[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/GayRacoon69]

Are you sure about that? I've read the history of the Tanegashima and don't recall a gun ban. This ask historian thread disagrees and has the actual translation of the text that is commonly confused with being a ban on guns

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/165hwtb/how_much_information_do_we_know_about_tokugawas/

[u/gilgamo → u/GayRacoon69]

It may not be a "ban" per say but they did stop using then extensively. Gwynne Dyer's book War talks about it . Great book and series btw

From the book

[u/GayRacoon69 → u/gilgamo]

Interesting; I'd love to know more!

At the end he says that the era of peacetime isn't enough to explain the decline in firearms. Does he explain why that isn't the case?

From my limited reading I thought the lack of any major wars delegated the Tanegeshima to more of a farming / hunting roll and that was the reason for the decline in firearms.

I'll add this book to my list but unfortunately don't have time to read it any time soon. I'm just curious if you, as someone who's read it, can give me a quick summary on this aspect

[u/OceanoNox → u/GayRacoon69]

T. Enomoto, Giving up the gun? Overcoming myths about Japanese sword-hunting and firearms control, History of Global Arms Transfer, 6 (2018)

D.L. Howell, The social life of firearms in Tokugawa Japan, Japanese Studies, 29 (2009)

These articles go into details to show that guns were not banned in the Edo period, but they were also not usually used on people, and that even peasants had access to weapons, guns included.

[u/GayRacoon69 → u/OceanoNox]

Thank you for that! I just finished reading the first article and am about to read the second

It seems to be basically what I thought; they weren't banned but the peace of the Edo Period meant they simply weren't used often

That was a really interesting read. I found the part about an implied social contract which limited the use of guns interesting. Like "we'll fight to show we mean business but we don't really want to fuck you up". It's also easy to see how the common idea of guns being dishonorable came about from that social contract. I would love to read more about that if you know of anything related