Kotenmyo Hiragumo (古天明平蜘蛛)

It is a kettle used for tea ceremonies and is owned by a ringleader in the Sengoku Period (Period of Warring States), Hisahide MATSUNAGA.

Among a lot of tea kettles, it has a unique shape similar to a crawling spider and therefore it was named 'Hiragumogama.'

Hisahide presented a famous tea utensil Tsukumonasu to Nobunaga ODA when he served Nobunaga, but he refused to give Hiragumo to Nobunaga though Nobunaga desired it repeatedly.

After he had attempted to split with Nobunaga twice, Hisahide finally committed suicide at Shigisan-jo Castle. It is said that at that time, Hisaside either destroyed Hiragumo by himself so that Nobunaga could not get it or he committed suicide by placing explosives in Hiragumo.

On the other hand, there is another opinion that Hiragumo is still existing. In Hamanako Kanzanji Bijutsu Hakubutsukan located in Kanzanji-cho, Nishi-ku, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, there is a tea kettle called 'Hiragumogama' which is said to have been dug up from the ruins of Shigisan-jo Castle and fell into the hands of Nobunaga who cherished it.

[Original Japanese]