Bugyotsuji

Just to add my two cents' worth here. Most of what Shan says makes sense and I have enjoyed reading the thread, but the original title got straight up my nose as soon as I opened up and saw the contents of the request. An irritating letdown. I have just kept quiet since then as it didn't seem to have bothered anyone else too much. Lots of people want help on here, but your title made it seem like you were in some kind of emergency, overriding everyone else's needs. Until now people have been fairly quiet and well-mannered in their titles. Now do we all have to exaggerate in the title in order to get people's attention? No offense intended, but just to point out that sometimes we can get off on the wrong foot without even realizing it.

Tessen-jutsu. Tamahagane, to stop a sword blow! Makes sense, I agree.

Hi folks.　Can anyone read the Mei on this Tessen? I believe the Tessen itself is quite an old example, possibly Muromachi, but its condition is quite delicate... I was gently cleaning the red rust off it today and discovered some writing cut into the insides of the iron. There are characters inscribed in both sides, but the 4 Kanji Mei below is easier (?) to see. I looked for Hirayasu ??? or Heian ??? on the internet but came up with nothing intelligible. Were Tessen originally made by fan makers or by armorers/armourers, or by whom, I wonder?

Well, I had mine done by a saya-shi and the lacquer has not been broken. He must have introduced some kind of long saw or file. Unfortunately he had to change the Koikuchi, though, for some reason.

Also, it is possible to have the koshirae sori altered to fit your blade, if it is not too far off.

Well, Chris, let's work around the old adage. How's about getting a starter Tsuba book in Japanese and use it for a) the piccies, b) starting to fit the English pronunciations with the Japanese characters, (for design features, schools and lists of Tsuba-shi) and c) helping to supplement your study of Japanese from a different angle?

It is said that Fukuro Yari were useful in battle as they were easy to fix onto something like the end of a section of bamboo, for example, with no serious hassle. I've got two or three. You need to make sure they have yaki-ire. The blades tend to be shorter than 15 cm and not to need paperwork. Glad you hesitated with this one! Definitely modern, made nowadays both in China and in Japan, and can be seen recently on sale in street markets. Never clearly marked as 'young' though. Fine if you need something for displays, I expect.

Nope. That's the Mei side.

Yup, couldn't have put it better myself. Even though I have a bunch of tsuba in my 'collection' and several illustrated books in Japanese I feel really frustrated by my own ignorance. When I buy a new one and post it on this site I often get few or even no comments, regardless of whether it was an expensive one or a cheap one to buy, so tsuba must surely be a slow learning progress for me. (Don't even mention Nihonto ) Luckily there is no hurry...

Thanks for the links, Milt. Those were good. Thanks for the detailed and informative explanation, Malcolm. (Clear as mud! :lol: ) To print them out and put them on my wall for decoration would be one route. Another would be to track down a genuine print from the time, (and not one run off later illegally from some museum somewhere) buy it as a birthday present to my sad and sorry self and frame it suitably!

Sorry to hear about the news. Don't take it too hard. I stand by what I said, DN. The title on the web page said 'Bizen'. Bi is made up of Bizen, (Literal meaning: before Bi) Bichu (middle Bi) and Bigo, or Bingo (After Bi) going from Edo. Altogether they are collectively known as the Provinces of Bishu. The blade is inscribed with Onomichi, which puts it in Bingo, of the larger area of Bishu. I did not mean to make any judgement on the relative merit or worth of Onomichi in Bingo, compared with Osafune in Bizen. All I did, if you look at the original post, was to clarify the nature of the article. If my post was misleading, then I must apologize for being part of the problem. I meant no disrespect towards the seller, but simply to point out that his use of the word 'Bizen' at the very top of the auction page was not quite accurate.

So who actually owns what, and do they come up for sale occasionally, and if so, how are they priced? :|

LOL! They thought he was Hamada 'Joseph' Heco, I bet. (Or possibly Nakahama 'John' Manjiro.) Very nice pics, by the way.

Cheers for that link. The copyright seems to be finished, so I have printed it out, but it's a pretty gruesome print, isn't it! His sword is snapped in two, and he is using his toe to fire the gun, just as people do today. Thanks Malcolm.

Makes one think. Jean Collache even looks Japanese there. They were living the remnants of what was still potentially an extension of the Edo Period... when everything - the manners and customs and forms- was still real and alive in the minds of everyone in the general populace. PS For my next contribution here there will be a photo or two of ukiyo-e. (Does anyone have any prints or paintings showing guns, by the way? I have a tryptich from around 1845 by Yoshitora showing the siege of an unknown moated castle, with guns blazing on both sides. No-one can tell me where the castle might be.)

Sorry I am missing this. Work prevents. Many thanks for the updates, Brian et al. It really helps to 'see' it.

Agreed. What a find, Milt! Splendid painting. Clever. I have a Shozuri set of the Chushingura by Utagawa Kunisada, but not complete, and the condition was p1ss poor so I took the liberty and had good fun fixing them up a bit! I got coloured washi paper to back the worm holes and fool the eye and that was enough for the good ones. The glue was a kind of PrittStick that advertises itself as 'removable'. Many had a corner of the paper and scene missing so I had to sacrifice the really tatty parts and patterns of the very worst print in order to make new corners for the better ones... they actually look really good when I make colour/color photocopies from them!!! :lol:

Those prints are lovely.

No-one else seems to be around at the moment. Welcome to the site. You have done what I was repeatedly warned against, ie plunge in and buy something and then study retrospectively. :lol: If you are prepared to learn, then having something to hand may be a way of getting your heart into it. Your sword is advertised along the top of the page as 'Bizen' but actually it is not Bizen, but Onomichi in Bingo, at least 100 km west of Bizen. So don't confuse the Shigemitsu of Osafune in Bizen with the one you have bought, ie Shigemitsu of Onomichi in Bingo.

Hi Rich, Thanks for showing us the site and the measuring gizmo. Had some fun with that, although it doesn't really like very small units! :lol:

Thanks Ian. You always astonish me by how much detail you have already experienced. Have you written this all down somewhere? We are told to dry it all out in the sunshine, with the Kabuto upside down, (although I suspect well-ventilated shade would be better) but I bought a clever little ShockDoctor dryer that blows Ozone and warm air through flexible pipes throughout the armour (or my racing suit, helmet and gloves) and gradually kills off bacteria. Fabreeze sprayed gently into the helmet helps suppress sweaty smells too. I was advised to put olive oil on the links with a Q-tip but that takes hours. Good ideas above, though. Next time rain is forecast I will certainly take the other set of armour and try to keep it as much repro as possible. Here is the one Sunday shot snuck on the trot... that white black and red nobori-bata on the left with their Mon says 'Amako'. (Just lightly spotting in this shot.) Oh, and yes, all of our guns are geniune. We would not be allowed to make or own or fire working replicas.

This came thru the ether... "My sister measured this sword for me as I didn't get back to her house. Since I am not knowledgeable regarding the proper names of parts of the sword, I will try to explain this as best I can. The sword, overall length, including the part that is inside the handle is 86cm. From the hole that the wood peg inserts in to the tip is 67cm. " I know that in an ideal world we would want the length of the blade but this just about decides the issue to Katana, right?! PS On the surrender tag I think I am seeing Kita-Urawa Shi (now Saitama City) (X?) 548, Watanabe Kiyohachi?

Can you turn it the right way up. please?

Henk-Jan, "PS Piers, any re-enactment pics of last weekend? I guess you are portraying an ashigaru Teppo unit? KM" Don't ask about the weekend. It rained heavily and to my dismay I discovered that unlike in Europe where everyone would shelter under the trees until the rain stopped, the whole procession acted as if it wasn't raining. The trees were 10 meters away. No-one could break ranks. All our antique finery and armour/armor and weapons were getting drenched, and we even had to do the live matchlock display in the rain with water dripping off our visors. How crazy is that? I felt sorry for myself, but even more sorry for the townspeople who all stood there sheltering under umbrellas, probably having been driven out of their houses to show support for us. Then when we had finished our display, having marched and having stood around in the rain for three hours with no shelter, the rain stopped, and the sun came out, and they cancelled the rest of the festivities anyway... :headbang: Anyway I managed to sneak my camera out for one quick shot as we were crossing the bridge, but the camera was getting wet and someone with a megaphone was asking us to get into line as the official news organizations were running down the line crouching to get good shots... and here I was holding a digital camera in my hand!!! Will post it later. Some places like Iwakuni do Ashigaru units but we are a bunch of 'Jibunzutsu' samurai, a different unit in the army more like heavy infantry, who had their own outfits and weapons.

Thanks, John, re the Namban iron content above. Thinking about the way that Japanese produce domestic 'wine' by mixing in large quantities of French wine, and how milk is largely made up from powder shipped in from Australia, with domestic milk blended in, your scenario sounds quite plausible. No boredom here. I for one, enjoyed reading it.