The Ruins found in Beijing are not Marco Polo’s Xanadu

An article on the SCMP (Clues lead to the ‘Greatest Palace That Ever Was’ 10/06.2016) ) claims that the ruins of the fabled moveable palace of Kublai Khan has been discovered within the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Laura Zhou, confusing two different descriptions made by Polo, writes: For centuries the imperial palace of Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty was shrouded in mystery. After the dynasty collapsed, there were no clues as to where it was and it lived on only in legend through writings such as those of 13th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo.
If Polo is to be believed, the walls of “the greatest palace that ever was” were covered with gold and silver and the main hall was so large that it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner.
Chinese archaeologists solve mystery of Beijing’s Forbidden Palace (“The palace was made of cane supported by 200 silk cords, which could be taken to pieces and transported easily when the emperor moved,” he wrote in his travel journal. It was a vision of grandeur but the palace disappeared, seemingly without trace. The Yuan dynasty lasted for a less than a century, spanning the years from 1279 to 1368, and it is widely believed that the capital of the empire was Beijing. But in the centuries since, one question has dogged historians and archaeologists in China: just where was the dynasty’s palace?
Institute deputy director Wang Guangyao said the foundation unearthed in the central-west part of the palace was in the same style as one uncovered in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, in the ruins of Zhongdu, one of the four capitals of the Yuan dynasty.
Some of the rubble in the newly discovered Yuan foundation dated back even further to dynasties such as the Liao (907–1125) and the Jin (1115–1234), Wang said.
Wang said a foundation of such size was rare in Yuan buildings and could have been used to support a palatial hall. More exploration of the dig at the Forbidden City
At the very least, the find proved that the Yuan palace was built on the same site as the Ming palace, though it was still too early to say these two completely overlapped.
Wang Guangyao, deputy director of the Palace Museum’s Institute of Archaeology “At least we now know that the palace was not built somewhere else but here,” Wang said.
Wang said it wasn’t easy to excavate in one of the country’s most important cultural sites and more work was still to be done.
That the place where we now see the Forbidden City has Yuan Dynasty foundations is out of discussion but that the ruins are those indicated by Marco Polo as Kublai Khan’s summer palace is wrong. The weather in Beijing during the summer months was wet and too warm for an Emperor, why should he had built his summer palace there?

In fact, the quotes taken from Marco Polo’s book in the quoted article are not precise. Let’s have a look at them.

Marco Polo (1254-1324) went to China in 1271 and returned to his native Venice in 1295. There are still a few historians who claim that he never went to China. Frances Wood is the main ‘negationist’ having published in 1995 a book titled Did Marco Polo Go to China? a 1995 arguing that the Venetian explorer never visited China but he went no further than Tana in Crimea, basing his description of China on accounts collected from other travellers.

Frances Wood’s thesis has many faults and possessing even a superficial knowledge of China and Mongolia at that time one can realize that he was there and he had seen things with his own eyes.

Here I quote a small detail (one of the many) who escaped Wood’s selective attention: Marco Polo is correctly giving the date of birth of Kublai Khan, the 27th of September. This is a detail which could hardly appear in the notes of one who is just repeating stories…
As it is well known there are several editions of Polo’s book. Several in manuscripts form and then in print. But on this point we are going to quote the Franco-Italian version (the oldest) and the manuscript known as Z which are in accord on this particular point.

On the City of Giandu (Xanadu)

Giandu is the city built by the Great Khan, Kublai. He had built a palace of marble and other rare stones; the rooms and the chambers are all golden and everything is very beautiful. And around this palace there is a wall of XV miles and inside are streams and fountains and several meadows. And inside keep the Great Khan many beasts, deer, chamois and roe deer, that he feed. Then awks and gyrfalcons in hundreds. Every week he wants to go to inspect it. And every time he goes within these corralled meadows he takes a tamed leopard on the back of his horse and when he wants to get one of those animals he set free the leopard and the leopard catch her and then he feed the meat to his gyrfalcons who he keeps in cages. He does this for sport.
You should know that the Great Khan had made in the middle of the meadow a Palace with canes, which is all gilded inside with figures of beasts and birds. The roof is made with reeds and so well made that water cannot get inside. Those reeds (bamboo) are 2 palms wide and they are 10 to 15 steps long, cutted at the knot in half and they look like tiles, so that the house could be covered with them. He can order the palace to be disassembled and hang it with 200 ropes of silk
Know that he spends the months of June, July, August and this because is warm. During the rest of the year this palace lays disassembled. He departs on 28 of August and I will tell you why.

Then Marco Polo speaks of the white mares belonging to Kublai and the fact that only people with imperial blood can drink their milk, only exception is made for the people of the Oriat (those who knows the story of the Mongols in their Golden Book know why).
Then he adds that over this palace there is never bad weather because of the Khan’s sorcerers and astronomers.
In the following pages Marco Polo speaks, starting at chapter 83, of the Palace of the Great Khan. Saying: “You should know that the Great Khan stays in the main city – which is called Canbalu (Kambalik or Beijing today) for three months: December, January and February and in this city is his great palace and I’ll tell you how it is made…

Marco Polo then goes on with his description of the Palace. From these few lines it is clear that he is talking of two different palaces, one which could be disassembled and good for the summer months, which was probably located in Jehol and which has left not much traces being the main structure made of bamboo, then the Palace in Beijing where Prof. Wang Guangyao is excavating. Then the fabled Xanadu, made famous by Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem “Kubla Khan” is certainly not there, where they are excavating.

I Boat People di Hong Kong e quelli che sbarcano in Italia.

Saigon cadde il 30 aprile 1975. La repressione e la crisi economica che seguirono spinsero un milione di vietnamiti a fuggire. Si calcola che sino al 1985 circa centomila persone furono passate per le armi senza processo. Le immagini di disperati, stipati su barconi in procinto di affondare, fecero il giro del mondo. Li definirono, con una punta d’ironia i ‘boat people’.

Basta guardare quelle vecchie fotografie per leggere nei loro occhi tutta la loro disperazione, il loro terrore. Si vedono donne che stringono i propri bambini al petto, ma quanti di loro morirono non lo sa nessuno. Decine di migliaia sparirono fra le onde o furono brutalizzati e derubati dai pirati, dopo che avevano pagato con il poco oro che possedevano un posto in una di quelle precarie bagnarole che affrontavano l’oceano Pacifico. Dapprima furono accolti bene nei paesi vicini, ma a partire dal 1979 il loro numero aumentò e la simpatia finì.
Una delle loro mete preferite fu la colonia britannica di Hong Kong. Navigavano vicini alla costa cinese, sfuggendo per quanto possibile alle rapine e alle estorsioni e, dopo aver passato l’isola di Hainan, attraccavano fra i grattacieli di Hong Kong.
A chi ha almeno 50 anni quelle immagini tragiche ricordano quanto sta oggi accadendo nel canale di Sicilia.

PER LEGGERE L’ARTICOLO COMPLETO SUL BLOG DI DINO MESSINA/CORRIERE DELLA SERA FATE CLICK SUL LINK:

1975: la crisi dei “boat people”, un precedente da studiare

 

 

 

Matteo Renzi è la reincarnazione di Gian Galeazzo Ciano?

Gian Galeazzo Ciano

Il nostro Primo Ministro Matteo Renzi mi ha sempre colpito come un deja vu ma solo recentemente ho avuto una intuizione su chi davvero egli possa essere stato in una sua precedente reincarnazione: Gian Galeazzo Ciano, Conte di Cortellazzo!

I due uomini appaiono davvero simili: entrambi toscani, nativo di Firenze Matteo Renzi e di Livorno Gian Galeazzo Ciano. Entrambi facili allo sfottò e alla battuta. Ottimi studenti tutti e due, diplomati con il massimo dei voti: in un liceo fiorentino, il Renzi; uno di Genova, il Ciano. Poi, per entrambi laurea in legge, sempre con il massimo dei voti.

La precocità e l’agilità mentale – nonché il loro essere un po’ guitti – può esser osservata in entrambi. Per esempio nel fatto che Renzi a 19 anni guadagnò 48 milioni di lire partecipando al programma televisivo La Ruota della Fortuna. Dopo la laurea entrambi ebbero delle esperienze in campo letterario. Renzi scrisse articoli per la rivista Camminando Insieme dove fu pure caporedattore. Ciano, invece, scrisse di critica teatrale e compose delle commedie che pochi andarono a vedere. Poi, spinto dal potente padre, entrò nella carriera diplomatica, finendo a Rio de Janeiro e poi a Buenos Aires, da dove fu rimosso e poi mandato a Pechino per via d’una burla finita male. Erano alla fine di un ricevimento e Ciano disse a un vecchio generale e statista locale: “E ora vecchio bacucco, ti auguro buona notte!” Non immaginava che quello sapesse l’italiano.

La vita di Ciano mutò radicalmente a 29 anni quando gli imposero di sposare la figlia di Mussolini, Edda. E giusto 29 anni aveva Renzi quando divenne presidente della Provincia di Firenze.

Dopo aver sposato Edda, Ciano partì per Shanghai, dove fu Console Generale, comportandosi tutto sommato bene, a parte le numerose scappatelle erotiche alle quali era quasi costretto per provare il proprio macismo. Edda se ne accorse e lo ripagò con la stessa moneta, rendendolo più cornuto d’un vecchio cervo.

A Shanghai ebbe anche un incontro con il sovrannaturale. Vicino al Peace Hotel fu avvicinato da una vecchia che per per un soldo gli lesse la mano. Era con altra gente e Ciano, con il suo solito fare da toscanaccio, le intimò: “Dimmi quando morirò!”

Lei rispose: ” Di morte violenta, a 40 anni…”

Che questo sia vero lo sappiamo da alcune sue lettere, nelle quali si vantava di questa profezia. Rientrato in Italia il generissimo dalla molte battute, veniva a sua volta canzonato con il ritornello:

Gian Galezzo Ciano, Conte di Cortellazzo, bella la rima in ‘azzo, meglio quella in ano.
Nel 1936 Mussolini lo nominò Ministro degli Esteri, il più giovane d’europa, a soli 33 anni. Quella è l’età in cui il nostro Renzi diviene Sindaco di Firenze e poi, a 39 anni e 42 giorni, Primo Ministro, battendo per 53 giorni il record di Benito Mussolini, che durava dal 1922.

La sua opera al ministero degli Esteri, al di là di tutto il suo ‘maschio attivismo’ vien così definita da Gianpasquale Santomassimo: “Le numerose memorie e testimonianze di diplomatici italiani e stranieri concordano nel far coincidere, con l’avvento del Ciano agli Esteri, una accentuazione del dilettantismo e della faciloneria, che già aveva preso piede nella direzione della politica estera italiana in seguito alla progressiva fascistizzazione del ministero degli Esteri, che il Ciano intensificò durante gli anni del suo ministero. Volubilità, vaghezza di propositi, scadimento del tono e dello stile vengono correntemente addebitati alla stessa personalità del Ciano nelle sue funzioni di ministro.”

Ciano, a 39 anni, fu nominato Ambasciatore presso la Santa Sede e la chiromante di Shanghai alla fine ebbe ebbe ragione: Galeazzo Ciano morì fucilato a Verona, a 40 anni, l’11 gennaio 1944. Esattamente 31 anni dopo, al minuto, il giorno 11 gennaio 1975, vide la luce il nostro Matteo Renzi.

Melissa Rupp’s review of my book ‘The Dew of Heaven’

The first review, by Melissa Rupp, an American writer and editor living in Ohio.

Angelo Paratico, freelance writer, novelist and historian, is an expat Italian who has been living in Hong Kong for the past 35 years. I had the pleasure to work with him on his newest novel, The Dew of Heaven, to be published by Cactus Moon Publications this summer. Preorder sales can be found at Cactus Moon’s bookstore.

Angelo’s mastery of storytelling coupled with his studies in history made working with him a breeze. At times, I got so caught up in the characters and the mystery of who carried the powerful Sulde, I didn’t want to stop and do my editing job! From Mongolia to Macao to Hong Kong and China. From modern times to the 1900 Boxer Rebellion to the conquests of Genghis Khan. This book is worth the read. I hated to stop and a change a thing.
The story unfolds with the sudden reappearance of a mysterious Holy Grail charged with an irresistible magic power.

In Mongolia, during the 1920’s, Stalin’s henchman sought Genghis Khan’s spiritual banner-the Khara Sulde. A steel trident with silver rings carrying the black mane of his warhorse, a relic that disappeared from the Shankh lamasery of Ovorkhangai Aimag, in Western Mongolia. They razed lamaseries, burned libraries, and shot thousands of harmless lamas, smashing their precious artworks and sacred relics.

The Japanese learned of Stalin’s failure to find the relic and unsuccessfully searched during the botched attempt to invade Mongolia prior to WWII.

Adolf Hitler consulted Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin, in an effort to locate it. Despite Hitler’s success locating other ancient relics – such as Longinus’ spear that pierced the heart of Jesus – he was unable to locate the Khara Sulde.

Why then, has the Khara Sulde surprisingly resurfaced today in contemporary Hong Kong, and right into the hands of a strange Italian mogul?

A very mysterious man known to the few who have met him as half godfather and half mystic?

Angelo is gregarious, kind and full of excitement for his subjects. He has written many books, but none that is making waves as much as Leonardo Da Vinci: A Chinese Scholar Lost in Renaissance Italy. Was Da Vinci’s mother a Chinese slave named, Caterina, his inspiration for the Mona Lisa? We’ll soon find out.

Thank you, Angelo, for letting me be a part of The Dew of Heaven! Readers will find it as wonderful as I did.

The original article by Melissa can be found here:

http://revisionsandedits.com/the-dew-of-heaven-by-angelo-paratico/

Our Book on Leonardo Da Vinci published in Korean and Italian

The rights for an edition in Korean of Leonardo Da Vinci. A Chinese Scholar Lost in Renaissance Italy had been sold a couple of weeks ago by Lascar Publishing Ltd to LP PUBLISHING a reputable publisher based in Seoul, specialised in works on art and philosophy.

 

The translation work in Korean will begin soon and we expect to see it printed during the Spring of 2017.

The rights to publish an Italian edition were also sold to Gingko, an Italian publishing house based in Bologna.
The translation in Italian has been completed and the book will be out by the end of the current year, greatly enriched by a presentation written by Prof. Carlo Pedretti, the greatest living expert on Leonardo and former curator of the the Bill Gates Codex. Pedretti is the author of hundreds of books and essays while most of the discoveries of the last 60 years on the Florentine genius are due to Pedretti’s work and passion.

By the end of June 2016 Cactus Moon Publishing based in Tempe, Arizona, will publish my next work: The Dew of Heaven which is based on historical facts, beginning with Italy’s intervention in the Boxer War of 1900 up to contemporary Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia.

https://cactus-moon-books.myshopify.com/products/the-dew-of-heaven-pre-order

La donna che sparò a Mussolini

90 anni fa, mercoledì 7 Aprile 1926. Alle 8 in punto Quinto Navarra entrava nell’appartamento di Palazzo Tittoni, in via Rasella, dove alloggiava Benito Mussolini. Una Lancia nera li attendeva in strada. Mussolini si sistemò dietro e si diressero verso Palazzo Chigi. Giunto nel proprio ufficio, il Primo Ministro sedette alla sua scrivania e sbrigò le questioni più urgenti, ricevendo dei funzionari e firmando delle carte. Alle 9 e 30 incontrò il Duca D’Aosta, cugino del Re e poi corse verso il Campidoglio. Salì di corsa la scalinata e una volta entrato nella Sala degli Orazi e dei Curazi, saltò sulla predella e inaugurò il Settimo Congresso Internazionale di Chirurgia. Parlò a braccio, ringraziando quei luminari per il continuo progresso di quell’arte che lo aveva rimesso insieme, dopo che le sue ossa e i suoi muscoli furono lacerati da una esplosione durante la prima guerra mondiale. Poi uscì dall’edificio, camminando speditamente sotto a un bel sole primaverile, verso la statua equestre di Marco Aurelio. La piazza era gremita di suoi rumorosi ammiratori, che lo salutarono e di uomini del servizio di sicurezza.

Alle 10 e 58 minuti usciva e davanti a lui stava il governatore di Roma, di fianco camminavano due medici e dietro il fido Quinto Navarra, con altre persone, fra le quali Dino Grandi. In quel momento un coro di giovani, senza preavviso, intonò Giovinezza: Mussolini alzò la testa, voltandola leggermente per fare un cenno di salutoe torse la spalla per alzare il braccio.
Proprio in quel attimo s’udi’ un colpo secco e il suo viso si copre di sangue. La sua mano destra, dal saluto romano appena accennato viene portata al volto, Mussolini si fermò, arretrando d’un passo. Poi si volse e vide una donnetta grigia di capelli, con un vestitino nero e una grossa pistola in mano: era una pistola francese a tamburo, modello Lebel 1892. Per un attimo, che parve lungo secoli, tutti restano immobili e silenziosi: anche l’attentatrice che, vedendolo ancora in piedi, pur avendo fatto fuoco da un paio di metri di distanza, alzò nuovamente l’arma. La puntò di nuovo, tirò il grilletto e si udì un click ma il colpo fece cilecca. La vecchia cartuccia tedesca che aveva utilizzato era difettosa.
Quella donna cinquantenne era una nobile anglo-irlandese, Violet Albina Gibson, figlia di Lord Ashbourne, ma invisa alla propria famiglia per essersi convertita al cattolicesimo. Una signora dietro di lei è la prima a reagire: accortasi di quanto sta accadendo la colpisce con una borsetta sulla testa e i poliziotti e la folla le si avventano contro. Mussolini mantiene il suo sangue freddo e grida che non è stato niente, nessuna paura. Infatti la pallottola gli ha solo spelato la radice del naso. Eppure senza il suo provvidenziale saluto al coro, egli sarebbe certamente morto.
Un medico gli tampona la ferita con il fazzoletto e poi lo convince a rientrare: altri medici s’avventano su Mussolini, che poi dirà a Rachele che lì ebbe davvero paura per la propria incolumità, perché tutti quegli scienziati lo stavano soffocando.
La polizia riuscì a sottrarre Violet al linciaggio e ad arrestarla. Risulterà essere pazza: l’anno prima aveva tentato d’impiccarsi e specialmente durante il mese di aprile manifestava e manifesterà reazioni violente. Era già stata in varie cliniche psichiatriche, ma le indagini circa la complicità di altri congiurati non furono mai davvero portate avanti dalla polizia fascista, forse perché guardarono verso la Russia sovietica e non altrove. Fu processata e giudicata pazza e così, nel maggio del 1927, accompagnata da una sorella, le fu concesso di lasciare Roma in una carrozza di prima classe su di un treno diretto a Parigi. Da Parigi passarono la Manica e fu scortata a Northampton, dove fu messa in una clinica di lusso per malati di mente, nella quale resterà rinchiusa sino alla morte, avvenuta nel 1956.

Benito Mussolini, nonostante la ferita e la vistosa benda che gli misero sul naso, continuò con il suo programma. Nel pomeriggio era al Palazzo del Littorio per incontrare i segretari provinciali e il nuovo direttorio del Partito Fascista. Poi fece ritorno a Palazzo Chigi e di sera fu costretto ad apparire al balcone per salutare la folla che vi si era radunata. Fu in quella occasione che sfoderò il motto del vandeano Henri de la Rochejaquelein, spesso citato e da molti attribuito a Mussolini: “Se avanzo, seguitemi. Se indietreggio, uccidetemi. Se muoio, vendicatemi!” La folla rispose con grida di: “La forca, la forca!”
Due giorni dopo, la quattordicenne Clara Petacci gli scrisse la sua prima letterina, congratulandosi per lo scampato pericolo ma Mussolini la incontrerà solo sei anni dopo.
Tutti i capi di stato del mondo inviarono dei telegrammi di congratulazioni, anche Re Giorgio di Gran Bretagna, che trent’anni prima era stato fotografato a fianco di Violet Gibson. Il giorno dopo l’attentato, rifiutando di stare a riposo, come gli chiedevano i dottori, Mussolini andò all’aeroporto di Ciampino a salutare il colonnello Nobile che partiva con il dirigibile Norge verso il Polo Nord. Poi scese verso il mare, dove lo attendeva la corazzata Cavour che lo avrebbe portato in Libia.

Vittorio Emanuele Cuniberti. The little-known Italian engineer who changed naval warfare

The HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, made a strong impression on all people who saw it.
The revolutionary features of this ship were two: all cannons were large calibre and a steam turbine provided high speed. It was so revolutionary that suddenly all the other ships were classified as pre-Dreadnaught type and post-Dreadnaught type, sparking a great armament race on the seas by all countries possessing a Navy.

The credit of having promoted and built such warship was given to John Arbuthnot “Jacky” (or “Jackie”) Fisher (1841-1920). He is considered one of the most important figure in British naval history together with Lord Nelson.

In his youth he had served for 5 years in Hong Kong and Canton on the 21-gun steam Covette HMS Highflyer part of the China fleet, where he spent five years, seeing action in the Second Opium War (1856–1860). Then Fisher reformed the Navy, introducing several innovations, like the torpedo, long range cannons on warships. He was forced to retire in 1911 but was recalled in 1914, resigning after a few months because of a sort of nervous breakdown he experienced during the Gallipoli Campaign, launched by Winston Churchill.

He was tall and had strange facial traits, not really British-looking. Some insinuated that his mother had a extra marital affair with a Chinese while in Sri Lanka but most probably this was due to the genes in his father’s family, coming down from a Portuguese ancestor.
Fisher was a visionary in several ways, for instance when they forced him into retirement he commented that war with Germany would break out in October 1914, following the anticipated completion date of work on the Kiel Canal, allowing a passage of German battleships. However, the Kiel Canal was completed in July, and war commenced in August 1914…

But the real inventor of the Dreadnought class of battleships was not Fisher but the little known Vittorio Emanuele Cuniberti (1854 – 1913) an Italian naval engineer from Turin, who had joined the Regia Marina and in 1899, together with Benedetto Brin, designed the Regina Elena class of battleships.

Jacky Fisher never gave credit to Cuniberti, or to any other foreigner but all modern naval engineers know and accept that Cuniberti was the first to put it black on white in a scientific paper. Fisher, with his passion for innovation, understood the revolutionary power of it and made it his own, while other Admirals, in Italy and elsewhere, were not so quick-witted, dismissing Cuniberti’s conceps and drawings.

Cuniberti first approached the Italian Government to propose a design based on his ideas. But the Italian government declined for budgetary reasons, giving Cuniberti permission to write an article for Jane’s Fighting Ships.
The ship Cuniberti envisaged in his article was a colossus of the seas which would carry a series of single calibre gun, the biggest available. Such powerfully armoured colossus would be impervious to all but the 12-inch (305 mm) guns of the enemy. His ship would be extremely fast, so that this colossus would choose the point of attack. Cuniberti saw this ship as able to discharge his big guns at the same time, engulfing first one enemy ship, moving on to the next, and then to the next, destroying the enemy fleet. He imagined the effect of a squadron of six colossi with an overwhelming power to deter all possible opponents, a bit like the Venetian ships at Lepanto, in 1571.

Cuniberti’s article was published before the Battle of Tsushima, which vindicated his ideas and proved that he was right.

 

The Beauty of Japanese Tetsubin

I normally use a Japanese cast-iron kettle every morning for tea. Drinking water containing a moderate quantity of rust is good for our health. A bit of iron improves the taste of the water, making it more mellow and sweet.

Cast iron kettles, known as tetsubin in Japanese, have been in use for at least five centuries. They are hand crafted, beautiful objects, showing a  ‘Spartan’ simplicity, which are used to heat water to be then poured into a temmoku bowl for the tea ceremony or, as I am doing, into an ordinary porcelain teapot.

The inside part of the tetsubin is either plain or covered with a black layer of urushi a plant belonging to the same family of the Mango tree which is traditionally used to produce a coating material.

The period of civil wars in Japan ended in 1603, when Tokugawa won the Sekigahara battle, uniting and stabilising the Country. A lot of sword-smiths found themselves without orders but the steady demand for home implements persuaded them to transform themselves into producers of kitchen knifes and tetsubin.
In the region known as Tohoku the local king, Nanbu Toshinao, was a great fan of tea drinking and called several masters – in particular the Suzuki, Koizumi, Arisaka and Fujita clans – to work for him, so much so that, even today, that region remains the centre for tetsubin production. Some of them still bear the names of those artists, produced by their descendants. While their antique pieces call for very high prices among tea enthusiasts and art collectors.

The best pieces of tetsubin are still produced with clay mould following the original methods where, for the top-end models, the mould is used only once, for low end it is recycled up to 100 times.
Once the clay mould has been prepared and before baking, the external design which will appear on the tetsubin surface, is impressed. Traditionally there are three main patterns: the Arare with small knobs on the surface; the Hada, with a skin surface; finally the picturesque type, with flowers, horses, cranes.
The spout is moulded separately and then attached to the body; the lid is also produced later, with the right dimension and the right knob.

The advantage of using cast iron (1,7 to 4.5% C and 1 to 3% Si) instead of common iron is that cast iron is more fluid, having a lower melting point and shrink less while cooling. If the shrinkage is too high the kettle may crack.

After the casting the kettle is baked in charcoal fire, which takes away oxygen from its surface, giving to the vessel a blue-grey colour. This is a very important process for the inside part where it will come into contact with water.

The final stage is the application of the handle, which is made through forging, not casting. It is in some cases hollow, for some high-end products, with small holes to disperse the heat and for some medium to low level it is made solid.

There is a particular kinds of tetsubin which are produced in Kyoto, which have silver inlays inside the handle and the body. They are known as Kyoto-style or Seko-do.

How to see if your tetsubin was hand made or is an industrial product? Simple, look at the inside of the vessel and if you can see two hammered spots at the bottom, known as katamochi – the 2 nails used to fix the internal mould during the casting – it was hand made using a mould.

A newly made tetsubin produced by an anonymous workshop with a capacity of approx.. 1.4 litres of water may cost between 600 to 800 USD. If it is by a master who had signed it, it may cost from 800 USD up to a few thousands.

There are few points to remember for taking care of your tetsubin. After use it the inside should be completely dried, because water may create an excess of rust inside. The second point is that it should be not heated at full fire but gradually, as it may crack.

Space Exploration or Earth Exploration?

 

It may seem a boutade but fact is that we know much more about the Cosmos above our head, than on the Earth below our feet and this is, after all, a stark reminder of our great limitations.

Large sums of money are invested annually for exploring the outer space but very little is invested in exploring the inner structure of our Planet.The shifting of the Pole by 17 cm per year towards Europe, which was announced yesterday – perhaps due to the melting of the ice capt – reminds us how important is to understand the inner structure of our beautiful planet.

Another alarm bell are the recurring earthquakes which are destroying cities and causing tsunamis. It goes without saying that knowing better the lower levels of the Earth will help us to forecast them more accurately and give us time to prepare for them.

Our knowledge of the inner layers of the Earth is mainly due to scientific guessing. We use gravity pull and gravimetric experiments as a yardstick but we are not really sure about the results. Deep drilling have never gone beyond the crust up to the Upper Mantle, which extends from 210 to 270 km in depth. We are not even sure if the Inner Core is really solid, as it is claimed: made of iron and nickel.

The inner layering of Earth were mainly inferred indirectly, for instance using the time of travel of refracted and reflected seismic waves created by earthquakes. Here is our Earth could be layered:

Lithosphere (from 0 and 60 km)

Crust (from 0 to 35 km)

Uppermost part of mantle (35-60 km)

Mantle (35-2890 km)

Upper Mesosphere (upper Mantle 210-270)

Lower Mesosphere (lower Mantle 660-2.890 km)

Outer Core (1.790–3.160 km)

Inner Core (5.150-6.360 km)

 

An effort should be made to drill up to at least the Mantle, even before getting on Planet Mars. We do believe that we should get at least to 200 Km below the surface by 2030, and the founding of such enterprise – which remind us the famous book by the visionary writer Jules Verne – should easily reap great profits in the process by mining rare minerals, gold and diamonds. Furthermore, money could be made not only by extracting elements but also by extracting heat and energy. Deep placed heat-exchangers and electricity generators could allow us to move on the surface large quantity of energy, abandoning coal, petroleum and nuclear energy.

 

Garibaldi’s Victory of Bezzecca, 150 years Ago and the Story of a Remarkable Trumpeter

Giovanni Crisostomo Martino was born illegitimate at Sala Consilina – a small village in the province of Salerno – and was abandoned by his parents in an orphanage, where he was baptized on 28 January 1852. The fact that his second name is Crisostomo shows that he was probably born on 17 December 1851, being Saint Crisostomo’s day set by the Catholic Church on that day.

His life changed when he saw, in the main square of Sala Consilina, Giuseppe Garibaldi riding on a white horse. Apparently the small boy screamed at him that he wanted to become a Garibaldino wearing their red shirts but the General told him that he was too small, then the boy quipped that he wanted to play the trumpet not shoot people. The General, impressed, told him: “Fine, when you grow up come to see me.”

Martino went to see Garibaldi in 1866, at 14 and joined him as a volunteer following Garibaldi to Bezzecca, in Trentino, during the III War of Italian Independence. There, on 21 July 1866, 150 years ago, he was one of the soldiers who managed, with bayonet charges, to defeat the Austrians. Martino was there to spur the soldiers with the sound of his trumpet.
Demobilization did follow, and he returned to the bitter reality of his native village, where he should have gained some standing because his biological father came forward and there was a sort of reconciliation between them.
The reunification of the South with the North had been an economic disaster for the South and people in Sala Consilina were starving.

Giovanni Martino decided to leave his native Country and in 1873, in Naples, boarded a ship bound for the United States. Upon landing at Castle Clinton he was registered as ‘Giovanni Martino, a 21-year-old laborer from Sala’.
First he worked as hard laborer but then he found that the US Army was looking for soldiers, to tame the ‘wild West’ and he enrolled, changing his name into John Martin. He was able to ride a horse and he was thus assigned to a cavalry unit. On the morning of the 25 of June, 1876 he was temporarily assigned to serve as a bugler in the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

John Martin became forever known as a key player in the most famous battle of all Indian Wars: the Battle of The Little Big Horn. When Custer and nearly 210 troopers and scouts unwisely began his final approach to a massive Indian village located in the Little Big Horn River Valley. But before launching his multi-pronged attack, Custer sent John Martin off to locate Captain Frederick Benteen and tell him to come quickly for support and bring up the spare ammunition.

Prior to John Martin‘s departure Custer instructed him: “Trumpeter, go back on our trail and see if you can discover Benteen and give him this message. If you see no danger come back to us, but if you find Indians in your way stay with Benteen and return with him and when you get back to us report.”

Lieutenant William W. Cooke, General Custer’s adjutant, was apprehensive about Martin’s poor English and quickly scribbled a note containing General Custer’s orders for Captain Benteen. The note is still kept in a museum of the battle read:

Benteen,
Come on. Big Village. Be quick. Bring packs.
W. W. Cooke

P.S. Bring Packs.

 

The repetition and the sketchy handwriting show all the tension of the moment, frozen in history. Martin put the

note into his glove and departed at top speed.

Redskins warriors fired at Private Martin as he made his way back to Major Marcus Reno and Captain Benteen. Private Martin escaped injury but his horse was hit being struck by gunfire and bled to death soon after reaching the destination. After receiving Lieutenant Cooke’s written orders Captain Benteen inquired about General Custer’s location and if General Custer was being engaged by the Indians.

Private Martin informed Captain Benteen that General Custer was about three miles away and was fighting with the Indians. It’s usually reported that Private Martin stated, in a heavy Italian accent, that the Redskins were skedaddling (a term in fashion in those years, meaning ‘depart hurriedly’) but in 1906, while being interviewed by Walter Camp, Martin denied having used that word, which implied that the enemy was retreating.

Then Martin and the remaining Seventh Cavalry companies not riding with Custer were trapped on a nearby hill and fought off repeated attacks for 36 hours until their rescue by another U.S. Army column.

Martin was promoted Sergeant in 1900 and retired in 1904, completing nearly 30 years of service. In addition to his battlefield experiences, Martin testified at the January 1879 US Army Court of inquiry into Major Marcus Reno’s performance at The Little Big Horn. He then became famous as “Custer massacre survivor” and “The last white man to see Custer alive”.

In 1879, while serving in an artillery battery at Fort Schuyler (New York), he met and married an Irish girl, Julia Higgins, who would give birth to five children.

Martin then served in the Army until age limitations forced him to retire in 1904. He fought in 1877 at the Nez Perce campaign but his last action in combat came during the Spanish–American War (1898–1900) then settled with his family in Baltimore, Maryland, where they lived and operated a sweets and candy store.

By 1906, possibly following one of his daughters who had married there, he moved to Brooklyn, New York and took a job as a ticket agent at the 103rd Street Station of the nascent New York City subway system.

As he became old the long hours of commuting for his ticket-taker job forced him to change thus becoming a watchman at the nearby Navy Yard in 1915. In 1922, while crossing a street in Brooklyn, he was injured by a truck and hospitalized and then died from complications on December 24, 1922. John Martin was buried three days later in the Veterans section of the Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.