View Single Post
Old 18th February 2011, 12:05 AM   #20
Gustav
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,196
Default

In Tropenmuseum there is (much younger) Balinese keris of somewhat similar appearance (picture borrowed from Maurice). I suppose, such feature as this selut is not known in Java.

I think, we can accept hilt and selut as a bad fit, becouse selut is not covering bungkul.

It is clear, that gambar is being repainted with a symbol, which could be regarded as a christian one. With some certainity the repainting is done in the same style as alas-alasan on gandar, some colours are the same, some differ.

I am not sure if we can call this keris a pick up, becouse it is a really high quality keris and Hasekura Tsunenaga was a diplomat on official mission. After beeing in Spain and Rome he stayed for two years in Manila before returning to Japan. It is a speculation, nothing about this part of his voyage is known, yet I don't think he was staying in this town all the time, and his staying there before the fulfilment of his mission should have some reason.
Attached Images
 
Gustav is offline   Reply With Quote