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chris covington

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Everything posted by chris covington

  1. I love that you are including the helmets from the Takaoka shrine’s “Niida five.” I realize two of them aren’t “zunari” in that sense but I hope you can throw out your thoughts on them all.
  2. Hello all, Two of our own, master kacchushi Andy Mancabelli (Miura Anjin), and kacchushi/tepposhi Arthur Goetz both recently appeared in a budo (Japanese martial arts) magazine. The link is directly to Arthur’s interview, and right after it is the piece by TV personality/influencer Ms. Jess Gerrity on her trip to Andy’s armor café. Café/galleries are all the rage right now in the fine arts world, I’ve been to a few myself. I think Andy’s café is the only one of its type in the world. Well done fellows! Scroll back for some if the budo co tent if that’s your thing, too. https://simplebookle...hc4YUVW0rakE#page=60 Chris
  3. Arthur, Can you explain Masashige okitenugui for those not familiar with why it is called that?
  4. Brian, Do you think we could get this thread and the Okegawa thread pinned to the top? I feel like these two threads are must reads on the topic of armor. Thanks, Chris
  5. Arthur, I really appreciate the time you’re spending on your historical work. Thanks for putting this out there! Btw, a card game with kabuto is much cooler than Pokemon! Chris
  6. That is really cool! Thank you for sharing!
  7. Yes, but I watch them on video
  8. It always looks easy on the videos. With hammer in hand it is much more challenging. My metal snakes every which way. Arthur does masterful work. I’m just a hobbyist. I haven’t mastered the trapezium of katchu. I’ll get there eventually! 😁
  9. That top plate, how do you get that dishing in both directions so evenly?!? That is such a pain on my zunari.
  10. Graham, Those are… interesting, to say the least. The okitenugui (assuming it was being sold as modern work, not fraudulently) I could forgive as a modern smith’s attempt at replicating something. A less talented version of our own Arthur Goetz, if you will. Those mempo though? Wow! Those are something else! There is so much to address with these, but I lack the time at the moment. Chris
  11. I think it is important to have artists draw people in armor, including manga style. Many old armors are in museums, locked away. It can be hard to imagine how they might have fit when they were worn originally!
  12. Great yanone. Keep us up to date with your progress!
  13. This looks really cool! Thank you for sharing your work!
  14. Hi Jeremy, I thought the same thing; yet here I am. Arthur isn’t the only person to suggest taking hammer to steel, to better understand armor. Many top experts from the Showa era suggested it. If you like making things give it a try. Chris
  15. Update on my zunari. The rivets are real rivets, not roof nails, just FYI. 😁
  16. One more project I'm working on. I am making a very small hotoke dou and kozunari for my daughter (she's 7 now). She is growing faster than I can work, so I might have to start over when I have more dedicated time. This is the front of the dou, a few kusazuri and the mabizashi for the kabuto. I've made a little progress on the kabuto since this photo. When I get home I'll take a pic of where I'm at with it now. I'm making the kabuto a bit larger so she can grow into it. If my body type is challenging, a small child's is even worse. Her torso is shaped like a shoebox. I don't think my mabizashi is quite to the same level as Arthur's...
  17. Not armor, but really cool! Thanks for sharing!
  18. Thanks John. Yeah... that taper doesn't work so well when you're built like a short yokozuna! I've loosely based it off of this armor, which was worn by Shimura Mitsuyasu. He had a similar build to me. A lot of guys who make armor will make exact copies of antique armors for museums and shrines. I have nothing but respect for them. Tailoring an armor to fit someone in the 21st century is a completely different animal. When Arthur was making the hachi on the okitenugui for me, he got tons of head measurements from me. My head is longer and larger than typical 16th century Japanese. Even if this dou doesn't amount to much the exercise of making it has been invaluable.
  19. So, I am NOT a kacchushi. I was challenged by Arthur a while ago to take up a hammer and try my hand at it though. I don't have a formal teacher; I'm winging it on this project. I'm not sure my wife would appreciate it if I quit my job to become a kacchu deshi... This is my try at a mogami haramaki dou. I am in the early stages of shaping the plates and making sure it fits. Please forgive the duct tape holding it together. It is a little catawampus on me because the tape watagami aren't exactly the same length, but it gives you an idea of how it fits. The design is modeled off of older armors which is why it doesn't come up as high in the front and back. I can move freely with it and use various weapons with ease. I cannot just copy an existing armor's dimensions because my proportions are very different from a mid-16th century Japanese man (I'm built more like a sumo wrestler). There is a lot of tailoring involved and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I'm getting there. My next steps will be to make the hinges, kusazuri, and watagami. I will open the holes and then get to the urushi. I will be using real urushi, not car paint or cashew. I work more than 40 hours a week as a law enforcement officer and I have family obligations. I don't get a lot of time to work on this. I am expecting it to take a couple of years, to be realistic. It has been fun so far, and it has really given me a better appreciation of armor and how it is made. Things that I took for granted before, I can appreciate now. I am open to critique. Best regards, Chris
  20. Arthur, A start to another great looking kabuto. Do you think you could show some step-by-step progress shots of this one, as you go? I love seeing the process, which is why I like seeing your work and your sensei's work. How did you get the lip on that mabizashi so tight? Just looking at that bottom edge gives me anxiety! Having tried my hand at making a few things I know how hard it is to get those tight curves and angles. That is masterful work. Good plan opening it up to the "hobbyists" since there are only two actual, trained kacchushi here; you and Andy (unless we have a few lurkers). I'll see if I can post a photo of two of my very unprofessional projects. Chris
  21. I actually rather like the fukurin on the mabizashi.
  22. Ohhh... tell us more about this fellow. From first blink, without studying it, it certainly looks like an odd duck.
  23. That is a problem I have considered. When you educate people the frauds get an education, too. But, do we let people sit around ignorant? I am a firm believer that the better educated a population is, the stronger it is. Frauds tend to like to keep the population dumb, or only half educated, because they are easier to take advantage of. Now, there will always be frauds, but one thing about them is that they are out to make a quick buck. To do okitenigui correctly they need better skills. There is an order of operations when you create these, yes, but there is also a raw skill level that these guys don’t seem to have. Elsewhere, a friend posited that these helmets may be movie props, that have escaped into the market. If that is the case, the onus falls to the sellers who hock them as antiques and the “experts” who will go on a limb and vouch for these things. Does anyone recognize these from a Kurosawa film (Ran maybe)? My collection of Kurosawa films is on VHS, and I don’t have a VCR at the moment. 🤣
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