Bugyotsuji

Very difficult to see with those pics. The chopsticks set is probably Mongolian. The iron object in the pencil box is half hidden. The other long box looks like one for carrying an old-style Japanese straight razor. The Ba-jo-hai or Bashaku is nice. Not too many around. I have two; by coincidence just brought one of them into the office this morning.

Are you wanting the series of shots showing how to tie one, or just pics of various Sageo knots?

Spend the money on a hypnotism session and recall the cab and driver details.

Numbers on a stock can mean various things, but the most common goes back to 1872 when the Meiji governement mandated a registration of all guns in Japan. Depending on the Prefecture, the way of stamping/inserting/branding the numbers was very different. I think I can see 八十八on the left, and then 二千五?... on the right. This registration was repeated several times over succeeding years.

Koichi san, many thanks for the follow-up! PS Dmitry. If and when you start the search for an Ama-ooi, see if you can locate an original brass hinge pin for the pan lid. The one you have there looks like a later addition. (It's a minor detail, but it should really be of a hollow tubular construction, to take the wire support from the wet-weather umbrella.) Oh, and hard to tell from the pic, but do you have a Karuka (Sakujo) ramrod for it? They are quite easy to make if it's missing.

That confirms Sakai at once. Enamiya gun. Gotta rush, but the Mei seems to say The other line is the method of barrel construction...

As the above posters say, probably Sakai. Most of the indicators in the band, sights and decorations are there. The bamboo effect trigger guard and serpentine allow for a possibility of Kunitomo. These two places competed with each other, and although Kunitomo tended to be more honest and more 'refined' (my opinion), sometimes Kunitomo used OTT Osaka-type decoration. Conversely, some Osaka guns were less gaudy. (Your Ama-ooi is missing, and the pan has had 'bugu-naoshi', ie a new plug, as the old pan had probably seen too much use.)

This could also be read Yasuyuki.

Oh, thanks for that snippet, Ian. Another piece of the puzzle just fitted there for me. Piccie of Tsuyama Castle in 1872-3 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95% ... ograph.jpg　 Lots of clickables in here: http://www.city.tsuyama.okayama.jp/chik ... index.html Mori Mon: http://www.mori-family.com/jp/kamon/index.html

George, click on Ed's link on the previous page for a closeup of the various related Mon. Choose one! (Although for some strange reason the Bizen-cho is not featured in that shot.)

Jean, that was clever to find that. Spitting image. Thank you. (Very cheap, though...) Toryu. I had always heard that the new Lord Kobawakawa was unloved for having betrayed Ukita and the whole Western Army at Sekigahara, went crazy and died. Looks like he did some useful work repairing the castle first, though. Interesting.

Here's the Tsuba while I remember. Roughly 8.1 cm x 8.3 cm. Unsigned. The dealer thought mid-Edo.

Forgot to mention the Himeji link to Okayama and Tottori. Thanks for pointing this out, George.

Browsing an antiques fair in Tokyo over the weekend I came across a fairly large Ageha Cho butterfly Mon Tsuba, similar in style to the large crest in Gary's scroll above. (A friend has just bought a suit of armor/armour with the same standing butterfly silhouette, so perhaps that is why it caught my eye.) In this part of the world we differentiate between the flat open-winged Bizen-cho butterfly of the Okayama Ikeda family and the standing Tate-ageha-cho in a circle butterfly of the Tottori cousins branch of the Ikeda family, although there were some crossovers. The Taira/Heiki one had no circle, and Oda Nobunaga who inherited the butterfly Mon allowed the Ikedas to use it, I believe, where it acquired the circle. Maru-ni Tate-ageha-cho... Well, I ended up buying it, attracted by this Kamon and its relative rarity in Tsuba form, but paid far more than I should have. (Or , "should of" as we are supposed to say nowadays...)

Been away. Apologies. Will reply asap.

John, thanks. Yes, the pronunciation Kyu- sounds more natural than Ku-. The ending of names like this always sound like '-bei' to my ear, and I believe they were shortened thus.

The books are supposed to be a literal translation, but there are many differences. Even in the original Japanese the same earlier provisos about pinches of salt still apply.

The Mei is: Go-shu　江州　(east of Ohmi & Lake Biwa) Kunitomo Kubei (?) XX (?) The other inscription is the method of manufacture of the barrel. 二重巻張　Niju Makibari The first character looks as though it has a hit on it, but usually if a barrel was bound in the manufacturing process more than twice, then it would not say 三重 but 総巻張 So-makibari, (Full/complete binding). So I am guessing it should be saying two... 'Steel double-twist bound'.

You must be hot in Melbourne right now! I for one, very much look forward to the material when it comes.

John, you are correct. Anyone reading this thread and the above link should always remain sceptical. His website and the books need to be taken with a large pinch of salt, but there are nevertheless some good photographs there. Your question about Hayago. Yes, there were some very simple cardboard or even paper twists which could not really be used more than once. As far as I am aware, they were not sold all made up like that as cartridges, (unlike in the West) but probably handmade and handfilled. Until recently I had a couple for the neckstring, but they soon got squashed and crumpled after five or six displays.

Without stuffing the bandwidth too badly, (for more than one, we could show them together in one pic to start with, for example), would anyone be interested in showing their Tanegashima? Perhaps we could get a body of general knowledge rolling. Presumably people have seen Mr Shigeo Sugawa san's books in Japanese and English, and his website here: http://www.japaneseweapons.com/index.htm

The name of the slices is Kyogi (経木). Ref. http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~kyougi/newpage5.htm Excellent link, Koichi san. Many thanks.

Tom, Many thanks for the good advice. In fact that is pretty much what the guy did. He had a drawer full of curly shavings and did the work in front of me, eventually cutting the sliver down to such a small size. He said that it should go above or below the Habaki, depending on the resultant 'look' but not at the sides. As you say, give it plenty of time to dry. His final advice was, once dry, file it gently down until the tightness feels right.

Trawling an antiques fair this morning I came across some Ukiyo-e in terrible condition. The dealer said to me, "Well, you're not going to believe this, but they are genuine Hiroshige." :lol: Utagawa Hiroshige, 1797-1858. There were five from an 1855 set originally called 五十三次名所図絵 or Pictures of Famous Places on the 53 Stations. (No 13, Numazu; No 17, Yui; No. 49, Saka-no-shita; No 52, Ishibe and No.54 (!) Otsu.) There was also one from an earlier set, 江戸名所　titled Toeizan Temple in Ueno. (He threw in another as a gesture, but later print, not Hiroshige.) Well, I like a challenge. The backs looked as if they had been pasted onto a Byobu screen at one time, and then pulled off with parts of the screen still attached. This evening I decided to attempt to clean one of them, the one in the worst condition. No heartache if it fails, I thought. Terribly faded, stained and torn, it has probably been burnt brown in the sun too. Below you can see a before shot and an after shot. Can anyone see a difference? I used the super gentle method, twice for good measure. You can see a thumbnail of No 49 Sakanoshita, here: http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=QvTY ... 55&f=false

Sorry but I am not familiar with the Skip Method. Your numbers therefore mean nothing to me and I am unable to comment... :?