Bugyotsuji

Just reverting for a minute to ramrods, again! A swordsmith gave me a collection of wood cutoffs about a week ago, telling me they were examples of Japanese red oak, the very best kind, called Ichii Akagashi, Ichii-gashi, or Yew Red Oak. One of these was in a rod form, so I cut it to fit the short cavalry pistol, tapered it, polished it, flattened the head, and opened a hole in the other end for the cleaning cloth. As I polished it with finer and finer sandpapers, that familiar deep 3D effect that you saw earlier in the wooden butt of the long target pistol began to appear in the ramrod. Mokume! Toramoku! (This is not apparent in the following photos as final polishing took place later; it was only then that the hidden beauty revealed itself.) Anyway the result for me is that I now recognize why Ichii-gashi oak was so popular for spear handles, gun stocks, ramrods etc. It must have given artisans the most satisfactory all-round results through the centuries. Notice the redness of the wood alongside the Hinoki which I had bought at the Home Center and used for an earlier ramrod. With the hinoki I had attempted to make it look old, but with the akagashi I haven't needed to do anything apart from shaping and polishing. No wax, no oil, no singeing, no charring, nothing. Perfect as is.

Eric, what a beautiful set. Congratulations. You really have found a nice one. One thing I had forgotten is just how small these actually are. This evening I went upstairs and opened mine and was reminded that it is much smaller than it appears in the pictures. You have certainly found some beautiful illustrations. In the written description in Nobody San's link, it mentions a woman to go and fetch the arrows. For archery not to be boring you really do have to have lots of arrows, plus a useful someone to go and bring them all back again! :lol: Oh, and I think Koyumi and Yumi refer to the bow yes, but in a larger sense to archery, to the game itself. Kyu-do is the Way of the Bow, for example, where Kyu 弓 is another reading of the same word 弓 Yumi.

Eric, those two pictures above seem to be the same scene but the wrong way round. Are you able to change them over? I think we found three names, two (Kyoto 'Yo-kyuba' & Edo 'Yaba') for the later outside version, and one earlier name 'Koyumi' for the indoors game. In one of Moriyama San's links (the first) there is a very good explanation of this history and the original name for this game seems to be 小弓 small bows, Koyumi. The lengths of the bow, the arrows and distance to the target were generally fixed. They knelt and rested the left arm on the left knee. Later in Heian times, it came to be called 楊弓 Yo-kyu. Yo-kyu because the material from which the bows and arrows were made was Yo-ryu 楊柳. 矢と言えば相棒は弓、枕草子は百九十九段（文学大系では二百十五段）で「あそびわざは小弓。碁。さまあしけれど、鞠（まり）もおかし。」と遊戯のトップに小弓を挙げている。 　この小弓を岩波書店の古語辞典で調べてみると「遊戯用の小弓、またその弓を使ってする遊戯。左膝（ひざ）を立て、その上に左肘（ひじ）を支えて引く。」とある。 　ついでに楊弓（ようきゅう）を引いてみると「平安時代の小弓が定式化した弓術。座ったまま、約八十四糎（二尺八寸）の弓で約二十六糎（九寸）の矢を約十三．六米（七間半）先の的に射る。室町時代の公家に行われ、近世、賭物として庶民に流行し、後期には、矢取り女を客寄せに使った楊弓場（ようきゅうば）が多くできた。」とある。　もしかして馬場（うまば）という所はこの楊弓場（ようきゅうば）の走りではあるまいか。 　その理由の第一は弓を射るには精神統一をはかるため静粛を必要とするのに何故か②「人おおくさわぐ」とそれを邪魔するような行動をとっていること。 　その賑やかな雰囲気を清少納言は「小弓射るに、片方の人、しはふきをし、まぎらはしてさわぐに念じて音高く射て当てたるこそ、したり顔なるけしきなれ」と百八十三段に詳しく書き残している。 　第二に本物の弓であるならば座って射ることなど不可能であるが、④「右近中将みな着きたまえる」とみんな着座していること。　なお③の原文は「手つがいにて真弓（まゆみ）射るなり」となっているから二人づつが組み合って成績を競い合うマッチプレイだったようである。 　また、真弓（檀）はニシキギ科の落葉樹で小弓を作る材料だから真弓と小弓の間に矛盾はないとみていいだろう。 　江戸時代になるとこの楊弓場（ようきゅうば）が色々な書物に登場してくる。

The discussion runs from half-way down page 8 to 12 at least, here: http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... &start=105 Ian's set also features! PS Only just realized that the little side compartment on mine could have been for a target and/or the marker liquid/powder.

For ladies? Eric, yes, we had a pretty good discussion of these about three or four years ago in, possibly the Edo Period Corner part I, (for which which I promised to complete an index...) Running a search should dig it out. Have you just bought that set?

Those look like the strings on a bag/purse, the purse being below, the mouth above. The decorations on the first shot look like Left: the key to a Kura storehouse with decorations attached, and Right: a Fu-rin wind chime, well, to me anyway.

Henk-Jan, he was found at Herculaneum! Simply amazing. Thank you.

There are several pics/video clips available on J Yahoo. but some of these require something called Silverlite to view. http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20121 ... i.view-000 This from the Asahi: http://www.asahi.com/culture/intro/TKY2 ... 2=cabcbcbb From NHK http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/2012121 ... 11000.html FNN (video partly blocked in mid section) http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/ ... 36858.html Actual site can be viewed by the general public only today, the 12th, until 3pm!

Anyone see this? Reminded me of Vesuvius and Pompeii! http://mainichi.jp/english/english/news ... 5000c.html

The blurb for the top pic explains that these red uniforms were kept in the Daimyo Yashiki to be worn by the women for escape during fires. They would be escorted, carrying their wedding dowry goods, and the Mon on the Zukin indicated the house/family. The second pic shows the 1855 Ansei earthquake and ensuing fire.

Whoever Mrs Henry (アンリ= Henri?) was, she (or her dear departed husband) certainly had an eye for something special. Many thanks Malcolm.

It looks like a good all-round honest gun. Gun-yo-zutsu? The bore would be interesting to know. I got caught out the other day on a gun which I thought might be Kishu, but it turned out to be Iyo in northwest Shikoku. Normally I am not a fan of decorations on the barrel (in the West though, people do seem to like a bit of flamboyance), but in this case they are understated and artistically pleasing, so I will deign to make a personal exception. :lol: PS It has been my experience living here in Japan that there are relatively more unsigned guns than swords. Would 40% signed be too high a figure, I wonder? (Reminder to self to check on this.) Dates are much rarer. The fact of not having a signature does not seem to bother anyone here. PPS Mark, the 'Da' Sanskrit sound represented 'snake' in his book, but we couldn't find a 100% match. Please add this to your list of possible animals!

Thanks, and point taken. Believing in the existence of such a thing as a quintessentially 'Japanese' ramrod :lol: I made one with Japanese materials in discussion with a Japanese artisan, but it does have a worldwide look to it, reminding me somehow of a new cricket bat! (Should I oil it?) Parts of locks found for sale? Brian, yes they are. Not often but occasionally I see bits, a serpentine or a pan cover. Since there were so many styles and types however, and since the dealers were not willing to let them go for tuppence, I have desisted so far, but an interesting thought. I suspect there are many odd parts out there in the backs of people's drawers.

Gentlemen, your macro shots are something to see. Congratulations. Over on the International Netsuke Society's forum there is a presentation section where getting the best photography close-ups of Netsuke is discussed. Various threads: http://netsuke.websitetoolbox.com/?forum=13819

Here is the best Maedate Kanagu connector that I have. The rest are all different sizes, hand-made to fit the occasion.

Should have written something when I first saw it. A bit late to the party now, but just to say that I was most impressed!

PS As you will have guessed from photographs in general, most Karuka are simply plain sturdy wooden rods. You may occasionally see how someone has shoved a length of bamboo in there to look the part. Some may have a flared head; some heads can be made of materials such as water buffalo horn. To lessen wear and provide a constant flat tamping surface a cap might be fitted and I have even seen brass cartridge case base cut-offs, indicating that the weapon may have been used into the 20th century. (Farmers, hunting?)

This long pistol had a pretty makeshift ramrod in it when I inherited it, probably made by the previous owner with a light generic wood from a hardware store. Not a problem in itself as we all try and make our own ramrods with greater or lesser success. But as it is (or was) a better quality gun, I wanted to make a fitting ramrod for it. This involved lots of thought and consultation as to what they were made of and how they should function and how they should look. This time I made sure to get the finest materials and put a bit of elbow grease into the job. Using a 10mm diameter length of genuine Japanese red oak, or more properly red 'yew oak' (don't ask, ...the discussion is on-going), in six hours I sanded it down by hand overall to a diameter of 8mm to fit into the ramrod hole, leaving a flaring towards the head. This was made with off-cuts of ebony and the i-word. The finished Karuka is very smooth overall and looks pretty close to what I wanted. My sword teacher and habaki maker who supplied me with advice and materials was quite pleased with the result. (He had refused to make it for me.) Now I hope that the Karuka in this gun is no longer 'Burei'.

If I can remember I'll take a shot of a Maedate adaptor this evening. In the meantime this is what I have been working on. In the first two photos you can see a collection of Tanegashima Karuka (Sakujo, or ramrods). Karuka would have worn down or broken in regular use, so there would have been a constant need for new ones. At any point in Japanese matchlock history you would have seen an assortment of new, mature and old ramrods, and gunners would have carried two or three spare. Toward the end of Edo under Western influence, metal ones became widespread. Occasionally you'll find an old wooden one even today, and we all study them for when we have to make a new one for some reason. For the 'correct' length, old paintings of founders of schools of gunnery show guns on racks with the ramrod tip being level with the muzzle. These nine Karuka range from short Tanzutsu up to 20 Monme size. Three are genuinely old wood and the tenth is just a brand-new rod of Hinoki for reference.

Thank you for the correction, Ian.

An artisan was looking at the Mon on the barrel today and he said the gun is fine, but the quality of workmanship on the Mon is not really what it should be (Nunome, not Hon-zogan for example), so whether this gun would be worth restoring anyway is another problem. The book is a nice heavy coffee table tome, produced "in association with the Royal Armouries Museum" in 2006 and for some reason has the very reasonable price of 25 GBP on the flap. Possibly I found it at an antiques fair in London... ?

A heads-together session today produced the suggestion that the top character may in fact be goh 号 with the mouth being written with the single stroke 一 and... can we see two diagonal brushstrokes left and right underneath? Ian, I was looking through "Weapon" A Visual History of Arms and Armour, Richard Holmes, and there on page 262 was an illustration of this gun. As I was looking at it and the missing bits, I thought, just for the record, that the 'plain brass plate' with which the lock and trigger have been replaced is just as much of a restoration and possibly more against those modern museum ethics than a lock and trigger restoration by living Japanese artisans for example using the old knowledge, or non-Japanese trained in those materials and methods. Incidentally they give the calibre as 18.3 cm, which is 9.5 Monme, or very close to 10 Monme. I do not know how accurate their measurements were, but according to this chart here, 18.401 cm is 9.5 Monme, and 18.719 is 10 Monme. Incidentally there is a nice picture of an 18th C. northern Indian matchlock pistol on p.260.

Discussed this with a friend and it looks more like a Bonji Sanskrit character. The closest we could find in the book was Da(?)...

Chatting with a friend who knows far more than I about Japanese blades and he suggested, as mentioned above, that Saku-i is connected with i-retsu/kurai-dori, ranking of a smith's work, from Sai-jo-saku downwards. Deki on the other hand is to do with Kansei-do, completion, or all-round balance and finish, considering the Sugata, the Jigane and the Hamon.

It amazes me to hear of top-end dealer sword auctions where the dealer picks up a sword with the tsuka still on and glances at it for a few seconds before making the decision to bid or not. They will do this with countless swords all through the day.