Black lacquer gold Mon Tazuke School Tanegashima

[Bugyotsuji]

This is a 20 Monme Daimyo-dogu gun. Stock/butt is black lacquer with 7 Maki-e gold 'Sasa-lindo' Mon. The bore/caliber is 2.2cm. Overall gun length is 103.5cm; barrel length 69cm. Weight, 7.6 kg. Classified as an O-zutsu, or big gun, but at the lower end of O-zutsu.

 

The gunnery school, or Ryu, is Tazuke, one of the original big 3 schools under Tokugawa Ieyasu, and is quite distinctive. You can tell Tazuke by the flat diagonal cut-off butt-end. Tazuke had various other distinguishing features, such as a 'covered' rain-proof panlid, unlike the two-story sandwich type we usually see, and in the beginning anyway, a rounded Bisen. Mine is missing the Kemuri-gaeshi, another general feature of Tazuke guns.

 

This gun is unsigned. I have been told many things, such as Tazuke are often unsigned, and that Daimyo equipment is unsigned, etc, but what is the truth here? Without a Mei or a date, we have to work with other factors.

 

The Mon are interesting. Sasa-lindo in a circle was used particularly by the Ishikawa Daimyo who lived in Kameyama Castle near Nagoya/Ise. In late Edo this family moved to Takahashi City in the north of Okayama. I spent some time looking for a link between Ishikawa and the Tazuke school and discovered that a famous teacher of this school, Honda Masashige, 1580-1647 with his son Masatsugu 1610-1627 served the Kaga Maeda family. In 1626 his grandson 朝政　(?) was born and they moved to Ise. At the age of 6 the son was adopted into the Ishikawa family and took their name. This is why I believe this gun may have been in Kameyama Castle at some time during the Edo Period.

 

The barrel is covered in choji (clove) or daikon (radish) intaglio, with gold and silver zougan of leaves and flowers and pine needles spotted here and there, a bit like fireworks in the night sky. The tops of the sights are gold and silver zougan, but largely worn off.

 

An intriguing thing then happened. Kinokuniya had an auction/sale No. 187 in 2006 and a very similar but smaller gun was offered and featured on the catalog front cover. The explanation says that it was owned by the Lord Matsudaira of Tosa and is connected with the Yamanouchi family. The price was silly, and I am convinced that mine is by far the better of the two guns, but who knows?

 

Condition, fair. The middle side Mon are worn where the left hand grips the gun when shooting. The gun needs more TLC and I have done quite a bit already. The next step is to ask a lacquer worker to touch up the cracked or peeled spots in the lacquer.

[Bugyotsuji]

Last of the pics. (The Kinokuniya gun was 1.9cm caliber, whereas mine is 2.2. Why are they so similar? Did they once live together? And who owns it now?)

[Stephen]

all i can say is WoW!! as i turn even greener from how you get to live, love it

[Bugyotsuji]

all i can say is WoW!! as i turn even greener from how you get to live, love it

 

Stephen, one of the honorable members asked me to do a write-up of this gun so I obliged. Took a bit of time and head-scratching though. Tried to remain factual and neutral. Certainly no intention of making anyone jealous! Glad you enjoyed it though. :lol:

[Stephen]

one of the honorable members asked me to do a write-up of this gun

 

oh forgot to say thanks for the outstanding write up, very informative. Great gun. add smile for green face lol

[watsonmil]

Dear Piers,

I must say, .... what a great example. Two things I note, ... the breach plug is round ended instead of square, .... was this a later feature or earlier feature. Is this a particular feature that helps identify this school. Also it is the first that I have seen that punch marks were used in making decorative patterns. Again is this a particular feature of this school. Jealous plays no part, .... I am only too pleased to see it published for us all to learn from. Congratulations on aquiring what I am quite sure is a rarity even among the already rare Samurai Matchlocks. 20 monme and larger caliber guns are not easy to come by. I'm glad you found the time to share with the rest of us interested in this specialized field. Well done ! ... Ron Watson

[Brian]

Piers,

Nice one, and thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of something I have been meaning to ask for. I am very interested in those pan covers I hear about, used for rain etc. I believe some are like little unbrellas?

Anyways, I would love to see some pics of them if anyone has any. Either on their own, or mounted if possible. I guess very few originals survived?

 

Brian

[watsonmil]

Piers,

I join Brian in asking about the Pan " RAIN " Covers, .... It is certainly an area we have seen little discussed little alone pictured. It would be my assumption that most being made of paper few if any survived. Should you or anyone have a museum photo, or perhaps an accurate reconstruction, ... by all means please post. The closest I have seen them were illustrated was on a woodblock print. ... Ron Watson

[estcrh]

all i can say is WoW!! as i turn even greener from how you get to live, love it

 

Stephen, one of the honorable members asked me to do a write-up of this gun so I obliged. Took a bit of time and head-scratching though. Tried to remain factual and neutral. Certainly no intention of making anyone jealous! Glad you enjoyed it though. :lol:

Piers, I noticed the box your gun is sitting on, it that what it would have been carried or stored in? I have seen ones like it before but did not know they were possibly tanegashima related. If so can you post a picture of how the gun rests in the box..thanks for the great photos!

[Bugyotsuji]

Two shots of rain covers are featured on p. 133 of Sawada Taira's book Nihon no Furu Ju. Will this do for the moment, Brian and Ron? There are others, but such photos are very rare. I have only seen one actual example of a cover, temporarily displayed some years ago at the local castle.

 

For Eric some pics of the box and gun fitted. Note the separate ramrod.

 

Early Bisen, Ron, were cut with a deep minus screwhead. Most extant examples are square, but Sawada Sensei says that the round Bisen was an early feature of the large Tazuke guns. I have seen further examples of round ones, some with a score to indicate the perfect place to screw tight. The beauty of a round one is that you do not have to worry about how it will sit back into the square breech butt hollow when you replace the barrel. As the Bisen and gun get older, the Bisen can become loose in the 'correct' position, but you can't tighten it as it will not sit at an angle into the hollow.

 

The clove or daikon punch pattern I have only seen one other example of, Ron. This was a fine Kunitomo gun, and not Tazuke-Ryu. It must have been an available option when people ordered their personal gun.

[Bugyotsuji]

Our troop carry their large O-zutsu in separate boxes like this. My gun weighs only 7.6 kg, (16.7lb) but some of them need two people to carry them, at up to 30 kg, or 66 lb each.

[k morita]

Greeeeaat!! :D

[Bugyotsuji]

Morita san, many thanks for reading thaｔ!

 

Now the puzzle is: 小印　イモクシ　

[watsonmil]

Dear Piers,

An excellent article, ... and photo of the " Rain/Wind cover. As to the round bisen, ... that too makes a great deal of sense ( re: proper alignment. As you probably know most European Muzzle Loading guns have a Tang attached to the breach plug ( bisen ). I can now see a good reason why Europeans as well as the Japanese were hesitant on removing the breach plug ( bisen ) each time the gun needed cleaning, .... eventually the breach plug is not going to align to its original position. With the round breach plug, ... no problem, ... with a square or tang, ... sooner or later a big problem ! .... Ron Watson

[estcrh]

all i can say is WoW!! as i turn even greener from how you get to live, love it

 

Stephen, one of the honorable members asked me to do a write-up of this gun so I obliged. Took a bit of time and head-scratching though. Tried to remain factual and neutral. Certainly no intention of making anyone jealous! Glad you enjoyed it though. :lol:

Piers, I noticed the box your gun is sitting on, it that what it would have been carried or stored in? I have seen ones like it before but did not know they were possibly tanegashima related. If so can you post a picture of how the gun rests in the box..thanks for the great photos!

Great pics, again this is info that would be hard to find. I imagine there would have been a cloth bag used while transporting and for storage?

[Bugyotsuji]

You'll notice in pic 1 of the rain covers that the whole contraption is supported by a vertical wire which passes through the hinge pin of the pan lid. This is why there is or should be a hole in a Tanegashima pan lid pin. If anyone's Tanegashima lid pin is like a solid nail, ie not a cylindrical tube, there is a high possibility that it has been replaced at some point, as they often get lost.

 

As to gun bags, Eric, yes, there were various things available. We have about 20 red gun bags which we use when parading in public for our regular long guns. (Think sankin-kotai) I tend to wrap mine in a soft terry cloth to protect the butt. Recently someone dropped one of these boxes and it burst open, throwing the gun onto the ground. The owner was not a happy bunny.

[k morita]

Morita san, many thanks for reading thaｔ!

 

Now the puzzle is: 小印　イモクシ　

 

Hi,

I do not understand both meaning.

It is a sign or something..name of Stock-maker???

[IanB]

Piers, As always a revelation for which you deserve our heartiest thanks. Isn't it sad how all of the minor accessories have either just been discarded or ignored? Once you move a couple of generations away from their period of use, they then become objects of mystery. I was once given a short woolen cloth tube that fits around the saya of a sword and the kurigata. It is obviously to stop your daito scratching the saya of the shoto - probably almost universal when swords were worn but I suspect quite rare nowadays. Same with guns and gunnery - vital odds and ends that gunners carried to make shooting easier are now all but forgotten. Some years ago a guy turned up at work with some musket balls found on a Civil War battle site. All had a flattened region around the equator, so to speak, that looked as if it had been done by hammering or cutting with a knife. They were obviously made by gunners to cope with the situation when fouling of the barrel would have prevented the loading of a regular ball. You can't stop to de-coke in the middle of a battle so you carried a few 'specials' in your pocket that would go down the barrel if positioned correctly at the muzzle. They would have been disastrous for accuracy, but at least they would keep you shooting that bit longer.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

As always, fascinating feeback, Ian. True, it is sad how much is lost forever, but even tiny little things are a revelation when they are rediscovered.