Monthly Archives: March 2024

Building a Gozabune (Kobaya) from Paris Plans – Part 14

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An update on this model is long overdue. While I hadn’t really been working much on the Kobaya model, it is a model that I’ve been very happy with. With the release of the new Shōgun TV series (more on that in another post), I’ve found something of a renewed interest in working on my wasen models, particularly in my kobaya model, as I knew the next steps I wanted to deal with. So, I brought the model down from the shelf, cleaned it up, and immediately started working on it again.
The model is inching closer to completion now, with the biggest hold-up being the making and mounting of the ship’s 28 sculling oars. Given the size of a person on the model, the deck would have been crowded with oarsmen. With such a sharp hull and relatively small size (17m) in comparison with the largest of ships at the time (30m, give or take), those 28 oars must have made her very fast.
Below is an one of the sculling oars, which in Japanese is called a “ro”. It’s not complete as it need a rope wrapping where the head and the body overlap. It also needs a small handle that should stick up near the end of the oar’s head.

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Japanese Sailing Ships and Boats on The Rope Website

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It’s been developing slowly over the years, but The Rope Tokyo, has been updating their website with an increasing amount of material on traditional Japanese ships and boats and their models. Over the years, they’ve added some material from presentations given at their regular meetings. But, more recently, they’ve added a section showing types of ships and boats, based on model built by members, as well as a section showing models of boats preserved at the Ota ward local museum (a collection that I was actually involved in discovering).

Model of a Normeri-bune in the Ota ward city museum. Photo courtesy of The Rope Tokyo.

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The Watercraft of the New Shōgun Series

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If you’re visiting this site now, there’s a good chance that you seen the new FX series Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell. You’ve then also seen some of the watercraft that appears and may be wondering how accurately they are depicted. I’ve only seen the first couple episodes, and I haven’t had a chance to study them too closely yet. And, honestly, I was too engrossed in the story line, characters, and imagery to spend a lot of time studying the accuracy of the boats too closely yet. But, at first glance, things looked very good.

Screenshot from FX’s Shōgun Viewer’s Guide

By the way, I got the above image from FX’s Shōgun Viewers Guide, which you can link to here. Continue reading →