Bugyotsuji

One is best not to assume…

All good things must come to an end. Leaving this house after 30+ years. It’s been good for the family. Sigh. Now, have I left anything behind?

Ah yes, it was ringing a bell. What a thing, though! It must weigh around 50+kg…(?)

That’s pretty scrambled, Grev …

Jean, where is that?

All things considered, I think you have done a good job. It may need to settle down a bit, and you can get some handling into it, without application of hand creams, etc.!

Video continues here...

Quick update on the blackpowder displays this autumn. We had one every weekend from the end of September until the 17th of November, meaning very heavy usage, with much cleaning and repair of guns and armor. The most recent event was for the Martial Arts Kobudosai where we fired our big guns indoors, nearly blowing the roof off the place. Nine matchlock tanzutsu/bajozutsu pistols. Hand cannons: One 20 Monme big gun. "Ni-ju Mon-me!" Three 30 Monme followed. "San-ju Mon-me!" Three 50 Monme next. "Go-ju Mon-me!" Two 100 Monme for the finale. "Hyaku Mon-me!" (1. Short 100 Monme hiyazutsu for firing bo-hiya or flaming bolts. 2. Long 100 Monme gun.) (Many thanks to Peter in Belfast and Anthony in Stockholm for sourcing the two largest guns for us. Both are lovingly used and looked after.) WARNING! NOT office friendly In December, at the request of the tourist board, there will be a (chilly) evening double-header with thunderous flashes in the grounds of Okayama Castle, on both the 7th and 8th, ...and that should finally wrap up the year. Phew!

Hang in there and look forward to the relief! (It looks like a yoroi-doshi from here.)

I have an example of the top one Alex, small but heavy.

The back is good too.

Zenzai in Peter's link calls above these 軍配透 'gunbai' sukashi... (Perhaps we should really call them 'Rorschach sukashi'.)

Kyle is just pointing out that Steve's final image above says below it in Japanese, 笠透し鐔, kasa-sukashi tsuba. (The opinion of whoever wrote that book.)

If legit, 1300s? See Huochong. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huochong

Off the top of my head it says, …can you get even more clearer shots of the writing? Although it appears to be an ancient Chinese hand gonne, it looks to me as if someone has added rather clumsy pre-WW2 Japanese Kanji and Katakana script to it, for whatever reason. Potentially an interesting object!

美濃國正行 Put these in the right order... No Yuki Kuni Masa Mi

9 mm is quite small, so likely for target shooting, which was popular in the Edo period, and/or for small game.

日本刀・居合刀の販売専門店　美術刀剣　刀心 刀 重次（土佐） ～無疵無欠点！一振で直刃・湾れ・互ノ目・丁子と、四種の刃文を楽しめる！上研ぎが施された重次の最高傑作～ |

Also it is worth remembering that people often changed their names or titles, also when switching from gunsmithing to swordsmithing, etc. The swordsmith Hankei was a gunsmith first, known as Noda Zenshiro. Personally I am interested in those who changed from swords to guns and vice versa.

Good excuse to double-check my yari facts here! Ordinary yari were called 手槍 'Te-yari'. Longer Yari with a length varying between 2 gen to 3 gen were called 'Naga-e Yari'. Naga-e translates to 'long pole'. 二間槍 Ni-gen-yari as in the photo were 2 x 1.82m, = 3.6 meters in length. 三間槍 San-gen-yari were 3 x 1.82m, = 5.4 meters long! Mine has a only very short 三角 sankaku (triangular cross-section blade) in it, but imagine if it had a long O-mi yari blade! There is an interesting expression in Japanese to express overkill, relating to your comment about how to store in a castle armoury, Brian. Great for the battlefield, but... 二間の間で三間の槍使う, (Ni-ken no ma de, san-gen no yari tsukau) which is a play on ken/gen but goes: 'That would be like using a 3-gen yari in a 2-ken room!' In other words, too much for the job, actually making things more difficult for yourself.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. When a friend sold this yari to me, about 10 years ago, the pole at nearly 13 feet long stuck out from the front window. I had no red, so tied a white section of cloth to it. As I pulled out onto the main road, I saw a police car coming up right behind me. I think the law says anything outside the outer dimensions of the car must extend front or back, but not sideways. It was a sweaty nerve-wracking drive, and the dang police vehicle followed me almost the whole way home, for a good thirty minutes. Coincidence that they were on the same route, was it, or were they checking to see if they could book me for something? Anyway, eventually they turned off, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. That was the story of taking it home. Well, you will not believe this, so I will not bother swearing on the grave of my mother, etc., but yesterday I had the pole sticking out a good three or four feet from the front window. I had wrapped it in a towel so it would not either bust the window or mark the yari, and then I placed a long red gun cover over the external protrusion, tied that firmly in place, and somehow made it down the drive, avoiding the overhanging bushes and trees. The gun bag was flapping mightily in the wind, the whole pole shaking as if in full Sengoku battle. As I was getting used to driving this extra-wide load in the rush-hour traffic, my hand on the pole, trying not to spear any cyclists, a police squad car appeared in my rear-view mirror, two or three cars back. NOT AGAIN!?!?! One by one the intervening cars peeled off and finally the police were right on my rear bumper! In the mirror I could see them there in the front seat consulting each other, but all I could do was sit in the traffic jam as we inched forwards, me sweating buckets. Would I have to pay more for the privilege of owning a long yari (yes, I had removed the blade!) with points on my license and a hefty fine? And what would I do with the damn thing if they told me to pull over? I stuck to just inside the centre line to take the widest possible berth. The tension in the pit of my stomach was killing me. Well, they did not switch on their lights and siren, but I did notice that they had moved their squad car closer to the side of the road, ...almost as if they were covering for the pole! I guess they were behind me like that for 15 minutes of so of my journey, finally pulling off and heading away up to the university. The whole slow drive took me an hour and a half to get the vibrating yari to its new home. Luckily the wife was away this week, so I was able to shift bits of armour and various other 'non-household' things. Phew! Posted before, but once more to help grasp the size of the problem.

There were hundreds of Kunitomo smiths, but checking the lists I have found eight who worked in Tosa, including a 'Kunitomo Iheita' 国友猪平太 (with a slightly different Kanji) signing under 土佐藩 'Tosa Han'. He is described as 3rd generation, and there is a known gun signed and dated Genroku 2.

Finally, reluctantly, moving house. 30+ years of clutter needs to be junked or hauled. The long Yari presents a problem. I brought it home in the old station wagon, which we sold. Now I have to carry it in (half out of) the down-sized ‘one-box’ car. (No roof-rack.) Law here says anything over-reaching must have a red warning cloth attached. Might take out a few cyclists on the way tomorrow. And this, ladies and gentlemen is why so many originally long Yari get cut down…

Artistically very satisfying composition. Perhaps the owner felt happier filling in the nakago ana, knowing it would never again be fitted to a sword, preferring a gold centerpiece over a sharp-edged opening.

Bruce’s Wiki link above suggests 1870, Chris. ‘Amida Yasuri’ halo rays were of course much older.