, I think. By then many Daimyo had variants of the cross on their Mon. Until then there was nothing rare about a cross design , surely. After it was driven underground, then the symbolism becomes less obvious. I have the Kote-shita sleeves of the first Lord Hachisuka Yoshishige of Awa who was awarded Awaji Island by Tokugawa Ieyasu for his services at the sieges of Osaka, and there are clear crosses on the inside of the upper sleeves.

Well, there was a Netsuke posted above, so I thought I would provide a link to another Netsuke I posted last week over here: http://netsuke.websitetoolbox.com/post/ ... at-6201481 'Hidden' is the word we most often hear for the Christians themselves, but I have come to think of early Japanese Christian symbols as being open and straightforward and their later ones as having built-in deniability. The gardens of our local castle have features that look harmless or even positively traditional, but many of them are actually seriously defensive in purpose, still able to fool the eye of the beholder or be argued away with a bit of the blarney. In other words a good deniable symbol will be delicately balanced so that even we today will not be able to say whether it was really one or the other. How good? Well if the life of you and your family were at risk of torture and death... For this reason I feel the crossed tree branches and halo on that Kozuka are quite possibly a good candidate, Brian.

A friend's. He collects all kinds of things, mostly Menpo and Kawari-kabuto, but has a special interest in Satsuma.

Really interesting. I took the shot at Macro from 1 cm away so what you say is easy to spot. Is anyone able to read the Mei, BTW?

Thank you Keith. I can see what you say!