Unusual helmet shape

[IanB]

All,

A friend has recently acquired this most interesting helmet. It is made from six, rather heavy russet iron plates, that meet at the top forming a sharp medial keel that dips in the centre. Judging by the internal surface, the bowl itself is of considerable age, although the shikoro is obviously of the late Edo period. After searching long and hard through numerous books and catalogues, I eventually found another helmet of similar shape. This forms part of a Momoyama period armour exhibited in Kanazawa in the 1990's and described as being a production of the Kaga Han. Assuming it is by the same hand, or at least the same workshop, it is almost certainly the work of the Haruta group. Neither helmet is signed. The text in the catalogue describes the helmet as being 'RARETA' shape but in hiragana. Could any of you Japanese speakers take a guess at the possible meaning of this term?

 

Thanking you in anticipation

Ian Bottomley

[Guido]

Ian, "-rareta" is usually a grammatical ending - there should be a Kanji in front of it, could you post a scan?

[myochin]

I believe this is the armour Ian is talking about.

I also scanned the description in case anyone would be willing to translate.

 

Thanks,

Paul.

[Guido]

兜は六枚の鉄を矧合せて作られた形象兜.

Rough translation: "The six iron plates of the helmet were joined like in the manner of fletching (or maybe notching?) an arrow."

 

作られた only means "it was made".

[Nobody]

“矧合せ (hagiawase; also written as 接合せ)” only means joining together, and it has nothing to do with an arrow in that context.

 

BTW, Keisho (形象) is a general term to mean representation (of a shape). And it does not mean a specific shape or a motif.

 

FYI; http://www.sekku-world.com/hagiawase_akoda.htm

[Guido]

“矧合せ (hagiawase; also written as 接合せ)” only means joining together, and it does not have nothing to do with an arrow in that context.

At least I can blame that one on Prof. Wolfgang Hadamitzky, the eminent German authority on Japanese language. :D The translation for 矧 I got was "fletching / notching an arrow".

 

BTW, I added the (for me and obviously him) new meaning to the database of http://www.wadoku.de/ - thank you!

[John A Stuart]

Not being a linguist when I translated the passage given 兜は六枚の鉄を矧合せて作られた形象兜 I took the 矧合せ as 'joined as like a feather' or 'interlocked'. Like how the feather joins together by barbs like velcro. Just a thought. John

[Bugyotsuji]

Would this style be covered by the term "Akoda"? (Just taking a hint from Nobody's link.)

 

cf: http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/KABUTO4.htm

[IanB]

All, Thank you for all of that. I have been rather busy over the weekend and meant to scan and post the text but Piers has saved me the trouble. Yes Piers, that is the armour. I too arrived at the translation of joining an arrow (as in to its string - ie nocking). I had also correctly read the kanji for shape and assumed the preceeding was a name.

 

No, it is not an akoda nari kabuto - although similar in profile. An akoda nari hachi starts in a low curve in front, dips around the tehen and then bulges out at the rear. They do not have this medial keel that these two helmets have. One can see the obvious advantage of the stiffening and deflecting effect the keel would have. I wonder if this keel was inspired by European helmets. It is thought that the medial ridge on Momoyama period and later do (hatomune do) were inspired by European armour. No doubt this style was given some fancy name during the Edo period (Ho-o bird's breast when lying on its back shaped helmet or some such) but since I cannot find anything like it in the books, I will have to fall back on that good old standby - kawari kabuto.

 

Thank you again all for your efforts

Ian