(I wrote to Proffessor Stein who knows quite a lot on Japanese swords: http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/nihonto.htm. Next week I might head off to the Sekaido Bunka Art Museum. They have a collection of swords there.)
Dear Proffessor Stein,
I am not familiar with the world of Japanese swords and tsuba, but our family has in our possession a tsuba that supposedly belonged to my great grandfather. Could you please shed some light on its origin? I am now in Japan studying, and would like to do some more research on the tsuba and where it came from.
Firstly, I will explain how we got the Japanese tsuba, considering that it is now in Malaysia. My grandmother is Japanese and was born during the early 1900's in Singapore ( I dont know the exact date). She was given away by her parents to a Malay family and was brought up as a Malay in Malaysia. She did not know of her Japanese heritage.
Her parents were shop keepers in Singapore and when they had to return to Japan, in the early 1900's they gave her away to the shop owners, leaving with her a sword. She was not the only one given away. Apparently she had a brother as well. But he did not survive. The sword was sold, and what remained was the tsuba.
We do not know what happened to her parents. But it is said that during those days in Singapore, the Japanese that were sent there were usually on reconnaissance missions.
During the World War 2, Malaysia was occupied by the Japanese, so my grandma refused to acknowledge her Japanese ancestry. It is all kept hush hush in Asian culture if one was adopted. My mother who was born in 1940 remembered that right after the WW2 (1947-49, a Japanese man came to Malaysia looking for my grandmother, but the older members of the family told him she had passed away. In fact she only passed away at 62 years old in 1965.
As you can imagine, most of the family members who were old back then have now passed on. As I mentioned, I am now in Japan studying Japanese and as a personal project of mine would like to trace my family. Even if i do not find them, I hope to gain a lot of experience understanding this culture we never knew as a family.
Apparently, the Japanese man who came to Malaysia was my great grandfather's brother. He mentioned that my great grandparents had commited harakiri. Please forgive me if it is beginning to sound like a fantasy story. Usually 'word of mouth' stories tend to be exoticised a little. I now do not know what is true and what has been exaggerated upon. I only have this tsuba and a small idea that it might have come from Nara.
A cousin of mine has been there to look for a name and has come up with an even more seemingly absurd tale that my great grandfather was a samurai descendent of Yoritomo and from the Clan of Minatomo. So I will have to brush up on my Japanese and start looking at the archives in Tokyo, perhaps beginning at the War Memorial Shrine.
I will start with the facts first, and if this tsuba did come from Nara, then there could possibly be a link. I have a photograph of it that I will attach in my personal blog, if you are interested in having a look.
I found your website very easy to read and informative. It would be great to hear your response.
Please find below a link of the photograph on my personal blog:
http://www.abyjunus.blogspot.com
Warm regards,
Abyan Junus
2 comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
any replies from the professor?
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