Bugyotsuji

Some light reading here. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-famous-de ... ords.php/2 Incidentally I have a Japanese friend who has spent half his life trawling through the countries of SE Asia looking for forgotten Japanese swords. He says if there are any still out there, they have been missed by the hundreds of people following the same trails of talk and rumors/rumours.

Surely we could do a better job of translating the kingin zogan Mei.

Thanks Ken. To be honest, it is not quite what I was expecting, but I hope it helps towards preservation of a Japanese artifact for future generations.

The phone rang. My NBTHK teacher to say it was ready. (1:00 pm Tuesday) "Bbbut, ...surely he only received it around midday yesterday!!!" I shouted down the phone. "How could he have possibly finished it in less than 24 hours?" It does look a bit Aztec, but it does the job; the two locking pieces push into place, and depend upon the head of the Mekugi facing up, to line up with a little black spot on the saya. Material: Ho-no-Ki. The tips of the elbows are concave and push against the base of the Kerakubi.

My gut instinct tells me that Ron is right. Incidentally the bottom of those 2 pics above shows two holes in the spine, yes, but one is not the touch-hole. It is a vertical chimney that transverses the tail, possibly for fixing/pinning the thing in some way. The hole in front of that communicates into the barrel. That one belongs to a certain Mr O, and I took that picture. The little one above it with regular touch-hole is mine. With no evidence of exact measuring equipment, according to Ian B, we cannot really even be sure that these were eprouvettes in the western sense. Knowing the Japanese, though, I can imagine them testing gunpowder in the hand by feel, by sound, by flash... considering the way one of them can come up to me after a half-hour of 20 gunners' live firing and comment on the great sound that my gun made today!

At my Kantei sword meeting the other night I asked if someone could make air-lockout sections for the bottom of the Jumonji Saya. Thankfully they found me a professional who will do the work for peanuts, so I placed the order forthwith. Suffice it to say I will get plenty of change out of 100 USD. My sword teacher has been reading up on the usage of clove oil and mineral oil and handed out a pretty good print on the different usages and the dangers inherent with each. When I said Enpo smith for Moritsugu I was told by one elderly member very firmly, "no, Jokyo" (1684-1688)...

If you need to read that badly scribbled Mei notation, it would help the members if you could show: a) the Nakago bearing the original Mei 弘秀 Hirohide? b) a photo of the paper out of its cover. There seems to be some *information top left in pencil which might help towards solving your puzzle, when compared with your Nakago. *Hirohide, 広秀　Hiromoto広元 同人 same person... Gifu...Mutsu

Thanks Chris, I am doing a rolling edit of my post above yours, but will stop as of now!!!

Since no-one is taking this any further than John above, I will have a shot to move the game forwards, although some of it is not clear to me. So, without taking any responsibility, and hoping to learn from the exercise... Paper One. NTHK paper Heisei 22 8/24, Den Kanekuni. Paper Two. Wakizashi, Mumei 1 shaku 4 Sun 7 Bu (+?) Kitae Itame nagare, Hamon Nie　Sho Gunome Kissaki/Boshi?, Sugu, Komaru, Chushin Ichi (one hole?) Taka no Ha Mino no Kuni, Tenbun koro.

Chris, the registration paper seems to say "Den, Echizen? Shimosaka, comes with shirasaya" in the margin, previous owner's notes? The paperwork on the other thread gives other information.

Sounds nice. To save time, how much do you already know?

150,000? Whichever way you cut that cake, I'm lost for words, Ian...

Hello Robert-jan. Welcome to the site!

Yuck, I was thinking, and after a couple of minutes staring at it, suddenly the picture popped inside out and I could see it properly! Mr Moriyama, clever sleuthing!

The surface does look as if it could have undertaken a flattening process, in a large press of some kind perhaps? I'll get my hat and coat, the only ones left on the stand. (?)

Many thanks, Nathan. (If you enjoyed this one, there is another one buried in the Bakumatsu Kaiei Yari thread on Gingko nut spears, Gin-nan-po, or Gin-nan-ho Yari.) Dr Fox, the dragon quest poses problems indeed! Actually, waterspouts and tornadoes are called Tatsumaki 竜巻　(twisting dragons) which seems to indicate that the Japanese and ancient Chinese might have seen (and experienced) them as terrible sea and/or heavely dragons.

Eric, if you follow the Western order of naming, he is Mr Taira Sawada, but within Japan it is reversed with the family name Sawada coming first. You often hear people referring to him as Sawada San, or Sawada Sensei, or by one of his nicknames. To help you remember his first name, it is one character 平, as in the family and the great battle between the Taira (平家 Heike) and the 源　Minamoto (源氏 Genji). Be careful of the top left pic of the man on the horse. That is a clever photoshop of two Chinese MS source images.

Eric, sometimes you make things too black and white. Please do not put this guy on a pedestal like some shining god. He is human like the rest of us, and entirely fallible. You will find opinions about him sharply divided within the J community, but he is a very persuasive character, a collector and researcher with boundless energy, and he has studied metallurgy, oriental medicine and chiropractics, clocks, guns etc. Whenever a sword, some armour or a gun comes up on the TV antiques roadshow "Nandemo Kanteidan", he is the expert usually called to their panel. He tends to model all his own photos, dressing the part, and is one of very few people in Japan who have Dan in ancient gunnery. He is head of the Sakai Teppo Kenkyu Kai, 境鉄砲研究会 which publishes much of his books and papers. Be careful if he offers to sell you something; he strikes a very hard bargain, as people have told me ruefully after the fact! Personally I like his book(s) and refer to them again and again, for the quality of the pics and for the ease of understanding when so many other books on the subject are older and drier and use old fuzzy photos or drawings and old-fashioned Japanese) but this is entirely my personal opinion and not that of many around me, who prefer to be more intuitive with the guns they are handling. He has studied Tanegashima Hinawa-Ju more professionally and historically, more thoroughly than Sugawa San, in my opinion, and taken it to another level, so if I had to give a personal score out of 100% I would give Sugawa San 60% for his book in English and Sawada San (some call him Sensei because he has his own clinic) maybe 85% for his in Japanese. There are still many places in his book where I would like more detail or more information, but if it is out there he has not discovered it yet, or has not written it down. I have five of his books here. When I had a Hino gun I found his nicely illustrated pamphlet on Hino very exhaustive and informative. He has written a similar edition on Sakai guns, his pet love as he lives there in Osaka. Nihon no Furu Ju is the one I use most, although the gunsmith lists at the end of each geographical section are limited in scope and not as thorough as other material out there. PS The follow-up to Nihon no Furu Ju is a green hardback called Koshiki Ju Nyumon, nice pics which you have largely copied here and there, but difficult text. Published in Heisei 13. Another Sawada book which you may like describes the Bunka-Tempo inventor/scientist from Shikoku, Kume Michikata/Tsuken, "Kume Michikata no Tsuho", Heisei 14. Describes evolutions of, refinements to Tanegashima guns, and other new inventions, but whether those ideas came from overseas or arose spontaneously is up to the reader to decide, in my opinion.

Hello Stephen. Are you asking about his use of English? Forgive me, but I do not understand your question. Translation of what?

The chart is good, Eric. Three little notes. 1. He calls the serpentine the 'hammer' arm in English, which is from a later age in that it is not really evolved into a hammer just yet, as it should unlock and fall lightly allowing the burning match to touch the pan hole. 2. He adds the modern readings for the Saki-meate and Moto-meate for modern Japanese readers, but those words Shosei and Shomon were not to my knowledge in use back then. 3. The Romanization is slightly different in places to what we usually see. E.g. the alternative word for Karuka he writes as "Sakujuo", when it should be Sakujo (or possibly Sakujou), and for rivet/pin he writes Biyou when we might write Byo, etc.

Eric, since you asked that question, one I have had for many years myself, it was a good chance to go back and check the literature. Many happy hours later I can report that Kusabi is good, that your use of Amaooi Kusabi would make it even clearer. There is one other written word for the same wedge, ie 竹節 which luckily is also read in the Hinawa-Ju world as くさび　クサビ　Kusabi. Why? you ask. Good question. There is a convention within Japanese writing whereby sometimes you can use 当て字　Ateji to illustrate more clearly what you are describing, with the same sound, but more interesting characters. In this case they say Kusabi, but the eye-meaning (visual meaning) is bamboo nodal/spinal sections, and in many cases the brass is carved/fashioned into such a bamboo-likeness. Incidentally this refinement came about in mid Edo to make removal of the Amaooi easier. Lack of one may be an indication of an earlier gun.

Eric, the best word that works for that little wedge is literally, 楔 kusabi (wedge).

Most envious of your metal-working skills. You show how some impossible things can be made possible.

Oops, yes definitely Jan, and his mad friend Anthony get a big thumbs-up. They have enough Tanegashima weaponry between them to defend Sweden against ISIL/ISIS. With any luck we would love to hold a teppo summit there one day. And Eric should be in the list there too, and Brian, who has firmly joined the ranks of the unprejudiced!

Eric, where I grew up the expression means to not believe something 100%, but to keep a healthy measure of doubt at least until things can be confirmed. I certainly have no desire to call him names, slang him off, etc., and have praised him where praise is due. Actually I am beginning to think that we should take any book on Nihonto swords or Teppo with a pinch of salt, some pinches larger than others. There are people in Japan who have issues with him, and conversely he surely must have fans on his blog site, but personally whenever I have been in communication with him in the past I have had no problems with the guy. None. Re Inatomi. Check your spelling in 3 places. Not 'Inatome' or 'Itatome'. 稲富 祐直　いなどめ すけなお ("Inadome") http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A8%B2% ... 0%E7%9B%B4 Inatomi is the 'correct' way to read those Kanji today, but as Wiki says, and probably very few know or even care, piece of useless information, they were pronounced differently back then by him and presumably his disciples. PS Nice chart, nice find. (Kyuchu Syu must refer to Kyushu Shu I am guessing.)