help with matchlock mei

[Mark]

I am not very good understanding the mei on matchlocks, can someone help?

 

Thanks!

[Baka Gaijin]

Good evening Mark

 

Second image (0647) First two Kanji from the top read Tanaka.

 

Cheers

[Bugyotsuji]

Hello Mark, a surprisingly detailed Mei you have there.

 

For people who do not want to be spoiled, do not look here:

地鉄二重総巻張　Jigane Niju So Makibari, 摂泉住　Sessen Ju, 田中　安兵衛Tanaka Yasubei 知栄 plus Kao

 

 

Incidentally there is another gun by him with a date of 安政二年 Ansei 2

[Bazza]

Mark, very nice. Could we please see some pics of the gun?? Some overall shots and some closeups would be great.

 

Bestests,

BaZZa.

[Mark]

Piers

 

Thanks a bunch! I do not know much about matchlocks, but I would have thought by the 1850-60's the Japanese would have been using more modern technology. Interesting

 

Mark

[Bugyotsuji]

Mark, you are right. There were all kinds of styles of foreign and domestically uprated guns circulating in Japan in those last years of the Tokugawa Era, but most native gunsmiths were still producing traditional Tanegashima-style matchlocks at that time, in fact some as late as the 1870s.

 

Apart from the ramrod, yours is a lovely example of a Samurai gun Shizutsu 士筒, very similar to one from the armoury at Himeji Castle that my friend owns and shoots.

[estcrh]

Mark, you are right. There were all kinds of styles of foreign and domestically uprated guns circulating in Japan in those last years of the Tokugawa Era, but most native gunsmiths were still producing traditional Tanegashima-style matchlocks at that time, in fact some as late as the 1870s.

Piers, even later than that.

Built by Jiro Morishima in Meiji 15 March 1882. Morishima is a clan based in Katsuyama Mimasaka from the late Edo period. Highly-decorated, pristine condition, very late Japanese matchlock with its original box, and tools set in indentations including the fitments for making the transformation back and forth between matchlock and bizen raika-ju (percussion type fire using little balls of primer ignition in the pan). This must have been made by one of the last master gunsmiths left in Japan.

 

[Bazza]

Ughhh!!! And it has to be super gaudy because...

 

BaZZa.

[Bugyotsuji]

:lol: The old man saw his whole world go down the plughole before his eyes, historically, culturally and technologically. 300 years of matchlock know-how and refinement blown to the winds. Surrounded by decorative Kinko metalworkers in the same position, out of an immediately necessary and useful job.

 

So the man puts everything he knows into one masterpiece, to record an age that he remembers clearly, but that is never to be seen again.

 

It will be the finest matchlock ever built, with the optional upgrade to Raika pill percussion, crafted in minute detail with no regard to cost. The zogan 100 times better than the best and flashiest Settsu/Osaka merchant's gun.

 

This gun once belonged to a friend here and he let me handle it. Later it appeared on Nandemo Kantei Dan, the Japanese equivalent of the Antiques Roadshow. Bling it certainly is, OTT in every respect, a beautifully and somewhat sadly-crafted anachronism. Definitely a one-off.

 

Why? Why not?

[estcrh]

:lol: The old man saw his whole world go down the plughole before his eyes, historically, culturally and technologically. 300 years of matchlock know-how and refinement blown to the winds. Surrounded by decorative Kinko metalworkers in the same position, out of an immediately necessary and useful job.

 

So the man puts everything he knows into one masterpiece, to record an age that he remembers clearly, but that is never to be seen again.

 

It will be the finest matchlock ever built, with the optional upgrade to Raika pill percussion, crafted in minute detail with no regard to cost. The zogan 100 times better than the best and flashiest Settsu/Osaka merchant's gun.

 

This gun once belonged to a friend here and he let me handle it. Later it appeared on Nandemo Kantei Dan, the Japanese equivalent of the Antiques Roadshow. Bling it certainly is, OTT in every respect, a beautifully and somewhat sadly-crafted anachronism. Definitely a one-off.

 

Why? Why not?

 

Why? Because he could, what a way to go out!!!

[Justin Grant]

 

Apart from the ramrod, yours is a lovely example of a Samurai gun Shizutsu 士筒, very similar to one from the armoury at Himeji Castle that my friend owns and shoots.

 

Piers, where do you think these rods are coming from? A matchlock I have had an almost identical finial on it. I have seen others like it on Hinawaju's for sale on-line.

 

Jg