Miura

Yesterday somebody had mentioned that an armor I restored recently looked like a coffee shop prop. Well..... it is. The company had no budged so we took apart the $50 momoyama period armor rotting in the window. It was a basket case. and I patched a lot of holes. (properly) The restoration is beautiful though and does use 100% traditional techniques. You can also see what an old armor restored multiple times in the past, looks like without its leather and urushi. The total restoration took less than two months. So if you think we ruined it, it certainly took less time than 3 years. We are currently having an employee wear it around the city, not only to show the quality of what we sell, and introduce the company itself, but also to see how the armor ages under wear and tear. I think as the armor was attacked... or promoted... I guess? (and not explained) on two different threads, it would be fair to offer a link explaining and showing the production of our "coffee shop prop"! I even like how that rhymes. Thanks John! The link is not a commercial or business link, it just explains how restorations are done and armor is made. I am considering teaching people how to lace armor on there for free. Feel free to follow. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092385756447

That is absolutely true . And there will be less. I think that the biggest things thwarting this is: 1. status quo of the collectors. 2. The positions of the "preservation" organizations. 3. Modern education which teaches shortcuts and shortens attention spans 4. Misinformation of the community by self appointed experts Change those things, and there is your answer. The community was not like this in the 60s and 70s. Greed and jealousy put us where we are today. It can be what it once was. but to Luc Taelman's point, a right of passage makes for good artisans.

Thank you for asking. For armor, because of the span of time, the enormous back work that is necessary to be a qualified restorer is immense in my opinion. I have seen the research that Arthur has done and am impressed. Getting to that level would be where I would want my students to start at ideally. But anybody with that level is very rare. And unfortunately in the case of Arthur, he does not want to be a restorer. My current students have the backgrounds. Hopefully another will be coming to Japan and training soon. At this time, I would say that probably the most qualified would be Mr. Ozawa who works for the National museum in Tokyo. He trained under Makita Saburo (intangible cultural property). I would add Mr. Nishioka, however he does work in non-traditional media depending on the demands. I would add myself to the list. I trained under an intangible cultural property artisan as well. Nishioka's teacher and My teacher was the same. Morita Asajiro. Nishioka was his deshi at the end of his life, my teacher was deshi in the middle of his life. There are others who do different levels of restorations, but as far as complete and experience, I would put them at the top. Mr. Morisaki's company handles restorations but I believe that they frequently outsource to other craftspeople. I know that Katsuhiko Toyota has done restorations in the past as a lay craftsman. There are others, Tachibana, Kato, Sato, Ogawa. Depending on what you want you may be able to get what you want. There are european restorers as well. Some specialise in cashew urushi, others in lacing. I believe that Mr. Soanes in England is a traditionalist and uses real urushi.

I do agree with this philosophy in general. I have indeed spoken at length regarding this. The community of craftsmen and artisans is very important, as is the network that holds the industry (for the lack of a better word) as a whole. For example, I generally use urushi from a preferred dealer here in Japan to keep his business alive even though he is quite expensive. I have options, but I want him to survive because if he is gone, prices go up and the providers will be less. One thing that I think the quote above leaves out is the responsibility of the teacher to the student. In modern times, this relationship has become bastardized. The duties and responsibilities of the "deshi" to the "shisho or sempai" appears to go one way. Traditionally it went both ways. The shisho did basically hold the reigns of power over the deshi, but also paid for their living expenses, the quality of their work, travel expenses, materials, tools, and stood up for them publicly, or punished them depending on the situation. In the recent times, I have seen deshi treated as if they are gods gift to the arts..... just because they are "sacrificing" themselves to the arts. In effect, they are spoiled. My teacher was a traditionalist, but the one thing that I wish he didn’t do, was the humiliation of me in front of other people. There is a reason he did it. By his explanation it was to make people see me as devoted and enduring something unendurable so that people had respect for me. Ill give three examples. 1. At a meeting of the Japanese armor Society we gave a talk.... there was a table. He said go to the other side of the table. So I walked in front of the table to go around the other side. he said: "Dont walk in front of the table!", so I tried to go around the back side. then he said "Don't walk behind me!" He would do seemingly stupid things like this sometimes just to show that he was the teacher and I was the student. 2. At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu when we took his armor to be enshrined at the new museum, I was setting it up for the photography. At that point I was holding him up (physically) everywhere we went. I even had to hold him when he went to the bathroom. Sometimes I had to pull his pants up etc. Anyway.... he had to sit in a chair and watch me set up the armor. After its all set up and nice, he starts yelling "That Helmet is off balance! what the hell are you doing!" So I went over, and tilted the shikoro until he was happy. The staff and the photographer looked on in horror. So I finished the job, and looked at the photographer and said "carry on" . So she is standing there.... hmm... um Miura san..... the helmet is off balance... he says "no its not it looks good from here" She says, Please come over here and look... So i have to hold him up, and move him in front of the armor. He says "its off balance". "put it back Anjin". 3. One day I was working on a helmet in the workshop. Suddenly he calls me in. Puts a square block of metal in front of me and says "Draw the center line". Gives me a pen. Im thinking... ok right. this is a trick. He is sitting there smiling. So I make like im measuring things out etc. As soon as I set pen to surface he bursts out.... the equivalent "You stupid f@#ing idiot! You know nothing! You'll never be anything! You come in to my place and bother me! Get out! GET OUT! Go back to your own country!" as he was going up the stairs. I hear a can of beer open. He chugged it. Then another can of beer open. I went back to the workshop and continued my work. Contemplating why the hell I was enduring that kind of mental torture. A few hours later I heard the footsteps down the stairs, the shoji open, then the door to the workshop open. He is standing there (ala Dave Chapelle- Rick James). "Anjin san. I'm sorry for what I did. I didn't mean what I said. You, you have what it takes to be good. You are a fast learner. You are the real deal. Just remember that." I said... "Thank you?" He walks away saying.... "your a fast learner.....Anjin.... a fast learner".... footsteps up the staircase..... beer opens. These are stories that relate to my experience with my teacher. This is a traditional bond that MOST deshi today do not have with their teachers. And the so-called “lay craftsman” never endure. My saying is as long as your teacher is alive, you will always be a deshi. Because he will always be the master. You may work for yourself, and you may be successful and skilled at what you do, but that bond to the master artisan is never broken for a true deshi. And I think that helping a guy take a leak i something that most people couldn't or wouldn't do. On the other hand, in the olden days, the the "shisho" would pass on customers to the deshi, when they were ready, and gradually, by working them in to collaboration pieces that the master would sign as his own, and then eventually and in some cases both signed, and then the independence known as "dokuritsu" where the student signed his own name, unless he continued under the same name and workshop. In the case of my teacher. We did work on a couple projects together. But most of the customer base that he had when he was working were dead or well into retirement.... or nearing retirement. There just wasnt the base. I will place a lot of the responsibility of that issue on the shoulders of the Nihon Katchu Bugu Kenkyu Hozon Kai. At its foundation it was about preserving armor. (thence the hozon) so they supported the traditional culture surrounding it. Over the years it became more about who has the "best" armors, showing, but not sharing, politics, gossip, rumors. And that’s where we are today. I remember when I would volunteer to participate, or show my own item I would get answers like “the display has been decided”, or you can carry the chairs and clean the floors etc. Members of that organization were not treated equal. I’d ask why did this kabuto get Juyo and that kabuto get hozon. Answer: “because it belongs to so and so”. Ill use his name because its just a true defamatory story about me that exemplifies what happens and to Luc's point... why we I dont teach lay-craftemen..... Some years ago, after I had done a television show, I had a stalker.... who was writing harlequin romance novels about me online. All kinds of sex things, then her imaginary narrative ended with me giving her a beating.... Anyway as we all know, the internet can be a terrible propaganda tool when put in the hands of the wrong people. I sued for defamation and won. I got the third largest payout in Japanese history for Defamation and got a restraint order in the settlement. I basically had to do the case myself as most Japanese lawyers are not logical so I had to teach him how to do his job! Anyway, this however has not stopped people from using what was once written online to badmouth me.... because somebody wrote it. It becomes gossip. So one day I come in and Miura sensei told me that Katsuhiko Toyota (who does not know me... only met very briefly on a couple occasions) came in and told Miura sensei that I was abusing women (he had read the online fantasy novel apparently and thought it was his responsibility to spread the gossip through the armor world). I later found out that he had told this to other people as well. This is the problem with allowing people to establish even a minor position of authority on a subject without having gone through a “right of passage” in the field. Its so easy to go after a person's reputation, and if people in positions of power or "with lots of followers" do it, it can indeed effect you, whether your "friends", "customers", "employers" or other people believe it or not, the Japanese may begin to avoid you, because in general they do not want controversy. This is a shame. And at this point in my life I have lost all tolerance for this kind of behavior. In Japan I have never seen an artisan go after an artisan. Though I have seen the factionalization and politics of the customer based "hozon kai" groups encourage discord in the community. When discord takes place, artisans generally withdraw and try to avoid these goings on. The "lay craftsmen" on the other hand..... don't know the half and cant share in what it takes to become a real artisan. If they did, they would forego the gossip and focus on their work. Finally, I ill say that I know a lot of what I say is misinterpreted or misunderstood. I would welcome private messages to myself regarding whether or not you think I am helping the community at large through sharing my experiences, or if you think I should save it for a novel. It takes an enormous amount of time to write and share my experience, though a lot of people tend to want to know. Or at least seem interested. Please feel free to PM me and give me your feedback. Otherwise Ill keep the posts short, sweet, and devoid of the lifetime of experiences that i have that back up my viewpoints.

Not many of those around. So would you say that after reading all of the "bitching and moaning" that I have done on the Nihonto message board that you have gleaned some sort of useful information as to the world of armor? I have written a lot as of recently. Or is it a waste of my time? In Japan we have a saying from the days of old: it goes something like this. Kuge live in their own world of luxury. Samurai are absorbed in the world of politics but mostly read books and tell others what to do. Farmers are busy in the spring, and the fall, and have festivals and lie around in between. Shokunin have no time. I find this to be true. Yet here I am donating my valuable time to people like yourself. Be careful how you characterize what I say. I left this forum 10 years ago and I was probably better for it. Im just shocked at what has happened to the armor community since I came back. I don't need to be here. I see my service as voluntary.

Im not on a high horse. I think I'm pretty humble with all the time I have been donating to you. Thank you for complimenting my "great knowledge", no thank you for the mis-characterization "moaning and bitching". You have the right not to read any or all of what I write. But reflect on yourself. I have to work in this field. What you see as bitching and moaning, I see as informing people of what we have to deal with on a daily basis. Im trying to inform the people here as I see most or al l of you as potential customers or supporters of the Traditional arts. Maybe not my customer, but somebody else going through the same thing as me. whats your profession by the way?

I didn't say anything about Robert soanes. I do have respect and support for him in his endeavors. You want to see my work, please order some. But honestly most of my work these days is for shrines or museums and its restoration. I fit in collectors when I have time though. And by the way, I can guarantee that you have seen my work. you just didn't recognize it. When I was a slave I did a lot of work for Members of the Japanese armor society. I did the work, never took credit. And you know my policies regarding confidentiality. The helmet originally had a gold shikoro. Those scale armors Im pretty sure are 20th century. They used to come up for sale regularly on yahoo. There were such scale armors around in the Edo period though the sizes of the scales were different. And some horse armors were re-fabricated into human armors. i think the one that sold was modern though. And the "shikoro thing" magically appeared on that hachi before it left Japan. I remember it well. Probably around 10-15 years ago. After it sold recently it ended up with a new mempo.... The armor is NOT juyo level though. Definitely not for the legitimate Kokusai Nihon Katchu Bugu Shinko Kyokai.

You didn't read all the way through my previous articles. I said that its neither here nor there for me regarding bad restorations on basket cases. Don't put words in my mouth or misquote me.

By the way. NOBODY wanted to be an armorer's deshi until I came along! Because of the television shows I did and the PR I did for the armor world, suddenly he started to get people interested. Part of the sales pitch was.... there should be Japanese people doing it. At any cost. So various people without any knowledge or experience went into the field. And there was a group of guys pushing Japanese guys at Miura sensei. A couple worked a month or two but they could not stand his demands for quality. I had one guy who showed up at my door and said he wanted to be a deshi. I said "What was your degree in?" .... "No college"..... "did you graduate highschool?" ..... "I quit"....... "What was the last book you read?" ...... "I dont read many books".... I said "Go read a bunch of books" come back and discuss them with me. First step. Never came back. One problem is that people think that Craftsman=artisan. In Japan it is way way different. Somebody like him might learn how to cut sushi or make mud bricks.... but not armor. Unfortunately, the word "shokunin" in modern times has the stigmata and image of the lower crafts but the word encompasses the higher arts. People do have pre-judgmental notions about Artisans and craftsmen. Im trying to change that. The help and understanding of this community is greatly appreciated. The one thing that I respect about Nishioka is that he is having his students take the long road.

Well, maybe you could visit my place once and then be as good an advertiser for me as you are for Nishioka san! But yeah, knowledge is very important. One thing we have to remember is that a lot of armors from sengoku period were put together at that time as composites. And a lot of daimyo armors from the Edo period are also composites. Just a fact of life. But as composites they have meaning from the historical set and setting of the time of manufacture. The armor that sold at the french auction a while back with modern scales, a switched out helmet, and now a switched out mempo... thats a whole different story. Its modern fantasy, and not even historically proper. And not myochin!!!! If you are going to make a composite armor that is proper to the school and period of manufacture, You should know what the heck you are doing. But keep in mind, a lot of armors get broken apart on the auction blocks. I have tracked down and put back together several armors that got broken. Sometimes I ended up getting them cheaper though because the dealers couldnt sell the independent parts for what they hoped. Sometimes I paid more though!

Yup. same as me. I have a wax seal as well that I carved myself from brass using my own Kamon. (the kanji for 3 三　= Mi for miura　三浦　)

I remember Jim, I used to be friends with him too. Really nice guy. Met him when he would come for the kantei kai when I was an active member back in the 90s.

When I write letters to people I use an inkwell. And yes. I still write letters to people. Now as a sign of respect, and to let them know they are worth the time of day.

1. Let me pose a question: We have doctors overburdened here, because nobody wants to go through med school. We have lawyers overburdened because of all the meaningless lawsuits and law school is hard to get through.... and be good at. How is it their additional burden and responsibility to teach "laymen" to do their jobs? So why would you suggest that it is the responsibility of the properly trained individuals to train hobbiests or the "demoized" lay crattsmen who wish to do inferior work for less?; In effect creating a cheaper and less professional competition? 2. The problem is the lack of understanding of the community of the arts. I'm on here with mountains of information and experience under my belt. As I see it, my responsibility is to inform the general public of the truth of the matter and provide them the knowledge required to make informed decisions and the best course of action. That I will do for free. But it is super offensive when I get people telling me that it is my responsibility to teach the community to do a job that has taken me years of my life to learn and perfect. I contain an intangible cultural property in my mind. Just as a lawyer or doctor's mind contains knowledge that took them many years of study and experience to obtain. 3. So.... You would pay a good doctor a high wage, to ensure you survive an operation? You would pay a good lawyer a high wage to ensure that you don't go to jail? So why would you not pay a good fee to a restorer to do a good job on your art if you really want to preserve and protect the item and preserve and protect the traditional arts that support the profession? 4. I have addressed this in a previous post, but Ill address it again. These are the reasons that there are so many short cutters, and so many people who dont want to go through with a proper training or evaluation before going out and setting to work. The community has gotten used to the bad work and cheap prices of the untrained, and because of this, the community at large has been dumbed down and the standards lowered. This is a result of the attitude of the community at large and the misinformation provided by people in it for their own purposes who have focused on being loud on social media rather than learning the respective art or finishing their projects. What the community needs is to be properly informed, and to respect the work of our ancestors and the arts and research of our predecessors. 5. Most of us do provide information basically "for free" to people who want to study the arts under us. BUT it means that we expect people to sacrifice by making a commitment such as studying under us so that we can ensure that 1. The standards of the art community are protected 2. the quality of the work is high 3. they are worthy of being introduced to and supported by the community 4. They understand loyalty and, debt, and respect. Without meaningful training and the gratitude to the people who have taught them a very valuable profession, the community is overrun by people with just enough information to be dangerous and the title of "studied in Japan". Just think about it: How much does law school cost? How much does Med school cost? Free? Most artisans just demand quality, loyalty, indemnity, and respect. I hope the community can understand this and put their money where their mouth is and prospective artisans can take the plunge of time, money, effort to achieve excellence. 5. I do think it is senseless to argue about who is best trained, because everybody checks the resume and references of the people that they ask to do work for them right? So there should be no arguments? My resume speaks for itself. I think there has been enough said on this subject at this point. And I think that people have been informed. The first role when you hire anybody for anything is to check their record. Im guilty of making that mistake in the past regarding the guy with the fake armor organization in England. I would not do that again.

You are absolutely right. Actually on the dou i recently restored, i did use fabric in places. It really does help prevent too much stress on thick urushi and helps absorb shock and prevent chipping. It also does add very minimal cushioning when layered. Leather was used rarely, but performs some of the same roles. In some ways its better than fabric in some ways not. Though both serve the function of making the surface flat and even using less time and resources. A nio dou if moriage would be very heavy. 😂

Hi Brian, Thank you. Thank you for all the hard work, supporting the community, and doing your best to be fair.

Ok Luc, this is about what I would have expected. Its a 170 year spread. Im not going to challenge your assumptions or anything, I just thought that this is what the spread would look like. Generally in archeology, with traditional C14 dating we call a 50 year spread about as good as it gets. AMS can sometimes do better but in general we have all kinds of problems with stuff from the 1600s onwards. And if it has been restored sometimes funky data can come up. I do think that you are in the ballpark with your estimate of age though, this is the reason that I really prefer shrine, or historical documents than C14 from this period. (usually you would not hear an archeologist say such a thing) Though, the C14 does tell us that it is indeed old and not a fake and from the general period that we thought it was. Thanks so much for sharing this data with us!

Exactly my point Luc. Agree with you completely. Again, it goes to where knowledge/experience is very important to a good restoration. Or whether or not something should even be restored.

Well, one thing that most people dont know is the fact that MOST items have already been restored depending on their age. If I were to tell you which items have been restored, you would probably not look at them in the same way either. In modern times, however, mostly only experts or people involved in the restorations would recognize the restorations. I do strongly disagree with the more recent idea for museums to make restorations into bleeding eye sores by making them stick out. My true theory on this is that they have turned in this direction because they want to divert liability away from their not having, or being able to afford people competent enough to do good restorations. Just imagine if those same types of restorations were done on oil paintings? If you read my response, it takes an expert to assess the best course of action. Sometimes flaws should be left, sometimes if not repaired, the artifact continues to deteriorate and fall apart. Sometimes its the case of having something from the muromachi period suffering from a bad edo period restoration.... restore it properly, protect it, and present it as it should be, or let it rot, and or preserve the poor edo period restoration. There are choices, but it takes a well seasoned expert to present the best courses of actions.

I'd like to reply to some of the things that Ian said. Having worked in museums since the age of 5 and advising, curating etc. at some of the top museums and shrines Ill add a bit here, you all know that im a trained restorer and armor maker as well. One thing that most restorers dont have is knowledge about the thinking of museums. Ie. the importance of preserving, particular parts etc. On the other hand, most museum staff do not know what to expect to find underneath cracking urushi. Sometimes, restoration is just not worth the cost, and sometimes a full restoration is absolutely necessary to preserve the most important part which is the metal or leather. If the base form is non-existent, then the urushi is meaningless. Therefore, the kind of person that you want working for a museum, or at least advising a museum would be somebody with enough experience to be able to tell them, for example: "Its not worth consolidating the urushi, and it can be damaging to the iron unless you strip and replace it", or "this urushi is the original urushi, we can and should fill the cracks and try to keep it, there is no threat to the iron at this point", or "the urushi will never be the same, but its original, so lets take samples, learn what we can and re-do it or just forego a restoration". Basically you need somebody who knows what they are doing both as a restorer and as a museum specialist. Not knowing a direction to take, is the reason that things get worse, or never done, and sit and rot on the shelves of museums, or in restorers bathtubs or wherever. Recently, some of the worst things I have witnessed are: 1. at the metropolitan museum the degredation of their prize akoda nari kabuto. This likely happened when they started moving things around during temperature and humidity fluctuations in the dead of winter. In a really short amount of time, the helmet that I had loved all my life suddenly started to deteriorate. One helmet was displayed backwards, and an edo period armor was mid-diagnosed as Kamakura period! In a display in Odawara castle, I saw that the armor owned by the Satake family had the original "Satake style" tehen kanamono removed by the restorer without the owner's permission. The reason was "it was not from the proper period". That tehen kanamono was one of the most important parts of the armor. To add insult to injury, the guy in charge of writing the book went out of his way to state that the signature on the helmet "Yoshimichi" (sometimes called "gitsu") was a fake signature. The signature was absolutely proper and correct. All of this stuff is cultural vandalism in my opinion. Destruction of information, desecration of art, and misinformation. And it was done by the trustees of the culture and history most likely due to ignorance and incompetence. Dave Thatcher playing with the basket case restorations above is rather inconsequential in my opinion. But please stop misinforming people.

Well if they are that accurate, I will have to start sending my stuff to them! So the middle time frame on the armor you referenced was 1575? +-20 years? or was it more? and where was the sample taken from?

Hi, Honestly I hate social media. The only reason that I emerged back on the scene is because of the terrible mess that was taking place due to some people abusing it. Anyway Im here. And its nice to find and network with people like yourself. Yes, I don't think that there are any questions that the Nio came out of the hotoke and okegawa dou. I would assume that hotoke and okegawa came about around the same time. The main difference is the amount of urushi being used. Hotoke require a lot of urushi etc as you can see from my facebook page. To give you an example regarding the weight, the hotoke I restored, was probably around 6 kilo pre restoration, I would say it nearly doubled in weight with the urushi, shitaji, and fabrics. Hotoke if moriage, would require a lot of urushi and shitaji and so it would get pretty heavy. But it could technically be done if you took your time and knew what you were doing.

Dave Thatcher Wrote: I studied lacquering for four years under the guidance of Kitagawa Miho Sensei. I want to share with you two restorations that required urushi 1. Unfortunately, most people who specialize in urushi do not work with the same materials that armor makers do. Metal, or leather for example have very different properties to wood, such as expansion and contraction, rusting, etc. That is why there are no shortcuts to beciming an armor maker or restorer if you are doing it traditionally. Dave Thatcher Wrote: I decided to strip the lacquer and ground layers off completely. It took three years to dry the rawhide out before it could be rebuilt. 2. 3 years to dry out rawhide...... Try drying it in a dry place. Do you think the samurai artisans waited three years for a piece of rawhide to dry out? Are you sure you didnt just forget about it? I did one of these recently, same condition, done in short time. If you took the time to understand what you were doing, you would have been done in a couple months. Experience and knowledge about construction, adhesion, etc. is what allows us to make the right decisions from the beginning so time and money are not wasted.

Hi Tidiane, if you have facebook, you can see how an okegawa dou is made from the iron up. I restored from the base components a ground up restoration of an early 17th century hotoke dou. Its on Miura Anjin samurai art page: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092385756447 though Nio dou were by and large uchidashi, some have a very heavy moriage component. But are based off of horizontal plates and stem from okegawa. It is said that multiplates helped prevent urushi from cracking with expanding and contracting.

Hi Graham, i read the article. Thank you. For those who cant sort through the scientific mumbo jumbo the basic conclusion was that iron from different helmets in different workshops showed different compositional makeup and surface texture due to the way that the iron was worked or produced. Some problems with the survey were: 1. They assumed all the iron tested was domestic iron. 2. That the items were made during the working periods when the makers working with the names signed on the helmets were active- this helps to narrow down trends if dates can be confirmed. 3. one thing that i noticed, is that the lack of understanding of Japanese armor making led to some interesting data not being understood and thus perhaps misinterpreted. This is understandable though, as there are very few people trained in more than one discipline these days. what i did like about the paper is the interesting raw data from the analytical procedure though in the end, with a very scientific way of saying it: different workshops = different methods and techniques, same workshops = likely same iron source and same methods. Which is what would be expected due to the particular types of helmets examined. Id suggest several control experiments that would likely provide more meaningful data sets, though I do respect what they were attempting to do.