IanB

Uwe, Yes I think it is metal because it has kept its shape. If it had been neri gawa I think the bowl itself would have warped like the shikoro. Ian

Mike, I have been beaten to it by Uwe but here is what I wrote -The shaped upper edges of the plates of the shikoro (neck guard) and the zaboshi (the standing rivets and washers with radiating lines) show that this is a helmet made in the province of Kaga. As to the date, the general shape is looking back to earlier centuries, a fashion that started around the second half of the 18th century and continued into the early decades of the 19th century. The principle armourers for the Kaga Han were the Haruta but by the 1780's the Myochin, Iwai and Bamen groups were also starting to establish themselves there. The helmet is definitely not Bamen in style. If pushed I would say it is more like the type the Myochin were likely to produce. Sadly there is absolutely no way to rescue the shikoro. Once the rawhide plates have twisted and warped like that it is beyond recovery. The helmet bowl itself is also in poor shape with the lacquer flaking and cracking. All you can do is try and keep it in an environment where the humidity and temperature is as stable as possible to prevent further degeneration. Ian Bottomley

Jack, Welcome to the group. Yours looks like a Nagamichi kabuto with the three columns of rivets on the front plate. It also has the precision one would expect. I wouldn't worry that it is not signed, the bowl speaks for itself. I have never been happy with the various explanations as to why something, whether sword or armour, is or isn't signed. Perhaps it was a specific order from someone of high rank; who knows? I have just been struggling with who made the two famous Daikoku helmeted armours of Tokugawa Iyeyasu, both of which are unsigned. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine claim the one they have was made by Iwai Yosaemon and that he was armourer to Ieyasu. He certainly made at least four of the armours given to European royalty by Ieyasu, and signed them in red lacquer on the inside of the shikoro and inside the muneita, but he didn't sign the Daikoku armour - if he made them, why not. The four armours given as gifts are all do-maru or honkozane ni mai do with akodanari kabuto and o-sode - totally at variance with the Daikoku armours which are nuinobe do. Kunozan Toshogu claim he worn their armour at Seki ga hara whereas Nikko Toshogu claim he wore the namban armour they have. It is all very confusing. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, In a way yes. The armourer, especially in the Edo period, would design the armour, buy in raw materials such as plate, cut the plates out and shape them. I doubt he would waste his time drilling holes or making the mail. Even today much Japanese manufacture is based on sub-contracting. Walk around parts of Tokyo today and you will see whole families working a massive press in their house making parts for companies like Nissan or Toyota. Ian

Ruben, A very interesting book indeed. I've seen some of the illustrations elsewhere but others are fascinating. I especially like the details about air-guns. The air reservoirs look a bit like those made by Girandoni for the Austrian army in the late 1700's but the lock mechanism looks earlier. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, Like Dave says - three gessan in front and four at the rear. The marked plates are interesting. No doubt done to ensure the person assembling the plates with the mail got them in the right places. I doubt the armourer did any assembly of the mail - it was probably out-sourced, like the drilling of holes and similar repetitive jobs. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, That is an interesting find but not too surprising, armourers were often very frugal with their fabrics. It is common on pieces like suneate to paste a strip of brocade onto the core fabric where it will show through the mail but have nothing under the plates. It was I suppose a way of using up all the off-cuts of fabric from the other parts of the armour. I have also seen pieces of paper pasted onto the core, under the finishing fabric where there was no need for a great amount of flexibility such as the upper arm area. These pieces are usually just old documents but on one wrecked sleeve I found a piece of paper with Buddhist texts and various seals on it inserted between the layers of fabric. I assume this guaranteed the wearer would be far better protected. There is a Myochin armour in the Royal Armouries collection with the kamon of a member of the Matsudaira family that has almost every available space on it covered with religious invocations and references to Shinto and Buddhist shrines. A nervous individual I suspect Ian Bottomley

Paul, You have worked so hard to advance your knowledge of swords, you deserve more than a few words of praise that I could give. Brilliant Ian Bottomley

Fujiwara Masashige is listed in Kei Kaneda Chappelear's book as working in Suo during the mid Edo period where he is described a member of the Myochin group. In Sasama's 'Shin Katchushi Meikan' he is listed as an Haruta smith working in the mid Edo period in Suo. Ian Bottomley

Justin, Hata sashimono do turn up but they are often in poor shape because many were silk. I have one in hemp that appears old, but has had the original stitching across the middle re-done on a sewing machine (although the sewing around the edge and so forth are hand done). How old it really is is difficult to say, so many were made for festivals and the like in recent times. By chance I have just dug out the major part of a non-flag sashimono that I acquired years ago. This takes the form of a black lacquered pole with gilded mounts topped by a trefoil shaped block covered in gilded copper. This block has slots to hold 'feathers' or some such ornaments. I have decided to make some paper and bamboo feathers to fit the slots. Should be fun if nothing else. Ian Bottomley

I too am sure it is Kaga work. Looking at the way the lacquer is recessed inside there has obviously been an extra plate attached to the cheeks. Whether this bridged across the gap and extended into a nose we cannot now say with any confidence, but for what it is worth, my suggestion is that it once had a tengu nose. I say this because of the way the lower lip rises in the centre. Whatever, it has been a very fine piece of work. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, It was the rule to intersperse a rawhide scale between each iron one. This was also true way back. The idea is that the iron scales stop penetration of say an arrow, the hide scale between absorbing the energy by being compressed. Ian

John, I did once have a dou that had been 'let out' to accommodate a growing waist. It was done by adding a plate to each side of the opening. I deeply regret that at the time, during the 1970's, I decided it was so ugly I removed them. This cannot be the reason here because it would have involved taking the dou apart structurally, adding whatever they are and then re-lacquering and relacing. It would have been just as easy to add a few more scales to each row. Uwe, Overnight I have been pondering this problem and realised I had not paid attention to your comment about the width of the lines. You are quite right, the two lines are narrower than the apparent width of the iron scales. However, do not forget that the iron scales would alternate with scales made of neri gawa which is why there is no apparent overlap on the X-ray. In reality you have to visualise a leather scale between each iron scale giving a spacing you would actually see about the width of a row of holes. Ian B

Uwe, The black lines indicate that whatever the lines are, they are they are not absorbing the X-rays. Since the scales throughout the rest of the dou are the same density as the kanmuri no ita, and that is riveted and hence metal, the scales must be iron ones. Since there is no metal where the black lines are, and it is a kebiki dou, the only other material that I can think they might be are neri gawa scales. Since the kanmuri no ita is not hinged or divided in any way, the dou is not designed to flex or bend in the region of these lines to put it on. Why then have the gaps in the iron scales - HELP This is an intriguing constructional detail that only X-rays, or a lot of work with a magnet, could reveal. Ian Bottomley

Mark, We did a few X-ray photographs of armour at the Royal Armouries and like this image they were informative. One on a sode from the Muromachi period, showed that all the kozane were leather except in the top row that had iron scales at each end where the kanmuri ita was fastened to the scales. Obviously it was felt necessary to re-inforce the top row of scales at these points. This image is equally interesting and informative. It is presumably an Edo period armour, or at least one that has been used in the Edo period, since it has both gattari and a ring for an agemaki. It learly shows the upper solid plate has been reused. Note the ring of holes provided in the top plate around the large holes for the takahimo. These were intended for fastening leather watagami but they are now unused. The present metal watagami are simply riveted to it in a straight line at the top. You can also see that an extra strip has been added to the bottom edge of this plate to allow it to be laced to the kozane. It therefore must have come off a dou made of plates since it was originally riveted to the previous dou. The two black lines running down on either side of the centre-line show that there are leather scales at these places in each row that are not absorbing the X-rays. Why they put leather scales at these points isn't clear to me unless it was to give some flexibility - but why would you need flexibility there? Yet again this shows how pieces of earlier armours were recycled and how valuable iron was in the past. Ian Bottomley

I have one of these sets. The nice thing about it is the fact that the sockets for the bow sections are silver on the outside and shakudo on the inner face. I have never had the bottle to string the bow. As I understand it the target was a piece of silk stretched on a frame and the arrows were inked to leave a dot where they struck. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, You most certainly can, but since it is a Christmas present I must wait to play with it, make a proper stand that fits it and do a few minor repairs like replacing internal ties. So, like me, you will have to be patient - but think of the excitement of Christmas morning Ian

Mark, I have tried to obtain a representative image, but the colour of the upper layer still appears as black as the background colour. It is only when you wet it in a strong light it looks reddish in colour. I fear I am going to have problems cleaning this armour and will have to be content with its present appearance. Ian

Mark, I will certainly have a go although I suspect my camera might struggle a bit. Leave it with me. Ian

The Japanese body is wearing what is known as a keiko, a lamellar armour that arrived in Japan with later waves of invaders from the Asian mainland who also brought horses. The video shows a reconstruction of one but without the shoulder and neck defence. This type of armour superseded earlier armours called tanko that were of larger plates designed for use on foot. These had a solid dou of rather hour-glass shape with a bell-like skirt reaching to the knees, very similar to the foot combat tonlet armours of 15th century Europe. It is interesting that the thread also contains reference to the Roman bodies from Herculaneum since they used lamellar armour as well. Ian Bottomley

Mark, No, I do like it but feel that it would have looked even better if it had been matted rather more. At the moment it is rather too shiny to look convincing. In Liverpool Museum is a daisho with the scabbards lacquered to look like pine bark. They are so convincing you feel they must have used a layer of real bark glued to the saya. They have even managed to simulate the way pine bark lifts off in patches leaving a scar of a slightly lighter shade. The guy who did it must have spent hours studying a pine and matching the colours and textures. Ian B

Mark, That is the oddest lacquer job on an armour I think I have seen. I will post a picture of the finish on mine in due course. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, The claim that the Unkai were an off-shoot of the Myochin was of course a claim made by the Myochin themselves, being perpetuated by later writers. Much of what they wrote is to say the least inventive. Their apparent predominance in the writings of early European authors being attributable perhaps to the fact that they were prolific with their signatures and their genealogy a convenient reference . I have for years believed that their incursion into armour making proper didn't really begin until the early Edo period, although they may have made the components for armour earlier. I once listed all the Myochin smiths, supposedly working prior to 1600, mentioned in Katchushi Meikan and apart from the obvious Nobuie and Yoshimichi (who never signed Myochin and almost certainly was nothing to do with them), found only one of these smith's work illustrated - and that was a helmet that looked late Edo to me. No, it was the Haruta who were invited to Kanazawa by the Maeda and it was they who recruited Unkai Mitsunao. I have a note somewhere that he was the grandson of a Korean armourer brought over by Hideyoshi and that it was he who was the innovator of the Unkai style. On his death the group continued to produce armours with Unkai features, but you do see a gradual shift towards the more orthodox as time progressed. Eric, I agree with you about the description. Are the cataloguers showing how erudite they are? Ian Bottomley

Charles, Don't worry we have all gone through this. What seems to have caused you confusion is that each kanji can have two or more ways of reading it: the Japanese way and the Chinese way (they were after all borrowed from China and the way they were sounded by the Chinese came with them). Which way you pronounce them is the problem. Most swordsmiths used the Japanese sound, but many tsuba makers and other artists chose the Chinese sounds. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, I too thought it might be Kaga work. The lavish use of sawari on the plates and the inome at the corners of the embossed plates are both typical of the kind of thing they did. In Orikasa's publication 'Studies on Arms and Armour' he shows that the Myochin family's move into Kaga was quite late and had nothing to do with the Unkai who were Haruta. The first was a Myochin Muneyoshi who established himself in Kanazawa during the Kansei period (1789 - 1801). His pupil, Munetoshi, became official armourer in 1805, dying in 1837. The post was then taken by Muneyoshi in 1838. During this time there were also a Muneharu and a Munehisa working there. Other Myochin families also worked in the area. Another pupil of Muneyoshi was Munehide who died in 1851 followed by Munetaka, Munenobu, Munenaga and Munemitsu. A Munenao, a nephew of Munehide was appointed to the Bugu Dozo ashigaru unit becoming the inspector in 1851. Orikasa also lists the stipends of some of these showing they were on the Han's payroll. Muneyoshi, being an official armourer, recieved rice to support 7 people, others such as Munehisa only sufficient for 2 people. It is also interesting that there was a separate unit making armour for the ashigaru, one assumes because the 'official armourers' were making armour for the Maeda and more senior members of the Han. Unfortunately no stipend for these ashigaru workers is given. My latest armour is definitely Kaga work and I'm sure is Bakamatsu period. It needs some minor sorting out after which I will post some pictures. Unfortunately, since it is a Christmas present (from me to me and by far the best kind - who the heck needs socks?) I cannot start work on it until after the festivities. Mark, Whilst writing this you posted. Your query about 'tree bark' lacquer could not be more appropriate. My present for Crimble has a strange textured lacquer that appears black but when I rubbed a section with a wet finger in strong light I saw the raised trails of lacquer on the basic dull black background were a brownish red. Whether this colour will show when cleaned I do not know - I will be able to tell when I try various cleaning methods. Eric, That is one heck of an armour. I particularly like the 'undershirt' with the kote attached. I suspect the mail flaps should really go under the yurugi ito rather than on top. Ian Bottomley