Discovery of Three Small Ikkanbari Telescopes Fabricated by the IWAHASHI Family

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify who fabricated the three small Ikkanbari (一閑張) telescopes discovered by the author, and to estimate when these telescopes were fabricated from a historical perspective. Zenbei IWAHASHI (1756–1811) was one of the most famous Japanese telescope makers of the Edo period and fabricated many high-performance telescopes. After Zenbeiʼs death, his successors inherited his manufacturing technique and continued to fabricate Ikkanbari telescopes until the Meiji period. To date, telescopes fabricated by the IWAHASHI family have been investigated by the author, Makoto WATANABE and his colleagues, who have already identified 24 telescopes as having been fabricated by the IWAHASHI family. Most of these telescopes provided direct evidence of their origin, such as the IWAHASHI familyʼs original pattern Kuruma gata (車形), the inscription of the name IWAHASHI, and the IWAHASHI trademark. In this study, the author investigated three small Ikkanbari telescopes. There is no direct evidence that the telescopes were fabricated by the IWAHASHI family, except for one telescope that had IWAHASHI trademark on its case. However, the author concluded that a telescope can be considered as having been fabricated by the IWAHASHI family if its size is equal to that of the telescopes described in Saikutsumori-cho (『サイクツモリ□』帳) and if several of its patterns are the same as those of the telescopes known to have been fabricated by the IWAHASHI family. This result confirms M.WATANABEʼs opinion.