Bugyotsuji

You knock me over with the comprehensive nature of your reply, Moriyama san. I have had a look at your links and immediately learned that the two games were esentially the same, but played quite differently in Kyoto and Edo. I also learned that my Japanese is not good enough to take advantage of all the information that you have offered. Let's hope that other readers will gain something from your offerings. I will go back and attack again, though. In the meantime, thanks for the wonderful background information. A friend of mine showed me a small bow the other day which looks similar to the one used in the Furyu-karakurenai Ukiyo-e Hanga at the bottom of your post. The bow is painted in gaudy coloured stripes, is solid, of one piece, and is thicker and stronger and rounder than the ones in Ian and my box sets.

Thanks, Ian. Well, I'll be blowed! Here I am never even knowing such things existed and you actually had one all along! Plus yours has a Mon on the box lid, on top of everything virtually assuring it belonged to someone special. That really is uncanny. And they are so similar, sizewise, colourwise, and structurewise.

Fantastic stuff! The idea about the name, Yarizo, is an interesting thought. With kane-hen, the meaning might not necessarily be 'spear' then? Is that why you suggest it might be a name? Thank you so much, Morita san. This was really starting to bother me!

The stall holder told me he thought the two Kanji read Sou-Sou, but can anyone help? The first one looks like Yari æ§ã€€but the second one is difficult. Is it some form of Kura/So, 蔵　倉　庫　with the meaning of Osameru, or put away? Yari-kura? I know there are lots of expressions in Japanese pronounced sou-sou, including one that means a row of long sharp objects, but does anyone get such associative meanings from this repetition of sounds?

The sword shop advised me not to bother sending any Yajiri, or Yanone, away for professional polishing. To be expected, of course. The last few nights I have been sitting here sanding down the arrowheads with water and progressively finer paper. Having reached a good medium limit (leaving enough of the Mei on the blade of one so it can still be read) I wiped them with clove oil and wrapped them up. Today I went to visit a twice-monthly farmer's market where they have a few antique stalls and bought some interesting odds ands ods. 1. A little folding calibrated magnifying glass stand. 2. A tall black Andon light stand. Genuine, cheap as chips now... 3. A fairly roughly-made swordsmith's large-ish toolbox from Bizen, with the date Keio 3 in inkbrush, 1868, and further characters intimating... 'spear store'??? 4. An E-ma wooden board with a picture of some chappies doing Sankin Ko-tai on it. Their Haori Mon is the Kuginuki Mon that is on the little bow 'n arrow set, which partly explains the purchase. Painted in the old style, but probably recent, but cost next to nothing. 5. Two silk woven cords which will be useful for tying sword bags, boxes, etc. In the afternoon I went round with a mate to an antique dealer's stiflingly hot warehouse. A quick whip through resulted in: 1. Two tsuba boxes with their little cushions (new, probably made in China) 2. An old black wall-rack for ... swords, spears? A Do-jo Bo rack? 3. Three long Jidai-bako boxes for, wakizashi, tanto, arrowheads, etc. a. Newish? narrow white keaki wood tight-lidded box, 2 rests inside, length 62cm W7.5cm b. Old Jidai bako with overhanging lid, length 64cm, W12cm c. Old Jidai bako with flat lid, Length 89cm, W14.5cm. Dated in ink on bottom, Tempo 13 Nen, or 1843. The above is my humble contribution to this week's Edo Period Corner. If you can use your imagination, then we won't have to use bandwidth... hehehehe :lol:

Just read this thread for the first time, and well worth the read. The original title put me off, but having finally read it, I have had to expand my perceptions of the history of iron usage. Thanks guys.

I'll look forward to seeing those, Ian. The Japanese seem not to be interested in them so much. Perhaps these all went abroad...

Ian, you have definitely found something now, and piqued my curiosity further! Good stuff. Yours sounds better than mine with the gold! The flat heads were a mystery, but rubbing chalk or ink on them... now, that does make infinite sense. There are in fact what I thought were rust rivulet markings near the flat round tips, but dipping them in ink might have caused the iron pins? inside the shafts to rust and leak out like this. Secondly I could find no difference in the arrows until I read your comment above. The flights are all white on mine as you will have seen. Now I can see rings round the shafts, though, between the flights! Painted in... silver? They go from one ring to six. I, II, III, IIII, IIII I, & IIII II with a funny gap for numbers above 4. It would be good if you were able to find and post a piccie of that Ukiyoe Hanga... PS It is my impression that these sets are very rare. None of my Japanese antique 'expert' friends had ever seen one before. The Yoshiwara connection, though, does suggest that they must have been in fashion at one time.

Good link there, Brian. Thanks for that. I had a bit of a read up here and there, and discovered that the Kabura-ya were used primarily to 'purify' the field before a battle. The secondary effect would make more impression on me, I suspect. Oh, and one more discovery. Re-examining the bow and arrow box (posted earlier) with some friends, I learnt a bit more about it. It was probably part of a full set of display objects for Tango no Sekku, The Boy's Festival, now 5 May, which celebrated Sho-bu or the warrior spirit. This was not celebrated in every household till well after the beginning of Meiji. Until then it was probably only observed in high status families, and the Mon on the grip of one of the two bows suggests it belonged to a Daimyo. (One of my acquaintances is a Daimyo descendant, and he pointed this out.) The Mon is the Kugi-nuki design, a square with a square hole in the centre: http://www.otomiya.com/kamon/kibutsu/kuginuki.htm See top row, centre. This was the Omote Mon of the Hori family from Iida in Nagano, at the end of Edo.

Can anyone clarify the following, one way or t' other? Someone I respect told me that the red lacquer sukashi yajiri above, with the Ino-me center/centre, is actually a Kabura-ya, designed to whistle, (or make some kind of scary noise) in flight.

The fourth Kanji looks like it has been hit and distorted, making it difficult to read. The Mei should continue 藤原 å£å£ä½œ/é€ but it looks like you've lost the name of the actual katana-kaji.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Brian. May I also thank you for the cropping job you did. I wouldn't know how to go about doing it, and I have been feeling guilty about the number of piccies I have been posting here, but I do try to keep the camera stopped down as far as I dare before quality suffers too badly. Please feel free to let me know if I am threatening to crash the site or anything!!! Innocence is bliss... The way he was giving them to me, I had to conclude that they must have had more, but he was making a special gesture of friendship to me as the teacher of his ex-student, so it was no, no, that's enough, time and time again! And yes, I have seen them at antique markets here, but even the fakes never go for less than 10,000 JPY. He had a fascinating fukuro yari, with a little stubby curvy triangular blade that he thought might have been togi-beri polished down. I assured him that it was the proper size, and he even apologized for not giving it to me!!! LOL... I hope he saw not a glint of greed in my eyes. I stayed focused on thanks and amazement. Yes, absolutely about the togi. I am debating getting a quote on at least one of them. If it costs 100 bucks an inch to get polished professionally, then one alone may set me back 400 US, for the four facets. Expect a verbal report here in the next day or two. PS Brian, do you have yours displayed here on this site anywhere? I would love to see them... PPS Took them round to the sword shop and was told not to bother sending them for polish. This was repeated by several people. Just use a fine sandpaper to stop any rust and find a nice box or stand to display them... :|

Piers, In French, it is synonymous with "problem". Merci bien, Jean. I have checked the dictionnaire and found: (music) flat, mettre un bemol, to calm down, to pipe down. Bemoliser, (music) to insert a flat or flats... Alors, a bientot!

Some closer shots of the Shiri (bum/butt) = arrowhead.

The last two.

Here goes with a photographic blend of science and artistry! The largest is 30cm from tip of the Yajiri, to the end of the Nakago; it could almost be taken for a yari spear. The blade is 7.5cm or 8 cm in length, depending on whether you stop with the cutting edge or with the collar. The shortest is the red one, 18.5 cm in overall length, with a blade 4 cm long by 2.5cm. Most of them were polished to some extent by the person who gave them to me. One is coated in red and one in black lacquer. The red one is Ino-me sukashi. None are signed with a Mei, but two have horimono remains on the blades. Thoughts. I wonder whether the bowman had a choice of tip available, depending on what kind of enemy was approaching? Like a set of golf clubs??? The variety surprises me. Disclaimer. These are nothing like some of the really beautifully-worked yajiri one can find and pay huge prices for. I love such, but they are in a different world! One day when I can afford one... These below were as stated from a certain castle armoury/storehouse. Notice the match is at 5cm.

BTW, what is 'bemol' ? (Oh, and general question. Why would an auction house send such a very unhelpful photograph? My photos are nothing to write home about, but you couldn't take a more annoying shot even if you tried. You begin to wonder whether they were trying to hide something...)

Thanks Stephen for rescuing us from ourselves. In order to freshen the air, I will post some piccies of the Yajiri. He gave me a representative of each of several different types that they found in there.

Brian, would you care to explain the meaning of that to some of our Japanese members?

Er, Brian, is the bear a Catholic? Our hearts all surely beat to the same number here. The only drawback to a packed Kura, I should imagine, would be the sheer quantity of objects salted away, and ... ... ... my total lack of ability to judge the market value of most of them.

Can't believe this thread. It's sickening that eBay can be used upside down like this... all their checks and balances work in favor/favour of the dishonest... and actively shut out the innocent party... grrrrr

From your post, Brian, I can tell that you know a lot more about this subject than I do. My quick answer is... please let me off the hook! Here is some general knowledge, however. Fire being one of the 4 great disasters, all things of value (for those families possessing such things) would be put in a self-standing plastered and tiled storehouse away from the main house, perhaps in one corner of the courtyard/garden. The walls, doors and window shutters were very thick and it was designed to stand up to almost anything, including earthquakes, another of the 4 calamities. A wealthy family might have more than one 'Kura'. As they got packed with family heirlooms, it became a bit of a chore to go in and sort out/index, so in many cases no-one really knows any more what is in there. The door was usually bolted and locked with at least one massive padlock to guard against thieves. There is a type of antique dealer, much disliked in general, called an Ubu-dashi-ya, (a displayer/seller of freshly-discovered objects that have not seen the light) who goes round villages looking for houses with their Kura still intact. He will call at the house and try to persuade the owner to let him into the Kura storehouse to see what there might be for him to buy and sell. If a Kura is destroyed in an earthquake, this is a time of anxiety for the family and an opportunity for others. Kura are also regularly broken as houses are rebuilt or land is developed, and sometimes the family asks the builders to organize someone to sort out and sell off the contents, giving welcome opportunities for rich pickings for those in the know. Rich widows might try to sell off the contents quickly if the tax authorities announce they are on the way to evaluate and decide probate. I have seen no official figures on numbers of unopened Kura, but you do see them still all over the place, especially in the countryside. They may be empty, or they have in some cases been made into living space, but there must be many that remain untouched, even though antique dealers loudly bemoan the scarceness of such.

This week's corner, but... still the same week where you are? It's midnight in Japan, so maybe a new week here. Had a very mixed day today. Had to attend a funeral in Mie Prefecture, a four hour drive from here. Standing outside in the baking heat with no shade or hat while the priest droned on inside. The girl is only 19 and she has lost her father, the sole breadwinner for the family, to a stroke. Through a friend I was introduced to a husband and wife who are descended from the Scribe/Karo to a famous Daimyo. Their family have the keys to the castle Kura and they showed me some of the things they inherited, including some amazing swords and koshirae. Envelopes full of fascinating seppa of different thicknesses and materials, fuchi kashira, tsuba, menuki, etc. (Have you ever seen a leather seppa? I examined it with a magnifying glass and told them I thought it was lacquered wood.) One sword was So-shu-den, Chikuzen no kami, Sa no Kunihiro. The fuchi and kashira were by Masachika. They had a letter to the Lord from Tokugawa Ieyasu, among other things. As a gesture of friendship, they gave me some long nakago yajiri arrowheads from the castle inventory. 14 hours there and back.

Just asked about the backlog and was told: "You will wait 6 months for a Juyo sword to come back from Shinsa. Oh, and 18 months for the paperwork." So, what are we complaining about guys?

Thanks for that Ian! Excellent stuff. Later today I had a look around and found a catalogue of an exhibition held some years ago in Nagoya Castle. The rain box here is quite different from the one I was planning to post (hand-made by Sawara Taira out of leather) and looks to be made of sheet metal. This one doesn't seem to cover much of the match, and I am not sure how it fitted on. Anyway, we know know that there were at least two versions and possibly many more. Materials were lacquered leather or paper, or metal sheet? We had a bit of a chat among our matchlock company members this afternoon and the leader, who tends to be fairly knowledgable, said that Sawada Taira's word Ama-ooi is actually wrong. The Nagoya catalogue as per photos below also labels them Ama-ooi, but I was assured today that they should be called Ama-yoke', or rainguard. Perhaps they were called by different names in the various regions.