Lot Essay
The brass plaque states (translated from French):
"The inscription of this Japanese cannon was translated by the Japanese scholar M. Imaizumi
The first inscription: character chi in relief [intelligence]
The second inscription: this cannon was cast in 1863 during the month of August of the first year of Genji [1864]
An officer of the Ministry of Finance of Taikun, Hirouchi Koretoshi and his subordinates offered their government a quantity of copper, bronze, and tin. With these three metals, the government cast five cannons in the shape of the ones made in the past by Kono-Michiyo, and gave them the names of the precepts of Confucianism: Benevolence, Justice, Decorum, Intelligence and Good Faith. Then follows the signature of the metal worker Hayashi Takenori, inhabitant of Assomura, province of Bitchu."
"The inscription of this Japanese cannon was translated by the Japanese scholar M. Imaizumi
The first inscription: character chi in relief [intelligence]
The second inscription: this cannon was cast in 1863 during the month of August of the first year of Genji [1864]
An officer of the Ministry of Finance of Taikun, Hirouchi Koretoshi and his subordinates offered their government a quantity of copper, bronze, and tin. With these three metals, the government cast five cannons in the shape of the ones made in the past by Kono-Michiyo, and gave them the names of the precepts of Confucianism: Benevolence, Justice, Decorum, Intelligence and Good Faith. Then follows the signature of the metal worker Hayashi Takenori, inhabitant of Assomura, province of Bitchu."