[Ronin48]

I've read (?), been told (?) that some sword smiths, once Samurai were forbidden to wear swords, and the sword demand plummeted made articulated "critters." I have an approx 5 inch long shrimp with movable legs, body segments, feelers, etc. There are two or three kanji characters on the bottom of he body. The "shrimp' seems to be constructed of a bronze colored, thin tin-like metal. Can anyone reference these as sword smith handy works or just some modern day tourist gismos?

 

[arisakadogs]

Someone must have fixed that hole where the rain gets in and kept your mind from wandering
(Fixing a Hole - The Beatles)

 

[Jareth]

I have seen those Doss. Lobsters, shrimp etc. the bronze examples sell for good $. As for the story.....difficult to prove

 

[Trenchwarfare]

I know some smiths took to making kitchen cutlery, and garden tools. That would have been very boring, and unsatisfying for a true craftsman. I can see where making articulated critters help satisfy ones artistic desires.

 

[Ronin48]

Thanks all, Trenchie, I have your T-14 short barrel boxed, just need an address?

 

[Edokko]

Just my one-guy opinion, but those articulated crafts may have originally been made by the armoursmiths, perhaps even before the Meiji abolishment of samurai wear and swords, but even more so as they lost their jobs after the Edo period ended. The samurai armour as true battle use was becoming more and more obsolete as the Tokugawa era continued with no significant battles, so the samurai family were ordering more elaborately and intricately made armours more for "show" than anything else, and the armoursmiths were becoming more of an artistic craftsmen than a weapon maker. That artistic trait may have spilled over to making these animal crafts which required the ariculation and sheet metal shaping that were equivalent to the fancy show armours.

 

[DK PHILLIPS]

?