Kunitomo teppō by Kyūbei Enju, who made the stock?

[Peter D]

Hi! I'm currently studying a Kunitomo teppō I have. The barrel is signed:

 

二重巻張
Niju makibari
“Double wrapped”

 

江汌
Ōmi Province

 

國友九兵衛縁壽

Kunitomo Kyūbei Enju

 

The stock is also signed, but harder to decipher. The regular camera doesn't pick up much but with an infrared microscope I've managed to read some more and I'm certain of: 

 

 . 田 . . 右衛門 . .

 

Possibly 吉田三郎右衛門 Yoshida Saburouemon?

 

Does anyone here have access to lists of stock makers to see if we can find him? Enju was active around the mid-19th century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Yes Peter, if you can give me a little time to check. At first glance, a complete looking gun, in good condition. 
 

Watch this space… 

(Later)

There were a 吉田友左衛門 Yoshida Tomoemon,

and a 吉田三郎左衛門　直道 Yoshida Saburozaemon  Naomichi,

both listed for Tempo.
Do either of these fit what you can see?
(Of course your stock maker could be related to these but unlisted, perhaps a generation before or after, since the name is very close.)

 

*By the way, there is a gun listed for your smith Kunitomo Kyubei Enju dated Ansei 2.

[Peter D]

Hi Piers,

 

Thanks much for looking into this!

 

One of the few characters that's crystal clear is 右 (and 門) so it cannot be either of those two.
On the rest I'm not so sure. There are marks of gouges for cutting the channel dat have darkened, creating lines that are easily confused for strokes which makes it difficult.

 

And yes I got that Ansei date from a post you did in the past with a photo of the Kyubei line of makers. Very interesting! What is the source document?

 

Warm regards,

 

Peter

 

[Peter D]

Here a possible interpretation. Notice that for example with 田 two gauge cuts that turned dark make it look more like something like this 羽 but the true character is still seen faintly. I am the least sure of 三郎, that's mainly a guess because it is so common.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Often I have been surprised to find that these two 左右 look very similar in grass writing, almost indistinguishable to my eye. In this case however, the mouth part does look relatively clearer. The records often confuse the two, (gun registration cards are particularly bad), so I would not be unduly worried if they don’t match up.

 

One suggestion might be to contact the Kunitomo Gun Museum directly for any stockmaker records. The Director there is quite friendly and willing to help.

 

The material I use is a private research paper sold by the author only over the phone, but please see the entries for Kunitomo stock and lock makers. Note the suggested dates shown on the right. He collected municipal gun registration records directly from all over Japan, and lists his sources over several pages at the end.

 

These are his sources for Shiga Prefecture where Kunitomo is located.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Hello Peter!