Bugyotsuji

This might turn out as a good thing for your future puchases... :D If people were interested in it, something good is hidden somewhere... Carlo your English is forgiven at last!

Couple of closer shots of the lock surrounds

Yesterday I purchased a Tanegashima long gun. This was not in my plans, but I knew that it could be used as a loan gun even if I didn't want it at home. (Envision one enraged woman) The two guys who had been wanting to buy it, and who had missed their opportunity when we stepped in, were full of sour grapes when I met them later... but I found out they were part of S..... Sensei's inner study circle, so there is something about this gun that they liked. I spend Sunday cleaning the red rust and black soot off the barrel, lock, brasswork and woodwork, oiling it gently and polishing it off, and discovering more about it. The signature reads 嶋屋市兵衛作　Shimaya Ichihei Saku. Shimaya were a gunsmith in Settsu, (Sakai, Osaka); other examples of Ichihei's work are signed with Settsu-ju, according to the records. Despite the dealer telling me the gun is in the style of "Shikoku somewhere" I could find little to support his assumption except maybe the general slim shape of the stock and butt. In fact the more I read up, the more I came to the conclusion that the dealer knows little about guns altogether. It shows a confusing mixture of styles, but not much about Shimaya's native Settsu either. Something (perhaps the slender but perfect shape) keeps tugging at my mind and saying Kunitomo. Our Teppo-tai leader sounded a bit odd on the other end of the phone. "Piers? Ah, I hear you have bought a strange gun! Everyone was here last night and they told me ALL about it." Well, I didn't know what to say. What had they all been discussing? "Er, I thought maybe you might want an extra spare gun for the lend-lease armoury/armory!" says I. "You know I bought four spares last week, so no, we don't need any more." he says distinctly dismissively. Now what? How have I offended him? As it happens I have been growing more and more fond of this gun! :lol: The wood is a lovely glow under the grime. The barrel is in surprisingly good nick on the outside and a quick rust blast with the ramrod showed me she is clean as a whistle inside. In fact, I now feel no need for him to take it off me at all. I don't even want to show it to him in case he suddenly decides he likes it!!! Much of the dirt and grime is still there as I didn't want to remove too much of the age. The gun looks to have been hanging in someone's smoky kitchen for a good 150 years.

Downloading photos and discovered one sneak sideways shot I managed at the Daimyo Gyoretsu at Yakage last Sunday, 9 Nov 2008. We often have to rush to get our kit on, and then stand and wait sometimes for up to an hour till we get the signal to move. Again, I was planning to take more, having my camera hanging in my kinchaku, but we were constantly being 'shot' by the crowd so I gave up...

Thank you very much for the link. It sounds as though you are wishing you could be in Japan, and you will thus not forgive anyone who misses these! Yesterday I bumped into two of these wandering ronin, er.... gaijin, down this end of the main Honshu banana. Quite an educational day to put it mildly. To both of you, good to meet you and see an antiques market through your eyes! Whereas I usually finish looking in two hours or so, we were still going strong six hours later!!! Thanks for peeping in at the NBTHK benkyo-kai in the evening. Sorry you missed the Katayama Ichimonji, one of only two known Sukefusa (despite the paperwork saying Norifusa, the blade was discovered to be his teacher's) in existence, but I understood your worries over the trains and I hope you got back safely. B 'encouraged' me to purchase a long gun, and it has turned out to be a long and ongoing story, which I will post shortly over in the Edo Period Corner.

As you say above, Milt. "If it is the case that an extra letter found its way in there 'by mistake' then the whole thing must be pretty shoddy/untrustworthy/casual/careless", etc.

Yes, I have a copy of the same book. Originally quite expensive new. It covers almost everything... Now all I have to do is use my photographic memory and commit it to the living tissue of my brain.

OK, just to get the ball rolling I will guess at the most obvious. But... I am 95% sure someone will correct me :lol:

Oops, I fell straight into the trap. Wow, they are difficult to tell apart, aren't they!!! Thanks for the link, Moriyama san. Tricky, tricky, tricky... Note to self: Check every character twice, and then double check that. 'Double-check Dubceck' they call him. 石橋を叩いて渡る　Look before you leap. (?)

"It is not judged" could have any number of meanings. At that price the seller is 100% sure it is a copy. Even so, it's an intertesting piccie. There is a box of scrolls at an antique fair near here, all going for 500 yen each. Admittedly there is no-one who can judge what each of them might be really worth. An expert friend of mine died last year, but he used to be able to sort through and find some bargains in that box. Occasionally he'd say, "Here, Piers, buy this."

Nihon Tosougu Kenkyukai, so NTK, NTKKK (?) If you don't like the tsuba, I would be willing to take it for you...

WOW, many thanks for that. It's been weeks now that this correspondence has been going on here on this site and on another site and emails going backwards and forwards. Many, many thanks! や～本当に助かりました。ほっとしました！ Even though I can find no record of such a Netsuke-shi, that is how it should be read?! You are absolutely sure?!!!

Yes, but I have seen many examples of Rantei's signatures, and none of them look like the one above. Do you think it could be? See post #14 here: http://forums.netsuke.org/tool/post/net ... 2&trail=15 At first I thought yes, but then gradually I backed off.

Well, five experts n the UK have all said that this is definitely "Rantei", according to a little bird.

藤原国次造　Fujiwara Kunitsugu tsukuru/zou (made by) 　

"Life is illusion.... ? BTW There is an old kanji for Akatsuki 暁　曉

Using your two possible Kanji, MOriyama san, could the two lines be: "One lifetime, one enlightenment. One enlightenment, one lifetime." or "One lifetime, one harmony. One harmony, one lifetime." Signed by Hisanaka, or a Chinese poet...???

Thank you Moriyama san. Your reply makes me smile.

Now we are talking!!!

My question wasn't phrased very well. Please forgive me. It would be going off-thread, so you do not need to answer it. What I meant was you must feel some personal pride in the long and deep evolution of Japanese culture. For me the study is objective in a way, an outsider looking in without too much emotional help, except the excitement and interest in discovering new things about the past. A 'different' past, too. Perhaps you have this too? Or not? (When I look at Shakespeare's writings, or Chaucer, I do not feel any personal connection, really, just a frustration that I cannot understand it clearly.)

How do you feel towards your ancestors who used such language?

What is the 4th character??? Is the hen Tsuki?

Wow, it's complicated. Thank you for that, Moriyama san. Can you make any sense of the other inscription?

:lol: :lol: :lol: Er... pics 5 and 6 yes, 7 NO

Well, if the other photos won't attach the regular way, let's try a different way. (Oh, ignore the Hotei above, by the way please!) and