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Goban artest12/18/2023 ![]() Places like the onba-dokoro and for example the so-called „ waka-dokoro“ (和歌所, lit. Two sword polishers were employed there for the whole year. Well, the place where all the forging took place was called „ onba-dokoro“ (乳母所, lit. And Asukai Masatsune (飛鳥井雅経, 1170-1221), the magistrate for the ninth month, was by the way an ancestor of the poet Asukai Masaaki (飛鳥井雅章, 1611-1679) which I have mentioned in the next to last article on Hosokawa Yûsai and the kokin-denju. He was thereupon arrested but later released when the Jôkyû Disturbance was over. Incidentally, Sai´on-ji Kitsune (西園寺公経, 1171-1244), the first magistrate on the list, raised an objection to Gotoba when he learned that the retired emperor planned to recruit an army. That means it was rather a honorary thing than an actual executive post as it would have surely been no problem if one or two court aristicrats were in charge of the smiths over the whole year. This would also explain why there was a magistrate for every month. ![]() It is assumed that the magistrates had a kind of executive or supervising function because at that time it was very common for the Japanese court bureaucracy to assign posts for each and everything. Before we continue it has to be mentioned that the goban-kaji and magistrate list differs from historical sword publication to historical sword publication. The title translates as: „Fixed sequence of certain swordsmiths for twelve months which were invited to the residence of the retired Gotoba.“ Most of the listed magistrates were historically documented figures and confidants of Gotoba. Therein we find a list of magistrates ( bugyônin, 奉行人) and twelve swordsmiths which has the long title „ Gotoba´in-miu ni meshinukaseru kaji jûnika-getsu ketsuban-shidai“ (後鳥羽院御宇被召抜鍛冶十二月結番次第). First to the old sword script „ Kanchi´in-bon mei-zukushi“ (観智院本銘尽) of which the oldest extant copy dates to the 30 th year of Ôei (応永, 1431). This time I would like to take a look at the circumstances under which the goban-kaji worked. The list of all the different goban-kaji is otherwise available and I do not want to quote it here again. In my recent article on Kamakura- sugata I have referred to the retired Emperor Gotoba (後鳥羽天皇, 1180-1239, r.
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