Bugyotsuji

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?

OK so that's (licking tip of pencil) 9.5 cm long, and 6.3 cm wide, and 2.4 cm thick. What material is it lined with, inside the 'box' and inside the lid, Ron? You wouldn't have a photo of the complicated opening and staples bit you were describing above, perhaps? Oh, and one other thing, would you say that this would have been waterproof when hung from the Obi? You must be wondering what's going on inside my head. Never seen anything like it, and ball bags tend to be soft in my experience. The outline inside the case suggests to me a small bottle or flask, and if it is gun-related, then the most natural thing would be to keep a primer flask sealed dry inside. I always have to be very careful with my primer flask when we do a demo on a rainy day. In fact I usually keep it inside the Doran until just before we are marched out into our firing positions. Then I have the struggle to tie it to my nipple ring or bandolier necklace, with my hands otherwise full with one long gun, one burning match, one gun block rest, and one Triton Horagai horn. Anyway, that's what I was thinking, but no real basis for this. I might print those photos out and show them around, if you wouldn't mind?

Ron, can you post the measurements of that quite unusual item? I am having a glimmer of an idea. Many thanks.

That is absolutely beautiful, Ron. Many thanks for posting. About three weeks ago on Japanese television they showed a documentary on how these ringing bells are made. Starting with a flat block of metal the artisan started to hammer it out over the days and weeks. Hundreds, thousands of blows, gradually extruding it out to an even thinness for purity of sound. They said that a large completed singing bowl will have had 120,000 hammer strikes into it. And then you have the dragon design besides. Magnificent.

That's quite impressive. My computer is too slow to open them all! :lol: Horn is quite a tasty treat for some, so often these antique bits have whole sections chewed away. For display anyway, new is a good way to go.

Always been on the lookout for one myself. They do come up in the antiques markets in Japan, but rarely, and when they do often broken or incomplete, and maybe every second one will be a modern repro designed to look old. Mostly already in collections; people do not offer them for sale. Never thought of making one myself. Good idea!

It certainly looks good. Clive's link above does not work for me, but going through Steven's Token page and then clicking on Articles soon did the trick.

Well, thank you Ron. It sounds good, and it would be such a temptation to believe it! :lol:

Thanks Brian. I have noticed that when you quote the other person you can then delete most of the quote except for the one phrase or sentence that you are replying to. Yesterday I found myself in Fukuyama Castle Museum where they have a very good display of Kokuho swords, if anyone is in the area. Not a great many, but of very high quality. Unfortunately the exhibition will close on the 19th July. 300 yen. http://www.city.fukuyama.hiroshima.jp/f ... index.html http://www.city.fukuyama.hiroshima.jp/f ... nglish.htm Last night at the study group we had two Shinshinto, a Suishinshi Masahide, (Osaka), a Chikuzen no Kami Nobuhide, (disciple of Kiyomaro), and then a Tenbun/Eiroku Harima Akashi Yoshinaga who came from Bizen and retained many characteristics of Sue BIzen. To tell you the truth swords put huge pressure on my tiny brain cells. Two things happen at these study groups. One, I feel my own shortcomings in a painful way and wish to escape or hide. Two, by some miracle when I really concentrate, I get glimmers of understanding and just occasionally my hunches work out. Since I don't read, study or do my homework in the way that we are recommended and many of my fellow students actually do, my progress is slow or non-existent, so I spend half of my available energy questioning my own motivation/existence. Even so, I continue to hope that some sprinkling of knowledge will rub off on me. I know it helps if you have a photographic memory, but I am constantly amazed at the ability of some of these people to allow names and dates and blade details to trip lightly off their tongue.

This is what I have learned so far Eric. It may need to be adjusted in some way by Ian or someone. Every castle had kubi-bitsu, ready and prepared for times of conflict. There was an inner domed box and an outer bucket which rested on two intrinsic parallel wooden blocks. When the head was washed the buckets needed to have the bottom free of the floor to improve air circulation for quick drying. Once they had been used they were destroyed. The 'new' ones that were not yet used were generally destroyed anyway at the end of Edo. Thus there are very few 'genuine' ones around, and in my experience most Japanese, even the tough ones, will refuse to have such an object in their house. Superstition, you might call it, but certain superstitions are still very strong here.

It's a funny thing, Eric, but just this month I have been inundated with requests like yours. Where have these come from all of a sudden??? Your link is the fourth. Now I have here a portfolio of photographs, but not because I even asked for them! Is some power trying to communicate something? A collector at the market last Sunday sidled up to me and started going on about Nigiri-deppo too. His theory was that they were used for signalling in the mountains! I had such a hard time escaping from him... :lol: PS Just noticed your link. His Kusari-gama is going for 350,000 JPY :eek: I sold a genuine one with date and Mei for 20,000 yen last year.

Probably new is my first comment. There are only three known 'genuine' Kaiho (Nigiri-deppo) and they are already in museums in Japan, I was assured recently, although I saw another genuine one but in very poor condition last year. Took some quick photos of it. Many copies have subsequently been made. A certain famous character in Osaka had many of these recreated in bronze/brass and 'aged'. If it's brass, it's out on its ass. What is that one made of? (It has a comparatively good look to it, I must say, but possibly too good IMHO.) There is one place that needs to be checked first, though, the little concentric stepped chamber for the pellet. Because of this dodgy background, serious collectors in Japan won't touch them. Thus such examples go abroad, I have been assured, Eric. :| PS Found the photos