Minasbad

[Robert]

Jose and Dave,
Thank you both for your kind words. I would appreciate any information as to the age of this piece or any other information that anyone would care to offer. Thanks again.

Robert

[KuKulzA28]

Good stuff! Minasbad, as well as other Luzon blades, often get overshadowed by the much more popular Moro weapons... and the minasbad is not a particularly common blade style of Luzon from what I've heard! Good to see it here on the EAA forums.

[Robert]

Good stuff! Minasbad, as well as other Luzon blades, often get overshadowed by the much more popular Moro weapons... and the Minasbad is not a particularly common blade style of Luzon from what I've heard! Good to see it here on the EAA forums.

Thank you Vinny. Have you seen the other one that I posted ? I wasn't even sure as to what to call it when I first acquired it. The thread on it is located at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13751 if you are interested in taking a look. I have another sword that I think might be from the Bicol area that has a hilt carved with an animal head that is very similar to the one on this Minasbad. Here are a couple of the pictures of the hilt to show the similarity in carving. I will be posting complete pictures of the sword in its own thread later. One other thing that I would like everyones opinion on is what do you think the hilt carving on both of these represent? I have been told that it could be a dog but with the way that the eyes, ears and especially the nose are represented it looks to me that it could be a water buffalo. Opinions anyone??

[Dimasalang]

Nice one Robert! Glad you finally found one also!
I received mine in the mail last week. Been too busy the past few days to take photos and post. I will within this week. I definitely want to get another, and I am hoping to find one similar to the traditional looking Minasbad like yours.

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

Thank you Vinny. Have you seen the other one that I posted ? I wasn't even sure as to what to call it when I first acquired it. The thread on it is located at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13751 if you are interested in taking a look. I have another sword that I think might be from the Bicol area that has a hilt carved with an animal head that is very similar to the one on this Minasbad. Here are a couple of the pictures of the hilt to show the similarity in carving. I will be posting complete pictures of the sword in its own thread later. One other thing that I would like everyones opinion on is what do you think the hilt carving on both of these represent? I have been told that it could be a dog but with the way that the eyes, ears and especially the nose are represented it looks to me that it could be a water buffalo. Opinions anyone??

Interesting animal head. If it were a carabao, I would think the horns would be included, given the horns are a significant characteristic of the carabao. With the ears drooped like that, I am thinking goat or a calf or cow. Thats only my guess though.

Im finding myself more fascinated with Visayan weapons lately, considering there is sever lack of documentation and history behind them...I kinda like that. It makes them less popular as of now...but I feel in the near future that will all change. Funny how more Filipinos of the north would like to closely relate themselves to the Moro weapons than the visayan ones. Nearly all Eskrima/Arnis/Kali/FMA groups have a Moro weapon in their symbol or their arsenal...and 98% of them practice nothing similar or related to Moro Martial Arts. And they know all the names of the Moro weapons, but not the Visayan ones...and ironically, most of these arts originated from the Visayas region.
The animal carved hilts from Bikol also intrigues me. Were these animals sacred in someway in that region? Even though Bikol is a region of South Luzon, it seems more associated with the Visayas region, since it is in a way separated by mountains and attached to Luzon by a string with only one province connecting to it(Quezon). Also considering Samar/Leyte and Panay are right next to it. Some go so far to say the bottom half of the Bikol region dips in to the Visayas territory.

[Battara]

Originally Posted by Dimasalang

Nearly all Eskrima/Arnis/Kali/FMA groups have a Moro weapon in their symbol or their arsenal...and 98% of them practice nothing similar or related to Moro Martial Arts. And they know all the names of the Moro weapons, but not the Visayan ones...and ironically, most of these arts originated from the Visayas region.

Yes I've also noticed that. Thought it was strange. Luzanos and Visayans have their own blade traditions so why not use them more?

[Spunjer]

Marketing purposes. Due to the almost mythic reputation of the moro warriors of yore, it was just a matter of time before the old stories were implemented by the more market-savvy FMA instructors to garner more students, and of course to gain more notoriety and street cred. The old masters who brought the art here in the states and anywhere else worldwide knew this, but the problem got out of control when their first gen students took whatever their master said as gospel.
What's really embarrasing is when an instructor would do a demo of his visayan art using a moro weapon. Kinda like showing a roomful of students on how to make chicken chow mein, and using spaghetti pasta for noodles. It just don't taste right...

[ThePepperSkull]

*coughcoughbahadzubucoughcough* Oh, sorry, I had something stuck in my throat.

I concur. Some FMA arts are far more guilty of this than others. I believe a good chunk of Ethnographic blade enthusiasts began as FMA students, however. The quest for knowledge with the goal of demistifying these stories is what led me here, personally. (It also led me to seek deeper study in other forms of martial arts like Bruneian Silat and to a lesser extent Silat Mande Muda to gain more inisght into how Moros could possibly have used their blades but admittedly this was less of an academic endeavour and more of a hypothetical exercise in my mind)

Looking back how I used to see things in 2006 versus today in terms of my martial (and cultural) heritage makes me laugh. It also, however, alarms me to think that my fellow Silat men and FMA practitioners still think in terms of these half-truths told for marketing purposes. In my mind it underscores the necessity for resources like this site, and for sites like Filhistory and Morolandhistory for the casual historian who seeks to differentiate truth from myth but does not have easy access to much physical historical text.


(Oh, and that Minasbad is beautiful! I have already expressed to you about how much I enjoy these Bicolano wonders, Robert, but it can't hurt to repeat myself :P )

[migueldiaz]

Nice patina and classic form. Congrats!

[Robert]

Nice patina and classic form. Congrats!

Thank you. Do you know if there is any way of dating these, possibly by hilt or blade form??

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

Thank you. Do you know if there is any way of dating these, possibly by hilt or blade form??

Hello. We are still trying to get more info and see more examples. Hopefully pretty soon we'd be able to date these. Thanks.

[Robert]

Hello. We are still trying to get more info and see more examples. Hopefully pretty soon we'd be able to date these.

Great news Lorenz. Please keep us informed of your progress and thank you.

Robert

[Sajen]

Hello Robert,

nice sword, now I want one also!

Handle could be a horse head as well, but don't know if there have been horses.

Regards,

Detlef

[Robert]

Hello Detlef,
I hope that you have a lot better luck when trying to acquire one of these than I did. I don't know how many times that my bid was second when one of these came up for auction. It alway seemed that someone else wanted it more than I did or bid more than I could afford. I just got lucky with this one.

Robert