Bugyotsuji

And that was just the plate. And the object? Voila!

OK, here goes:

:lol: Eric, the mystery object is in Japan and I am in the UK now, but the pics that I cleverly took before I left are in the camera here, and we are also having a patch of rain, so... watch this space, I guess!

Henry, is that because her family came with your wife? :lol:

We left at 9:00 am. The display in front of Himeji Castle (now half-wrapped in scaffolding) was from 3-3:30. Drenched in sweat we retreated and doffed armour. Then we donned the gear again with fresh sweet-smelling underwear and headed out for the collective 6:00 pm photo shoot with a group of Hime princesses dressed in ornate gold and red kimonos, and Himeji Castle as the backdrop. A treck to the main drag running from the station to the castle gates, and there we were formed up for the procession. Dying to sit down. The asphalt was hot underfoot as the high-pitched voice over the crackly loudspeakers shouted "Kuroda Kanbei for Taiga Drama!!! Ei-Ei-Ohhhhh............" At 8:00 pm (still around 90 degrees, or over 30) they let us walk the arcade blowing our shells for posterity, then we finally peeled/ripped the stuff off, got changed, and loaded the trucks with half a ton of clobber, before the trip to the dinner. Held in an old Saka-kura it was a group of Kuroda Kanbei supporters and lots of sake. Got home at 1:00am. One of the top experts in Japan on helmets paid me the supreme compliment. My Shikoro strings had suddenly given out during the display (rotten after hundreds? of years) and the shikoro were hanging half off. My friend had pulled out a length of wire and did a temporary repair. Back in the changing rooms, the helmet expert fingered the shikoro and said, I'll give you 40,000 JPY for these, er, no, make that 50,000 yen. I smiled at him pityingly. I mean, what would you do gentlemen, with a helmet missing the shikoro that were part of the original package back in 1615? There is an old Indian subcontinent saying that a rock can be lying in the bottom of a river for a million years, but someone can lift it out and in minutes it will be bone dry. I am flying back to the 'old dirt' tomorrow, so I hope that others will provide some interesting object for This Week's Edo Period Corner. (I did have one fascinating object prepared, but the response of late has been quite timid, IMHO. So I will keep it for a rainy day, hehehe...)

We can tell you what someone's written on the envelope, but not what's written on the paper. Also, just to be really nitpicky, it helps to put the envelope upright so we don't all have to adjust the photo or our necks; a picture of the tsuba itself can also help smooth out any difficulties in the subjective/objective description that someone has supplied for your Shoami.

Thanks for that Ian. What play is that from? This is what really makes the world go round, these little nitty-gritty bits that the public hardly hears about. Romantic dreams are great in their own way, but... Now the old saying makes more sense: "Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, but ladies merely glow."

The only air-conditioned room in the house is strewn with underclothing, pieces of armour, bags and boxes and supporting bits and pieces. Trying to dry some of it out really before packing it this evening. The guns had been in their cases, but the barrels and locks were bright red with rust and the brasswork was turning bright blue. Quite shocking how quickly this humidity gets to anything metal, and how quickly any leather starts to grow mold. How can Japanese swords exist in the pristine condition that we see them in? An exercise in impossibility, the human will over hellish conditions. Perhaps that is why in the West they have not been taken care of in the same way. Humidity for the festival and parade tomorrow is forecast at ninety-two (92) percent. Maybe that's bone dry to Stephen! Dressing up in metal suits, we will be poached eggs. I just had a haircut in order to make the helmet more bearable. 100 people have died of heatstroke over the last three weeks in Japan, and 20,000 have been carried to hospital by ambulance.

Eric, the whole dish is designed in the shape of an abalone shell; the barnacles and things on the bottom are all handmade too. Whoever made it must have taken some time over it, and I bet they were eagerly looking forward to seeing what would come out of the kiln. One 'leg' for you.

One small crack for a man, one giant crack for mankind. What do you think of this? It's Ko-Imari, quite large, ie 29 cm long ( 11 1/4 ") 24.5 cm wide (9 1/2"), 6 cm deep (2 1/2 ") so maybe good for a pot pourri or fruit bowl.

There is also the custom of placing a Mamori-gatana tanto on the breast of the dead, so this must have been another 'hidden' market. A very good looking Tsuka, though!

Stephen, sounds like hell! :lol:

August 7th. Himeji Castle Festival and fireworks night. Weather forecast cloudy; temp 32 degrees & high humidity. If the clouds break then 34 or 35 degrees. To tell you the truth I feel sorry for the spectators. Will they be there to watch the stage events in that wicked heat out of genuine interest, or because they are expected by the organizers to be there? We will be in full armor/armour mid-afternoon and standing outside waiting our turn for perhaps 30 mins if we are lucky. A 20 min demonstration on those hot metal plates covering the stage, and then back inside and off with the Kabuto and Do. Attempt to dry off some of the sweat before they send us out again in full kit for the photo session and Gyoretsu procession; another hour or two if we are lucky. Finally the stand-up buffet in the evening in any spare dry clothes we have brought. Lastly a two-hour drive back to base to offload the van, and then the final drive home. Midnight. Any energy left over to do a massive laundry and clean the guns?

Nobody! You are always one step ahead. When will I be able to catch up with you???

Is this a version of まるに三階菱　"Maru ni Sankai bishi"?　Three-storied diamond. See line 6 here on the right http://www.otomiya.com/kamon/kika/hishi.htm

Ron, they look like boats to me! (Impossible to slip one past you!)

What are they?

Clive, there is a link to the web page in the first post above. You'll find a short paragraph somewhere down the page.

Steven, I think you'll find that Jitte 十手 are straight-ended, for parrying sword blows... http://www.google.co.jp/images?q=%E5%8D ... CCQQsAQwAA

Eric, yours seems to have a clip for a belt on it. http://www.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&rl ... CCgQsAQwAA

Thank you, Ian.

Ian, according to this page, the Ashikita group from Kyushu mention they did their act at the tower of London and in Leeds. http://4travel.jp/traveler/minikuma/pict/18607415/ I know one other group has been to Australia. We nearly went to Hawaii a couple of years ago, but again these things are so heavy and then you have the local regulations which can prove problematical. Sorry to hear about the blackpowder law. I wonder what the problem was, as I have definitely fired blackpowder at Bisley. Half-way down this page you can see them firing at the Tower of London, and... at least one shot at Leeds??? http://www.yoroi.co.jp/topics/2009/ashikita.html

Trust you Brian, to come up with the weighty million-dollar question. :lol: Unable to answer your question I went round to have lunch with the powers-that-be and tried to discover the latest state of play. Typically there is no more, or very little more hard info at the moment. Somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people on average fly from Japan each year to do these Japan Weeks in various countries around the globe. Logistics would mean filling a suitcase with a set of armour/armor and accoutrements, and then attaching wheels to one end of one's big gun box for ease of porterage. Clothing and accessories for every day to be kept to a bare minimum, eg shoulder bag. We would take the Shinkansen first thing in the morning, hoping to catch an afternoon flight from Narita, where we would be given a Temporary Deregistration Certificate for the guns, to be exchanged on the way back for the original, I am hoping. Black powder will be provided in Portugal. Asked about cleaning the guns after the display, but they shrugged and said 'sho-ga-nai, probably back in Japan...' My hotel bath will have some nasty black rings for the cleaners, I suspect.

Well, it has been a week and much water has flowed under the bridges, some of which have been washed away here in Japan. The rainy season has now been declared officially over, but it was a harsh one, with 10 people killed and more missing in the flash-floods. :| For me the big news was a phone call announcing that we have been invited to Portugal in November to do a matchlock display there for their Japan Week, marking the link that was made when 'Portuguese' guns arrived in Tanegashima in 1543. Only later did I begin to think about the logistics involved in such an undertaking. Getting the time off work, and considering the costs involved, and the movement of all that kit and clobber... aaarrrggghhh...

Oh, in the 2nd picture is the outside/underneath of the lid showing? I thought it was the inside. So you are saying that it actually dispenses balls, then, through the mechanism?