rouellette916 Posted January 12 Report Posted January 12 Hello all, First post here, looking for some help identifying this piece of armor (?) I recently purchased at a thrift/junk shop in the Japanese countryside. My initial thought was that it was a hitai-ate/hachigane, and the shopkeeper seemed to think it was the same (admittedly I am still learning Japanese so communication was limited, but he got the idea across that it was for the forehead and was attached to a headband). However, looking at images of other forehead protectors, I've only been able to find one similar looking one through a reverse image search. I'm by no means an expert though, so that's why I came here! So, my question is, what is it? Is it actually a piece of armor, or is it something else? It only cost me 2000 yen so if it's not the real deal it's not a huge loss haha. Any help is appreciated! 1 Quote
Gilles Posted January 12 Report Posted January 12 Hello, According to my little knowledge on that topic I can tell you that it is not a real hitai-ate/hachigane but a copy. I already saw some like that and I think that it was made in the Taisho/Showa period. Of course, it is my personal opinion. 1 Quote
rouellette916 Posted January 13 Author Report Posted January 13 12 hours ago, Gilles said: Hello, According to my little knowledge on that topic I can tell you that it is not a real hitai-ate/hachigane but a copy. I already saw some like that and I think that it was made in the Taisho/Showa period. Of course, it is my personal opinion. Interesting! I figured that might be the case. Do you have any idea what it might have been produced for? Plays or festivals or something as a costume? Or just a plain-old knock-off? If you have any images of similar examples I'd love to see. Could be fun to give it a proper headband again. Quote
rouellette916 Posted 15 hours ago Author Report Posted 15 hours ago An update for anyone who may be interested! I took this item to a local antique dealer I was purchasing something else from, and he identified what it is! It is indeed a piece of forehead wear, but not for a man, but a horse! He said it was probably Bakumatsu or Meiji period in origin, and that such thing would usually be seen in ceremonial settings. I should have guessed as such at first, as it is drastically oversized for a human forehead. 1 Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted 14 hours ago Report Posted 14 hours ago It looks quite small in the original photos. Quote
ROKUJURO Posted 6 hours ago Report Posted 6 hours ago Is it magnetic? In the pictures, it looks like copper, so probably not armour, but decoration. Quote
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