Author: Fireworks.
Title: [Oginoryu Tama Ageya Yagyocho].
Description: np. [later 18th century?]. Manuscript of 14 double folded leaves, string tied, 235x165mm, being 27 pages of text including the title (last page blank) in neat brush and ink. A few drawings and diagrams through the text. ¶ I'm at a bit of a loss here, being some distance from a Japanese translator, but confident in my experience of Japanese fireworks manuscripts - this is my second after all - I'll tell you what I know and what I guess. The Romaji transcription was given to me by the Japanese seller along with the date of c1750 and I find no reason to doubt either. The Ogin-ryu was a gunnery school - their fire arms get mentioned in antique gun circles - and that's all I can discover about it. This isn't a workman's manuscript recipe book, it is all too neat and laid out; it makes sense that it is a textbook, presumably more explosive than recreational - though there is a spiral diagram and a neat little fish (?) at the end. The first printed Japanese book on fireworks (by Risho) was not published until 1825, though there are plenty of woodcut prints, and little else was printed until the twentieth century; the secrets of fireworks, like most trades, were handed on in manuscript books like this.

Keywords: fireworks technology trades pyrotechny c18th Japan Asia military explosives