Jump to content

estcrh

Members
  • Posts

    2,003
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    6

Everything posted by estcrh

  1. Here is another example from Gorge Stones book.
  2. Here is some additional information on these guns, maybe someone who speaks Japanese can translate. 傍装式雷火銃 信州松代藩士片井京助が江戸時代後期に造った新式騎兵銃。片井は藩命でこれ造ったが、藩はこの銃の余りに強力なのを恐れて秘密主義を取り、厳重に管理したので、国難の折にこの様な発明を公表しないのは大儀に反するとして片井の実子佐野三郎は銃を持って脱藩し、開明的な老中阿部伊勢守定弘の元に銃を持ち込んだ。幕閣はこれを受けて松代藩に銃の献上を求めたので、この銃は公開されることとなり、試験射撃で頗る良い成績を収めた片井は古作の鞍と鎧を拝領した。 構造は細かい工夫が多い。先ず銃口が漏斗状になっており弾を込め易くなっている。更に槊杖は掌握部が湾曲しており扱い易くなっており、また環によって銃身とつながれているので取り落とすことが無い。そして薬室部の前方右側銃床に真鍮性の104㎜×14㎜の箱を取り付け、この中に150㎜×11㎜×11㎜の口火用の火薬玉を容れて置く容器をスプリング仕掛で差し込んで置いて、射撃する際にこの容器の前端を押すと、火薬玉が一粒ずつ火皿の中に落ちると言う仕組みになっており、これを傍装と言う。またこれに撃鉄で点火するので、騎乗していても雨天でも使用可能である。この銃は通常の火縄銃が1発撃つ間に3発は撃てるとされた。  片井京助はその後にも文久3年に死ぬまで後装式銃、連発銃、銃剣付き銃、弾力銃を発明したと言われるが、その詳細はつまびらかでない。ただ、優秀な気砲(空気銃?)を製造して藩より表彰された。 口径:16㎜ 全長:104.5㎝(銃身長:75.8㎝) 後装滑腔燧石式 固定式照門 着剣不可能 Brian, you can contact the owner and see if is still available, this is the item description. 傍装雷火式火縄式兼用銃 TEL: 06-6974-1186 e-mail address nrj41188@nifty.com
  3. Ian, when I searched with the kanji that Piers provided ( 鳥銃 Tori Ju ie "Bird Guns) information on Chinese guns was brought up as well as Japanese guns.
  4. This one is in a Japanese museum, attributed to Katai Kyosuke.
  5. Ron, this is for you (currently for sale in Japan as far as I can tell), attributed to Katai Kyosuke.
  6. Piers, I believe this text in Japanese has something to do with decorated guns. 太平の鉄砲 島原の乱が終わり平和な時代を迎えると、火縄銃も装飾が施されるなど、新しい時代を迎えました。 太平の時代、火縄銃の兵器としての役割は小さくなり、代わって武道の心得としての要素が大きくなった。 また狩猟の道具としても使われ、普及とともに、銃身に家紋を入れる装飾的傾向が一部に見られるようになった。 銃身の象嵌 鉄の黒地に、金・銀・真鍮などが、定紋や花鳥・人物として埋め込まれました。 台木の装飾 飾り金具がつき、時に蒔絵の紋や唐草模様が描かれました。 火縄銃の欠点を補う、新しい動きもでてきました。
  7. Here is another gun shop image, I am not sure how old this one is. The other one seems to be Edo Period.
  8. Piers, without your translation how would I "notice" that!!! Very interesting though. I wonder if there was a gun ownership for restriction for commoners based in caliber in the same way that commoners had a size restriction on sword ownership.
  9. So who was allowed to buy a gun, could anyone with enough money purchase a gun or were there restrictions? Sakai gun shop.
  10. Ian, if it is not a belt hook, then the hook may have some other use, such as hanging it within hands reach in a norimono or by a bed for example.
  11. Piers, this statement is what I am looking for as far as a written or pictorial reference "and owned by ostentatious Osaka merchants", have you ever read this in any book either in Japanese or English or seen a print which depicts this? I have read about Osaka merchants and their excesses but I have never been able to find any reference to Osaka merchants even owning guns, let alone highly decorated ones. which does not mean that this is not in fact true, I am simply asking for some type of evidence. I know that this taken as fact by some people but were exactly did this knowledge come from? I know that in Japan if someone is considered to be a knowledgable authority on a subject you are not supposed to question were that person obtained his knowledge but in the end it has to come from some source other than word of mouth. If there is no way to show that a statement is a fact then it is a theory. On the other hand there is a lot of information that discusses the excesses of the higher samurai class when it came to their lifestyle and showing off their power and wealth. I posted below one example.
  12. Justin, take a look at some shunga (Japanese erotic art), not aesthetic pleasing or acceptable in terms of Western tastes but very mainstream in Japan. My point is that we can not judge by our standards or modern Japanese standards what may or may not have been acceptable in Japanese society as far as decorations in the late Edo/early Meiji, you really have to do some research and be able to show some sort of evidence. Now how do you really know which type of decorations were definately not liked by samurai during the late Edo/early Meiji, that is an interesting question, any suggestions?
  13. Brian, I agree with you but this particular statement "a nice decorative piece for the Western taste" appears to mean that this is something that a Japanese national would not have owned and that it was solely made for Westerners. I could be wrong, maybe Piers will elaborate. I have no problem with the idea that a certain type of decoration was solely made for export but were is the evidence of this? Some people seem to feel that the samurai had a very refined taste in things and would never own an item that was not aesthetically pleasing, zen like, artistically refined etc and that "gaudy" was out of the question. Below is a wonderful example of the highly refined Japanese aesthetic taste.
  14. Piers, is it that hard to believe that some Japanese buyers liked this style of decoration? I see a lot matchlocks that never left Japan that are highly decorated. Here is an example of one that never left Japan so it must have been owned by someone in Japan for well over 100 years. As for the stock of the matchlock pistol being discussed, if you look at the stock you can see scratch marks, it could just as easily have been refinished at some point in its life rather than having a new stock, the belt clip as well could have been added at a later date, or it could be of very late manufacture, even Meiji period.
  15. I think this is a nice example of a late Edo pistol, I say late due to the decoration and the belt hook which I think is something only seen on late Edo matchlock pistols. The price is in my opinion way out of line but when you look at prices of similar pistols sold by Japanese dealers in Japan many are priced in the same neighborhood. I have seen much lower quality decorations so while not top of the line it is surely not bottom of the line either, for the right price I would not have a problem owning it. Below for comparison I have added two Japanese matchlock pistols recently sold at auction, one is bronze barreled and much more subtlely decorated, it sold for around $2000, the other has almost no decoration and some minor stock repairs, it is bronze barreled and sold for around $800. Personally I like all three of these pistols. LOT NO. 165 Beautiful gun fuse (Bajōzutsu) WEAPONS, ARMATURE & ACCESSORIES Japanese origin: Japan dating: XIX Sec. description: Smooth barrel, octagonal base with mei under mon, along the length finely engraved with dragon called into silver and gold, get up and viewfinder, flew to cannon, cal. 14 mm; Side cap iron inlaid with silver and brass copriscodellino; battery folder curved decorated like the dog and the band in silver clouds, near the end a kanji. Wooden full stock with brass furniture, trigger ball, hook belt decorated en suite. Wand cylindrical timber. Rare. conditions: excellent dimensions: length 33.5 cm. € 4,200.00 (starting price € 1700.00)
  16. Mark, as far as I know a " roku mai dou" has 5 hinges that divide the armor into 6 individual plates, From what I can see your dou appears to be an okegawa dou, or more specifically a "byo-toji yoko-hagi okegawa dou" which means that it a okegawa dou that has protruding rivets (byo-toji) and horizontal plates (yoko-hagi). I have posted an example below, if your dou is different let me know.
  17. From Japanese weapons.net http://www.xn--u9j370humdba539qcybpym.jp/thesis/101213/ron_sugawa20101213_3.pdf
  18. Paul can you post a picture of yours so we can se exctly what you are describing? Here is the only picture of a Japanese matchlock sight that I know of other than prints.
  19. This is an armor that Dave Thatcher has made some notes on.
  20. Ian Bottomley as graciously allowed his post to be moved to a public area of the Samuari Armor Forum so that anyone can learn from what happened to him. Other people with knowledge of Japanese armor have also purchased some of these fiberglass fakes which means that people without a lot of knowledge will certainly be buying these until the word gets out and people start posting images of a possible future purchase for discussion before buying. Other items as well have been convincingly faked including jingasa and quivers. Anyone who follows Ians work knows that he is extremely knowledgable about the manufacture of Japanese armor, he has many times seen things that I and others have completely overlooked. When making a purchase based on online images in the past you could of course have been fooled in many different ways but this new one is very insidious. Someone with great knowledge and ability has been making moulds of armor items and constructing very convincing copies, sometimes mixing authentic parts along with fraudlent ones. Viewing these items personally would make it much harder to fool someone, for example you could use a magnet to see if there is metal underneath the lacquer but when the item is in located in Japan and the seller does not speak English uncovering these fakes is much harder, especially when you are going through a third party to purchase and ship the item for you. Getting a refund is also extremely difficult under these circumstances as well. The dealers images.
  21. I agree that the "perception" makes for some very good buying opportunities, I feel that this is a man thing, and if women were as active in the collection of nihonto as men, smaller sized swords would be more appreciated. Since perception is not always accurate I would look to historical records, period prints and photographs are a good method to gauge the use of wakizashi. I have put together what I think is the worlds largest gallery of samurai related photographs, when browsing through the photos of samurai wearing swords you can see both tanto and wakizashi being worn. I can not remember any old Japanese photographs showing commoners wearing swords but there should be some, maybe another forum member has some to show. Likewise I know there must be some samurai related print galleries were the types of swords being worn can be seen. https://www.pinterest.com/worldantiques/samurai-photographs/
  22. Jean, I think you are not understanding "typical", wakizashi were typical of samurai, they were not "exclusive", a wakizashi was a typical samurai weapon, in the many photos and prints of samurai a wakizashi was commonly worn, but unlike katana and longer swords commoners could also have owned and worn a wakizashi.
  23. Jean, Markus Sesko says that swords were banned for the "common people", in 1870, this is already well known, that common people (not just merchants) were allowed to carry swords of a certain length during the Edo period. I have never read anything that suggests that common people including merchants actually carried swords in any great numbers. Alexander Takeuchi, Ph.D suggests the same thing in his esay titled "WAS CHONIN CLASS IN EDO PERIOD ALLOWED TO WEAR/CARRY SWORDS?" , he specifically addresses the matter of merchants. . Excerpt from Nihon-shinshinto-shi - The History of the shinshinto Era of Japanese Swords, by Markus Sesko. And this is from S. Alexander Takeuchi, Ph.D.
×
×
  • Create New...