A RARE GROUP OF ACCESSORIES RELATING TO FIREARMS, EDGE WEAPONS AND BATTLE
A RARE GROUP OF ACCESSORIES RELATING TO FIREARMS, EDGE WEAPONS AND BATTLE

EDO PERIOD (LATE 17TH - 19TH CENTURY)

Details
A RARE GROUP OF ACCESSORIES RELATING TO FIREARMS, EDGE WEAPONS AND BATTLE
Edo Period (Late 17th - 19th Century)
FIREARM WEAPONS AND OTHER RELATED ACCESSORIES:
Comprising eleven bullet moulds [tamagata, see 1 below], a group of musket balls [tama, see 1 below], thirteen gun powder flasks [kayaku-ire] of various shapes [see 2 below] including one red lacquer with birds in chiukiu-bori and sailing boat on a lake beside rocks, similarly engraved but without gilding and a section of stag antler as a netsuke, another kayaku-ire of brown lacquered wood, with a large deerskin disk embossed with a mon, the other side with a smaller dear skin disk, plain except for a gilt spot in the centre, the stopper fitted with a tube as a gunpowder charge measure, one triple flask of leather, each section with a bamboo stopper and charge measure of different sizes, one from a tortoise shell, two rustic wood, one of a cow horn with a horn netsuke in the form of a flat fish, one as a leather pouch, one of copper and another brass, some retaining their simple netsuke and ojime, and two primitive flasks [see 2 below], three with linked lever action, a hand-cannon in the form of a jitte [parrying baton, see 3 below] made from a gun barrel [teppo]; five guns of various sizes ignited by friction

EDGED WEAPONS:
A knife designed as a bamboo flute, functioning both as a weapon and a musical instrument, thirteen shuriken of various shapes [see 4 below] and eleven spikes, two signed Masatsugu saku and one signed Masaharu saku, another shuriken with an iron scabbard [saya] in the form of a closed fan, together with a flat iron implement; two iron hand-claws, the first with four curved claws and a hand-loop, the other with hooked claws and a central stiletto blade projecting forward; three manriki kusari-gama [see 5 below], each consisting of a length of iron chain with and iron weight attached to each end, one of the chains covered with leather, one kusari-gama in a scabbard with a single long iron chain with a large bronze weight at the end and attached to a blade made from a sword tang on a short wooden shaft, and a third with two copper chains, each with an iron ball at the end, both attached to the wooden shaft of a sickle-like implement; and a sickle-like blade which folds, penknife like, in its wooden handle, signed Ushu [Dewa] ju Masanaga
OTHER ACCESSORIES:
Three grappling irons, one of iron blacksmith's work with a double hook and an indigo rope attached, another of sentoku with a single hook signed Fujiwara Hisatsugu and attached to a rope, and the third of a blacksmith's work iron triple hook attached to an iron chain; a plumb line; a fan in the style of tetsu-sen [iron folding war fan], but the inner and outer sticks of wood, decorated on one side with a gold sun on a red ground and on the reverse with a red sun on a gold ground; two iron chains, a Chinese compass in a plain wood case and a Chinese bronze axe blade; a three hooked grappling iron attached by a short iron chain; a three-stage telescopic iron shaft with an iron hook at the end; an iron kutsuwa [horse bit, see 6 below] of typical cruciform shape; and a shell horn [horagai] in its blue string net cover [see 7 below]

Lot Essay

For similar examples and further information, see:
1 Sugawa Shigeo, The Japanese Matchlock [English edition] (Tokyo, 1991), p.51.
2 ibid., pp.52-53.
3 Yoshioka Shinichi, Koju (Tokyo, 1965), p.59.
4 George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armour in All Countries and in All Time (New York, 1934 and 1961), p.564.
5 ibid., p.402 and Yoshihiko Sasama, Nihon no Kacchu Bugu Jiten, Kashima Shogo, (Japan, 1981), p.410.
6 ibid., p.117.
7 ibid., p.298.

More from Arts of the Samurai

View All
View All