Marc T

Hello Luc. indeed. Interesting armor. Will try to found out more about this one. Many thanks for your feedback.

Hello Uwe, Thank you for your feedback. Yes, very nice armor. Probably belong to a high ranking bakufu official or a super super wealthy Samurai. From the picture, I cannot see any family crest. The nice color variation reminds me of the Munechika armor in the Leiden museum. Will try to ask the Edo museum if they have more informations about the history of this armor. (Provenance, etc.) There is probably also a more precise date mentioned inside the Kabuto. Comment of the picture only mention the year. Interesting search. Will see where it will lead. Many thanks

Dear All, I just found out this morning an article about the reopening of the Tokyo Edo museum after 4 years of renovation. Big surprise as a unknown Myochin Munechika armor was on the press article. https://artexhibition.jp/topics/news/20260325-AEJ2867109/ I have been collecting and doing research on Munechika for almost 30 years, and that's the first time I see this one.... Is anyone aware or seen this armor made in Ansei 3 nen (the one on the right)? The museum is schedule to open on March 25th. Can't wait for the reopening and learn more about this armor....! Let me know your thoughts. Many thanks in advance Marc

Thanks to you Piers.

Hello Luc, interesting. Any picture on the Yoshimichi 8 plates Kabuto?

Hello everyone, I have a nice story to share today. About 2 years ago, Piers sent us an article about a tsuyama armor discovery (the newspaper article sent by Piers is on this discussion thread dated April 2021). The article mentioned a Yasutsugu who was a student of Muneyoshi. This article was very interesting to me as I have an armor of Munechika with the very same style of Kabuto. Thanks to my contact in Tsuyama, I was able to retrieve and meet the owner of this armor. He kindly authorized me to examine it more in detail . He and his wife are truly lovely people. The interesting part of this armor what that on the back of the helmet (and outside part of the helmet) it was written « made by Yasutsugu, a student of Myochin ki Muneyasu » (you can see that from the article.) Now comes the interesting part. Last week on Yahoo auction Japan, I saw a Kabuto that was very close (too close) to Munechika works. I have 3 Kabuto of 8 plates made by Munechika, and everything on this Yahoo auction helmet was pointing towards the tsuyama group of armorers, but there was no sign on it so impossible to be 100%sure. The seller was in Okayama which is close to tsuyama. Could be a local dig, but again parts of armor can travel so easily that it doesn’t mean anything. The seller didn’t mentioned any signature, and because of the rust on the Kabuto, and the quality of the pictures, it was impossible to detect any signature. it was so intriguing that I looked the pictures over and over. …..After a while, I thought I detected a 門　character on the back of the helmet. I remembered the writing on the back of the Tsuyama helmet, and decided to bid on this helmet to make sure. I was the only one to bid. Well.., you can imagine the rest of the story. The Kabuto was in fact signed, and signature and wording are the same as the Tsuyama’s armor found 2 years ago. It was under the rust, and even the seller didn’t know it was there. Judging from the dust and rust on the Kabuto, it is obvious that he spend many many years in a barn in the Japanese countryside. Lacing is dirty, but original. Laquer is original and only dirty, and the Kabuto is rusty, but because of the thickness of the metal, there is no serious damage to it. Thank you Piers for sharing this article 2 years ago. Thank you also for this forum. Sharing information is crucial, and I think we have a good example here. Many thanks to all. Marc

Hello Luc, Please, could you share the whole picture of the do, or more if you have. Many thanks.

Thank you Luc. No worries about the pictures. Kind regards

Hello Luc, Considering the high position of Munechika at that time, only few high ranking and very wealthy samurai would have been able to ask for a remounting made by Munechika. On the other hand Munechika would have probably never accept to work on a average Kabuto. I don’t believe he remounted only Yoshimichi Kabuto, but rather high value pieces of previous and famous armor makers regardless of the name of the original maker. If you remember in this site there was a Kabuto with the mei of Munechika inside the Shikoro. The Kabuto was clearly not the work of Munechika, but by adding his name , he was adding to the value of the helmet and prestige to the owner of the helmet. I believe this is the case we have here. The owner could say that he have a Yoshimichi helmet and remounted by Munechika. (You can’t miss Munechika mei on this helmet).Probably cost him a tremendous amount of money, but very prestigious. Luc, would you be able to share the pictures of the other Munechika armor with a Yoshimichi Kabuto?. By the way, just by curiosity, does anyone knows about other armor maker who remounted and signed their mei on the original piece? Well done Gary. Very interesting Kabuto. kind regards

Hello Gary, Very nice Kabuto, and remounted by Myochin Munechika. The owner of this Kabuto must have been very wealthy to have it done by Munechika. I also noticed that the signature of Munechika (which is genuine, and matching the other signatures we knows of him) do not bear the kanji "記"between Myochin and Munechika ( same as all the tsuba I saw of him). My guess ( and it is just my assumption) is that munechika remounted this kabuto during the first period of his career. Nice buy.

Thank you Ian. Kind regards.Marc

Hello Jiri, Beautiful mask you have here. No doubt about the similarity with the menpo from Munechika and other students of Muneyasu. If you check among this site Munechika or Munekane, you will find mempo similar to yours. Yours is quite unique as the inside is covered by leather. Very interesting . Ian, you mentioned : "Munekane turned to making tsuba later in his life". I have few tsuba of munechika/Munekane as well, but if it is at the end of his life, is there any specific reasons he didn't signed his tsuba with the kanji "記”　between 明珍　and 宗周？　To my understanding ,all the armors he made are signed 明珍記宗周。Same for mempo's and do's. But I haven't seen any of his tsuba signed 明珍記宗周. May be he made the tsuba at the early stage of his career?. By any chance, would you have any informations on this point? Many Thanks

Hello Julian, Fully agree with John. Do not cut the ukebari. Nice helmet by the way.

Hello David, My personal opinion here, but if the maedate is original to this Kabuto, I would recommend to keep the original design. As Piers mentioned,maedate are expendable items, can be broken, lost, collected etc. But if original to the helmet, they tells a lot about the Kabuto, or the original owner, it’s crest or it’s clan,etc. Everything on a armor is designed for a purpose, and not just to look good. Maedate too have a meaning. Actually, armor with their original maedate are not easy to find , and quite rare. if you really feel the need to put an extraordinary creature maedate on your helmet, you should keep the original one and store it with the helmet mentioning that it was original to the helmet. Later owners will be able to remove the creature to give it back it’s original aspect. Again, just my opinion. Hope it helps Have a great day