Book Review: Ieyasu no isan - Sunpu owakemono by Tokugawa Bijutsukan, Tokugawa Hakubutsukan

[Jo Anseeuw]

Title: Ieyasu no isan - Sunpu owakemono
Author: Tokugawa Bijutsukan, Tokugawa Hakubutsukan
Publisher: Tokugawa Hakubutsukan, 1992
Language: Japanese with some English
Illustrations: Color and black and white pictures
Other: 265 + 15 pages, 30 cm by 22.5cm, softcover
Topics: Abumi, Bagu, Bugu, Documents, Kabuto, Katchū, Kura, Menpō, Nihontō, Paintings, Teppō, Tōsōgu
ID: B0276

Beautiful exhibition catalog celebrating the 450th anniversary of the first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Some of his famous armours, but also many other items from his household, documents etc.

[Piers Dowding]

Another fabulous tome!

The top right teppō at 29 seconds is a fine example by the Tokugawa retainer gunsmith who later turned swordsmith, Noda Hankei. (At least that is where I would lay my bet.)

[Jo Anseeuw]

Before our gun nuts start to complain again that I go through these video's to fast when there is a gun and I clearly do that on purpose to annoy them, and start to petition again (or was it mutiny) to change our name of the society, and taking into account that the snow wall has melted in the Northern countries and with the restrictions lifted in Japan I need to be careful, I will post some pictures I quickly made over lunch.


Because I like to help, please see some pictures of that gun. Text is in two parts as it was split over three "lines"

Jo

[Piers Dowding]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Nihon+K ... nt=gws-wiz

Fantastic stuff, Jo. Many thanks for the detailed feedback. I'll need to go back and read that at leisure. His gunsmith name was Nihon Kiyotaka, among other names.
You owe me ￥100...!

From Markus Sesko:
Hankei, his civilian name was Noda Zenshirô (野田善四郎), originally came from Mikawa province which was also the home province of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is assumed that he first moved to Sunpu (駿府) to work there as a gunsmith, the profession he had inherited from his father. Ieyasu had established a gunsmith center in Hachiôji (八王子) in Tenshô 18 (天正, 1590) what was Hankei´s second station. There he learned from the gunsmith Agari Sôhachirô (胝惣八郎) who also came from Mikawa and who already worked for Ieyasu at that time. With his studies under Agari, Hankei signed with the name Kiyotaka (清堯). By the way, there are teppô with the mei Kiyotaka extant which bear date signatures from Keichô 15 to 20 (慶長, 1610-1615). Those made exclusively for the Tokugawa family are signed “Nihon Kiyotaka + kaô” (日本清堯) (picture 2) and it is very interesting that there are even swords extant with the very same signature and kaô (although extremely rare) (picture 3).
https://markussesko.com/2014/04/10/hank ... is-school/