Kakae zutsu

[IanB]

All, In another thread on guns, the subject turned to those with a name and I mentioned there was one in the Royal Armouries' collection. Last night when I was there for another reason I took the opportunity to dig it out of stores and take a couple of rather hurried photographs. The poor old thing has been through the wars a bit, having lost its lock, trigger, pan cover and the thick brass strip that runs under the hand-grip behind the trigger. Non of these would be insurmountable to replace, but I'm afraid that now it is in the collection this will not happen: restoration being something that would be against the ethics of modern museums.

You will see the magnificent Tokugawa kamon in copper gilt scattered on the barrel and the name in silver nonome. I translated this as 'whirlpool' or 'abyss' but I could be wrong.

Ian Bottomley

[watsonmil]

Dear Ian,

I feel somewhat guilty and embarrassed that it was " I " who asked for photographs, .... this probably caused you time and worry not to mention the trouble searching out the item. Never the less, ... I appreciate the effort. It is indeed sad that the gun will not be restored by a professional craftsman, ... it certainly looks to be worth the effort. Again my apologies for being so pushy .

... Ron Watson

[IanB]

Ron, Absolutely no trouble at all. It is important that the world knows what is about. I have always thought this could be an important gun what with the Tokugawa kamon and all. It is just tragic it has been so abused.

Ian

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ian, I see you suspect the kanji is 潭 'huchi' deep pool; deep water; abyss; the other symbol (not kanji?) above I do not recognise. It might be 写 which is 'utsushi' which we know means copy. Shame it won't be restored. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Ogino-Ryu school. A nice example, with three sights. Did you measure the bore, Ian?

 

The first character looks like 号 but with a single one stroke on top instead of mouth. (Can anyone help here?) This can have several meanings, (although it may not be this character) one of which is ookii 'large' but I cannot get my computer to produce this letter. iPhones are handy, though...　

 

From 大修館　「新漢和辞典」p.45

[John A Stuart]

Thanks Piers, no wonder. No book I have shows that character. John

[Bugyotsuji]

A heads-together session today produced the suggestion that the top character may in fact be goh 号 with the mouth being written with the single stroke 一 and... can we see two diagonal brushstrokes left and right underneath?

 

Ian, I was looking through "Weapon" A Visual History of Arms and Armour, Richard Holmes, and there on page 262 was an illustration of this gun. As I was looking at it and the missing bits, I thought, just for the record, that the 'plain brass plate' with which the lock and trigger have been replaced is just as much of a restoration and possibly more against those modern museum ethics than a lock and trigger restoration by living Japanese artisans for example using the old knowledge, or non-Japanese trained in those materials and methods.

 

Incidentally they give the calibre as 18.3 cm, which is 9.5 Monme, or very close to 10 Monme. I do not know how accurate their measurements were, but according to this chart here, 18.401 cm is 9.5 Monme, and 18.719 is 10 Monme.

 

Incidentally there is a nice picture of an 18th C. northern Indian matchlock pistol on p.260.

[IanB]

Piers, You are right, the plate is a restoration, but not done by the Museum but by the gun's previous owner. In the plastic bag attached to the gun are the parts to make up a pan cover. I know the gun was taken in a police amnesty and it has been kept in the same condition as when received. You could argue the replacement bits should be chucked away, it is just that nobody has bothered. Richard Holmes by the way used to be on the Board of Trustees of the Museum hence the use of the gun in his publication. I don't have that book and didn't know it had been published before.

Ian

[Bugyotsuji]

An artisan was looking at the Mon on the barrel today and he said the gun is fine, but the quality of workmanship on the Mon is not really what it should be (Nunome, not Hon-zogan for example), so whether this gun would be worth restoring anyway is another problem.

 

The book is a nice heavy coffee table tome, produced "in association with the Royal Armouries Museum" in 2006 and for some reason has the very reasonable price of 25 GBP on the flap. Possibly I found it at an antiques fair in London... ?

[IanB]

Piers, The Tokugawa kamon are in fact hon zogan in copper gilt and stand some 1/16th of an inch or more above the surface of the barrel. They are not in the best condition, having taken a bit of a bashing.

Ian

[BSA]

I'm sorry. Did you say the matchlock was taken as part of a gun amnesty?

 

Very interesting gun though.

[IanB]

Brandon, Yes. I cannot remember the date but I seem to think it may have been in the 1980's.

Ian

[Bugyotsuji]

Piers, The Tokugawa kamon are in fact hon zogan in copper gilt and stand some 1/16th of an inch or more above the surface of the barrel. They are not in the best condition, having taken a bit of a bashing.

Ian

 

Thank you for the correction, Ian.