Edo Period Corner Part II

[Bugyotsuji]

Jean, thank you for the supplementary thoughts. I discussed these with some friends. Of course you must be right on both counts. Thank you!

[Bugyotsuji]

Wordsworth said something about emotion recollected in tranquillity.

On Saturday I laid out a table of objects, this and that, and with the help of the organizers, gave a talk to an audience of local citizens. Since then I have heard back through the grapevine that it was an acceptable afternoon and that people enjoyed it. I may have put a noose around my own neck though, as the city has now asked me to do a static display for their children's event later this month. Hmmm...

Onko Chishin, 温故知新, learning from the past, to fashion the future? The past can teach you about the future?

[Bugyotsuji]

Every weekend this autumn we have been donning full armour and putting on displays with old smoothbore ‘Tanegashima’ guns. Busy, busy, busy. On Sunday we will be part of the Daimyō Gyōretsu at the old Honjin (inn) Sankin-kōtai stop at Yakage.

 

The constant wear and tear of equipment means the ever-present need for running repairs. Most of these, you have to be ready to do yourself. The medieval battlefield would have been similar but more extreme.
 

I have just finished applying glue to broken tsukamaki strings on the tachi koshirae. A cheaper fix than ordering an identical complete restring! It looks fine, except when it rains and the transparent glue sections turn milky white.

 

Half a day I spent on reattaching loose  iron plates and chain mail on the kote sleeves, and the main frontal cord of the haidate had snapped and needed replacing.

 

Meanwhile, the matchlocks also need constant cleaning and prepping, before and after each display.

 

(PS Yesterday with Igor I bumped into Les and Ray at the sword museum! Small world.)

[raaay]

Hi Piers ,

 

yes it was very nice to bump into you too , pity we did not have more time there ,  Les and I  just got back home today , 

Edited November 7 by raaay

[Bugyotsuji]

Children’s Day Sunday, actually part of the annual Buddhist Kuyosai ritual commemorating the souls of Osafuné swordsmiths. The day started off with speeches, incantations and pinched offerings of incense. Kōzuke Daijo Sukesada’s gravestone is here, behind the dark green bush. I went round later to have a look. “No photos allowed” the sign said.

 

It was the first time I had been invited to do a stall illustrating Bizen guns. I unloaded the car and set up the display at 9:30 am. Imagine my surprise then, when they required my attendance in the special dignitaries’ tent, and to be called in turn by name to go and offer incense and prayers at the altar. I watched closely and tried to memorize the ritualized movements of the Mayor etc., giving an internal moment of thanks for the lives of all those Bizen smiths of yore.

 

Various attractions and events were held during the day for the children, with whole families joining in. Most visitors to my little display were respectful and full of questions, but a couple of the hyper kids were grabbing antiques as if they were playthings, and needed close watching!

 

 

Family sword play

 

My table

 

 

 

 

[Viper6924]

You managed to pull together a nice display for that event. Well done

 

Jan

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks! Jan and Kat were supposed to be visiting this weekend with their friends Petter and Helena. It was to be my first free weekend in nearly two months, to which I was looking forward, and then suddenly the city had to come and ask me to take part, bang in the middle. Should have refused, maybe.
Still, we managed to hang out and do some fun things together! 
 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

For the kids, I prepared a flint and striker and challenged them to strike sparks, as part of the old way of lighting a fire or matchcord. Naturally there were other examples of tinder, tinder holders, netsuke ashtray, iron strikers, etc.

There were also various instruments for creating noises, which they could try out, a triton (conch), a mokugyo, a shakujo, some hyoshigi clackers, etc.

Many objects bore Mon/Kamon, challenging them to see if they could name some famous Daimyo families.

[John C]

Piers:

Nice display 

In re: your jingasa, I read somewhere the light, flat wide-brimmed jingasa were used by tamegashima ashigaru because it kept the rain off of the match cord. Any truth to that or was it just a light and convenient sun shade for marching?

 

John C.

[Bugyotsuji]

John, I have not heard that one before, but I can well believe it. As you look down to apply priming powder to the pan, water tends to drip off the front lip of your kabuto mabisashi straight into where you are looking. Firing a matchlock in the rain requires special tricks, and a light, broad jingasa would surely help, although it would not be much protection against enemy ball. But then again, Ashigaru were light foot soldiers with only rudimentary armour.

 

The one in the photo is covered in Mon of the Kuroda house. (Kuroda Kanbei)

[Bugyotsuji]

These are teppōtai members from Tanegashima. We went to Portugal together in 2010.

[John C]

I have a similar flat jingasa with the 5 rays (forgot the name) and tassel. Never looked up the mon, however I believe it's common.

 

John C.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Nice, John! The Mon are called Suhama.  Not so common in my experience, but it probably depends where you are in Japan.

Yours is of much higher rank than ashigaru.

[ROKUJURO]

John, are you sure that rays are depicted on your JINGASA? I believe it could also be symbolized KEN blades.

SUHAMA MON on TSUBA:

[John C]

Jean:

I called them rays for a lack of a better term in English. The Japanese name I was thinking of was shinodare, which I suppose could be representative of swords or arrows.

 

John C.

[Bugyotsuji]

篠垂 Shinodare are generally decorative strips on kabuto running from the tehen down towards the bottom edge of the hachi bowl. Tare is from the verb tareru, to hang, or dribble or run down as a liquid.

Shino means bamboo, but the word also indicates thin upright strips or ribs of bamboo (or metal) as those of Sune-ate, that protected the shins.

 

Decorative glazing strips for a kabuto.

[Bugyotsuji]

And the bad news is that a friend told me that once they get your name on the register they will ask you again the following year, and it will be hard to refuse. This means that from now on it is likely that I will have to do the above display or something equivalent every year, unless I can come up with a good excuse. Hmmm…

[ROKUJURO]

13 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

And the bad news is that a friend told me that once they get your name on the register they will ask you again the following year, and it will be hard to refuse. This means that from now on it is likely that I will have to do the above display or something equivalent every year, unless I can come up with a good excuse. Hmmm…

Big fire in the house? Everything stolen or destroyed in an earthquake?

I'm good at finding excuses.... 

On the other hand, it is perhaps an honour to be asked or invited.

[Bugyotsuji]

Looking back at the posts of mid-April this year (page 40 of this thread) where I was 'forced' to hand over an Inatomi-Ryu matchlock just acquired at auction. Slippery as eels, they are.

 

Yesterday an almost identical situation arose, with an even better example, but this time I think I got the human relations angle right, and for the time being  I am now the proud owner of an Inatomi school gun. Not only is the overall condition surprisingly good, but the Kamon on the barrel is beautifully done. Good for static displays, but could be fired anytime if necessary. Will need to give it a thorough check, and a new ramrod first.

 

Back in November someone offered me payment for services rendered in the form of a matchlock, in lieu of cash. It's a good solid gun, but not in great condition. Subsequent TLC has improved it a little. That matchlock could now go into auction to help subsidize this latest Inatomi purchase. 

 

Photo of kamon

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

At an auction one guy was trying to sell a pair of ragged old bamboo cleaning rods for a teppō. There were no bidders, so he was trying to give them away. Still no takers. As I walked out of the door he shoved them into my hand, smiling.
 

I left them in the hall at home and my wife moved them round to the trash corner.

 

Today, a month later, I took a closer look and realized that the one with an old scrap of cleaning cloth stuck in the end is actually a very old bamboo karuka ramrod. So, that has now joined the viable replacement ramrod candidate pile; many guns that turn up either lack a ramrod, or have something unsuitable fitted.
 

It’s quite long; here you can see it against my longest gun, from Sakai. Notice the hole for a cleaning rag. I wonder what kind of gun it originally came from. 

 

[Viper6924]

On 12/21/2025 at 2:54 AM, Bugyotsuji said:

Looking back at the posts of mid-April this year (page 40 of this thread) where I was 'forced' to hand over an Inatomi-Ryu matchlock just acquired at auction. Slippery as eels, they are.

 

Yesterday an almost identical situation arose, with an even better example, but this time I think I got the human relations angle right, and for the time being  I am now the proud owner of an Inatomi school gun. Not only is the overall condition surprisingly good, but the Kamon on the barrel is beautifully done. Good for static displays, but could be fired anytime if necessary. Will need to give it a thorough check, and a new ramrod first.

 

Back in November someone offered me payment for services rendered in the form of a matchlock, in lieu of cash. It's a good solid gun, but not in great condition. Subsequent TLC has improved it a little. That matchlock could now go into auction to help subsidize this latest Inatomi purchase. 

 

Photo of kamon

 

 

 

[Viper6924]

The inlay looks very high-quality indeed. Might be original to this matchlock.

I also see the ”jewel” decoration. As it happens I’m also lucky enough to own a proper Inatomi ryu. That one is also fitted with such a brass decoration. I wonder if this was something the gunsmiths used on Inatomi-ryu matchlocks?

Oh, and I need some more pictures of your most reason addition to your growing collection.
Don’t let this one ”slip away”

 

Jan

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thought of this thread when I read this discussion of Meiji 19 Uniform size Changes on Warrelics.  In the discussion of why there were more sizes added to the Type 38 uniforms, Akira Komiya said this:

 

"As for sizing, I believe it is reasonable to assume that the army decided to enlarge and add additional sizes to the Type 19 uniform by the 20th century as the Meiji era was a time of rapid growth of Japanese physique.
According to an anthropological study based on exhumed remains, it is said that Japanese started to grow smaller in stature after the Heian period (794-1185) and reached rock bottom in the Edo Period (1603-1868).
Scholars generally attribute this to 2 causes, one the taboo of eating animal flesh due to the teachings of Buddhism and the interbreeding of the populace due to restrictions on movements of particularly farmers.
The first 2 charts I attached show the average heights of adult males over the ages based on excavated remains in the Kanto area and you can see that it reaches the lowest of 155cm in the early Meiji era, meaning that they probably reached maturity during the later part of the Edo era. The 2nd chart shows the heights of students and you can see that the average height of 20 year old men grew by 1.5cm between 1900 and 1910 from 160.0cm to 161.5cm, which was also a 6cm growth from the Edo era.
Because the eating of animal flesh was an alien concept to Japanese but was considered essential by the government for maintaining a strong healthy military as well as to appear enlightened in the eyes of foreigners, the government, particularly the military, made every effort to devise dishes which would make meat palatable to the populace; among the most famous of which are curry and sukiyaki, the former said to have been devised by the navy.
As for the sizes of Type 19 tunics, I never even gave a thought to such until now, but checking 2 of my tunics, I noted that unlike the later model uniforms, size information were not an integral part of the issue stamps but were added separately in vermillion colored cinnabar. One of my tunics is stamped 小ノ大, Large Small Size and the other, 小, small.
I will attach photos of one of my Type 19 tunics with the former size marking which belonged to a corporal in the 9th Infantry Regiment.
With the very limited samples available to me, I can't comment on the number of sizes the Type 19 uniforms came in."

 

Here is a chart he included:

[John C]

Bruce:

Just a general note about the attribution of population growth and/or decline. So many factors usually contribute to such events that it is alway difficult to list just a few. For example, the Tenmei famine of the 1780s and the Tenpo famine of the 1830s probably accounted for quite a bit of decline in the overall health and height of the population. Not discounting their research (since I haven't read it), just noting that other contributing factors may also be notable. 

 

John C.

[Bugyotsuji]

20 hours ago, Viper6924 said:

The inlay looks very high-quality indeed. Might be original to this matchlock.

I also see the ”jewel” decoration. As it happens I’m also lucky enough to own a proper Inatomi ryu. That one is also fitted with such a brass decoration. I wonder if this was something the gunsmiths used on Inatomi-ryu matchlocks?

Oh, and I need some more pictures of your most reason addition to your growing collection.
Don’t let this one ”slip away”

 

Jan

 

Here I was thinking that was the same photo! Snap!
Well spotted re the ‘jewel’. I was wondering if anyone might comment on it, a sure sign of Inatomi Ryū school of gunnery.

When you say ‘latest’, you mean that gun above, right? I’ll take some shots maybe tomorrow.

Happy Christmas! 

[Viper6924]

It’s always easy when you know what to look for    

Yes please take some additional picture of your latest. I call it the latest as I know more matchlock will find the way into your collection in the future  

Have a great christmas, my friend!

 

Jan