More on samurai, hunting, and art

More on samurai and hunting: here is a photo of a nineteenth century folding screen depicting samurai hunting wild boar at the foot of Mount Fuji. The description from the museum exhibition in Denmark:

Samurai on a wild boar hunt at the foot of Mount Fuji. Folding screen decorated by the Japanese court artist Kanô Tangensai Fujiwara Moritsune (1829-66). Ethnographic Collection, National Museum. The screen was presented to King William III of the Netherlands in 1860 by the ruling Shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Iemochi.
Photo: Arnold Mikkelsen

Also, it may be of interest to some grousers that you can still hunt wild boar in this country using samurai swords (Sporting? discuss). See:

www.a-wild-boar-hog-hunting-florida-guide-service.com

Wild Boar Sword Hunting Report:

October 4, 2003

Wild boar sword hunters Jack Chuang (Davie, FL - e-mail: threeinchman@earthlink.net), non-hunter Jerry Chuang and Jason Jen bagged 3 wild hogs during a morning of wild boar hunting with Ron's Guide Service on October 4, 2003. Jack (above) killed a big sow hog with a samurai sword. Jason (below) killed 2 wild boar hogs with a samurai sword. They hunted the sugar cane fields in the town of Lakeport.

Now THAT looks like fun. Who's with me? Next year, pig sticking hog camp in Florida. Bring your 12 gauge sabers.

The hunt in Japanese culture

The haiku thing has gotten me thinking lately about Japanese hunting. Perhaps people today don't associate recreational hunting with Japanese culture, but the art of archery (to take but one example) has a long and storied history as a hunting technique in the Japanese martial arts.

The topic appears to be a surprisingly difficult thing to research on the web, but I did turn up some good info about the introduction of guns in Japan at the following site:

http://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/e-rekihaku/126/rekishi.html

If you take a look at that site you'll see different shot size recommendation for ducks:

A look at the picture of the birds in this book reveals a "kuishime" shot at the point where there is a mandarin duck and a "oikuri" (chaser) shot where there are two ducks. The "kuishime" shot was cut off slightly at both ends forming a cross with two lines of equal length, adjusted with a screw, and plastered with torinoko paper. The "oikuri" shot contained a ground charge of 1.5 monme (5.63 g), a shitatama (bottom shot) of 0.2 monme (0.75 g), then 1.5 monme (5.63 g) of gunpowder in between, and 0.2 monme (0.75 g) otori of lead shot. In this way, various types of shot were made to correspond to the prey for which they were intended.

Information given at the beginning of the Uda School Book of Secrets stresses that these are methods for shooting birds and animals. The features of the birds and animals in these pictures are well drawn and descriptions of their habitat are also accurate. This can be nothing else besides an authentic treatise on the art of hunting.

I've also done a bit of digging around for historical references to recreational hunting among the samurai class, and found the following costume info at the Costume Museum in Kyoto, Japan.

Warrior in kari-shozoku (=hunting wear).

1. nae-eboshi
2 igote
3 suikan-no-kami
4suikan-no-shimo
5 utsubo
6 kawazutsumi-no-tachi
7 tsurumaki
8 monoi-gutsu
9 ayai-gasa
10 mukabaki
11 koshi-gatana
12 yumi
13 yukake

Explanation:

A samurai wore this costume called " kari - shozoku" when hunting in the fields [or in case of "yabusame," a kind of samurai's a game].

The samurai wore "nae-eboshi" cap and "ayai-gasa" hat knitted with rush from the top.

The center of the hat is referred to as "koji" and it is high in order to put in "motodori" collected hair.

For the bottom, the samurai wore "suikan" or "hitatare."

Moreover, the samurai wore "igote" protector to the left arm and "yugake," leather gloves called "tebukuro" in case of "yabusame."

"Yugake (=scald)" is glove made of leather attached for protection of a finger when shooting a bow.

The samurai also wears a cover of deer's summer skin called "mukabaki."

He wore a pair of "monoi-gutsu" shoes on foot and hung a long sword on the waist.

The figure in the photo hangs "utsubo," a arrow holder, [a "ebira" holder in case of "yabusame"], and has a bow and a waist sword.

"Utsubo (=quiver)" is the container of the shape of a pipe for carrying arrows.

Jim again: apparently hunting grew to be popular among the samurai during the Kamakura Period (1185 - 1392), when the leadership of Japan passed from the nobility to the samurai warrior class. I will see if I can dig up some decent samurai hunting haiku . . . .