Philippine weapons in Spanish museums

[migueldiaz]

Thanks again to Carlos and Engar, for the pics they've shared to us earlier, here and here.

Am now in Spain, trying to visit museums with Philippine collections. The first one I saw was the Victor Balaguer museum in Vilanova i La Geltru near Barcelona. The museum directress and staff are quite helpful and accommodating, incidentally.

Sample pics are below, and the rest of the pics are HERE.

I'm still organizing the pics of the items in storage. I'll post the link very soon.

Next would be Museo Naval, in Madrid ...

[migueldiaz]

At Museo Naval in Madrid, I was able to take more than 200 pics. Some samples are below.

As can be seen in the pics, together with the Phil. weapons are Chinese and Oceanic clubs, spears, etc.

Some of the items regarded as Philippine will surely raise questions (e.g., the shark teeth club with a kris-like handle, which 'Philippine' shark teeth club can also be found in Victor Balaguer museum).

Then there's that kampilan with no crossguard and an interesting steel structure.

The complete 200+ pics are HERE.

[migueldiaz]

Some more preview pics are below, from the Museo Naval set.

The detail of the painting is from a huge painting depicting the fall of the Balangingi "pirate" stronghold in Mindanao, which was a much celebrated victory by Spain.

[Battara]

What wonderful pictures! Never seen a triple twistcore kampilan before. I looked through the flicker link - please post the rest of them! Thanks!

[migueldiaz]

One room in Museo Naval is dedicated to the salvaged items of the Spanish ship 'San Diego', which sank in 1600 off Luzon, after a sea battle with Dutch ships.

At the national museum of the Philippines, another room is also dedicated to the recovered artifacts of San Diego.

Anyway, the pics below are from Museo Naval. An intriguing thing was the presence of Japanese katanas. One theory thus was that Spain used Japanese mercenaries then. Yet perhaps another possibility is that some of the Filipinos who joined the Spanish military then were armed with imported katanas.

In San Buenaventura's 1613 and Ruiz's 1630 Spanish-Tagalog dictionaries, they used "katana" to refer to a sword in the Tagalog dialect. It's a loan word of course, as there's no native "katana" word in Tagalog.

But the presence of katanas in the Philippines then, and the usage of the term to refer to the common sword actually makes a lot of sense. And that's because the Philippines then has been trading with China, Japan, Siam (Thailand), etc., long before the Spaniards came.

The complete San Diego pics are HERE.

[Gavin Nugent]

Outstanding, thank you Lorenz.

It is amazing where our passions take us.

I certainly enjoyed the vast variety and beauty of these items pictured.

Thank you

Gav

[Battara]

After a closer examination, the triple twistcore kampilan looks like it once had guard that is now lost.

[Dimasalang]

Originally Posted by migueldiaz

Anyway, the pics below are from Museo Naval. An intriguing thing was the presence of Japanese katanas. One theory thus was that Spain used Japanese mercenaries then. Yet perhaps another possibility is that some of the Filipinos who joined the Spanish military then were armed with imported katanas.

In San Buenaventura's 1613 and Ruiz's 1630 Spanish-Tagalog dictionaries, they used "katana" to refer to a sword in the Tagalog dialect. It's a loan word of course, as there's no native "katana" word in Tagalog.

But the presence of katanas in the Philippines then, and the usage of the term to refer to the common sword actually makes a lot of sense. And that's because the Philippines then has been trading with China, Japan, Siam (Thailand), etc., long before the Spaniards came.

The complete San Diego pics are HERE.

Lorenz, check out "Events in the Philippine Islands"(or the original Spanish version: Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas) by Dr Antonio de Morga published in 1609...they are now released in English or Tagalog as "History of the Philippine Islands Vol I and II". Im sure you know of this book, but maybe you haven't looked in to it for the Japanese connection. For those that don't know Morga, he was a high ranking colonial official, but he is best remembered as a historian...and his book documents the history of the Philippine islands from 1493 to 1603. He also led the Spanish naval battle with the Dutch in 1600(which Lorenz mentioned previously). Jose Rizal and many historians today study his work. Morga makes mention of the Japanese in the Philippines on several hundred accounts, and some being of war. In one instance Morga speaks of one Japanese mestizo and his Japanese counterparts living in a Japanese community in Manila. They are hired men and collaborated at one time with Spanish forces. In 1594 the King of Cambodia fled to Laos after being invaded by the King of Siam(Thailand). In 1596 Luis Pérez Dasmariñas(son of Gomez) set sail for Cambodia with 3 ships consisting of Filipino, Japanese, and Spanish warriors...they planned to reconquer Cambodia for the Cambodian king. This plan failed once two of the ships reached the docks and made conflict with the residing community.
Morga also mentions he received notice of a possible invasion by Japan, but explains, due to their lack of ships and navigational skills they would never succeed. These are just bits and pieces I just looked up in the book...I myself still haven't really sat down and looked through it completely or thoroughly...I think I'll do that now. Katanas and samurai swords were possibly traded for goods in and around the Philippines, but as you can see also, there were in fact documented Japanese warriors roaming around the Philippines. Interesting don't you think...these Samurai warriors as hired men during the 15-16th century settling in the Philippines.

[migueldiaz]

sajen, nonoy, jose, gav, thanks for the comments.

ron, i don't have the pic of the whole design. in some museums for pieces like this, they put a mirror behind the item.

dimasalang, thanks for the comments on the samurais in the phils. i should read again morga as i missed that part

talking about phil. history, at the agustinianos' library in valladolid, spain (where museo oriental is located), i spent merely about half an hour at the library and i already found interesting titles (excerpts of some articles are below, and the entire articles are here .

i think [dimasalang] should spent at least a month there at valladolid!

[Nonoy Tan]

Beautiful! Thank you.

[Nonoy Tan]

Thank you for sharing these photos...

I love that bamboo spear with anthropomorphic designs, showing the procedure of tattooing. Fine documentation using the spear as medium.

[Battara]

Yeah great pictures! Thanks! Noticed that one of the figures on the spear is cutting into the head of another figure with a Kalinga head axe over his Kalinga shield!

And I have always wanted to see other pictures of this ivory-gold kris with Arabic on it.

[Dimasalang]

Thanks Lorenz for taking this trip and your time in doing this. Not just the photos, but also for "sharing"! What a wealth of info! Some of these pieces opens up a whole new world for us! Keep it comin! Maraming-maraming salamat!!

[Spunjer]

Originally Posted by Nonoy Tan

Thank you for sharing these photos...

I love that bamboo spear with anthropomorphic designs, showing the procedure of tattooing. Fine documentation using the spear as medium.

yep. i know what to add next time
lorenz, do you have an even closer pic of the whole design?

the figures looks like it's telling a story tho. looks like the one on the far left is getting his head cleaved, while the far right looks as if she's (?) getting fondled, lol.