IanB

Henk-Jan, Perhaps I should have said - apologise to the ronin on behalf of those who try as they did to do their duty. Ian

If I ever get to Japan again I will make a point of visiting their graves again, burn incense and apologise on behalf of those of us who inhabit a world that shows respect to those who did their duty. Ian Bottomley

Clive, You have heard by presentation before, so you can sleep through that bit. I note that Karen Watts' talk has been edited out but the remainder should make it a very good day. Ian Bottomley

We see some of these shows over here in the UK. Most are obviously set-ups where a guy or a small team 'discover' a treasure and make money selling it. Who they are supposed to entertain I know not. I can only think that it is to give the population some faint hope that they too can become rich rather than just function as a 'crop' to be harvested by the politicians and bankers. However if you think that is bad, our own BBC commissioned a whole historic series about the women who influenced events during the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses (16th century). After a couple of episodes they then felt obliged to put out a programme pointing out all the historic inaccuracies in the series! You couldn't make it up. Ian Bottomley

Howard, I think you have nailed it. Not however Mongolian and certainly not 13th century but Korean and probably 16th century. There must have been a fair number of these helmets brought back after the Korean campaign as war-trophies. The Royal Armouries has one mounted with a Japanese shikoro that is much more Chinese in style, with a concave sided superstructure on top rather than the conical shape of the one you show. There is also a real Korean helmet consisting of an iron frame filled with black lacquered rawhide plates and fitted with fabric covered ear flaps and a neck guard. That winging its way to you has the conical structure in copper and has obviously lost its plume-tube. Not exactly items of great quality, but of great interest and rarity. Ian Bottomley

Howard, The helmet with the shikoro is not a momonari kabuto - they have a medial flange that is stepped at the apex, the front part being sometimes concave in profile. The helmet you show is a variant of a toppai kabuto ('pointed'), more properly a shiinari kabuto likened to an acorn. The other, with its flat peak is strange and not any of the classic form that I know of. Ian Bottomley

Howard, I don't want to be a party pooper but I'm afraid the signature had been done with a dremel tool fitted with a rotary cutter. It should be done by a chasing tool having a V sectioned head. Struck square this gives a V shaped groove, but struck with one end lifted slightly it produces a V shaped stroke that tapers to a hair-line. If you look at the signature in your helmet you will see that each stroke is U shaped with rounded ends. Sorry. Ian Bottomley

Herman, The world of Japanese swords, tsuba and armour never really gets that much easier. The more you think you know, the more you find you don't. I started in the days when there was an abundance of swords in the UK, still relatively expensive when I think of the money I earned, but cheap by today's prices. I bought what I liked and what I could afford to buy - some good, many bad. For several years I could find nothing much written in English about my treasures but it didn't bother me too much because I had the swords themselves. When Basil Robinson published his book 'The Arts of the Japanese Sword' I began to study what he had written and gained a little knowledge that I have tried to add to as more and more information becomes available. I now only own about a dozen swords, (because I really collect armour) and almost all have unsigned blades. There is an opinion that they are bad swords because they are unsigned - that may be true but I would beg to differ. I don't know who made my favourites and although I have a good idea about some, it doesn't matter because it is the swords themselves I am in love with. Putting a sword in for shinsa will give me a name but that will only be an opinion expressed by people who know a lot more than me and won't make any difference to the sword itself. Many here always recommend a beginner buy books and study before buying a sword. In my opinion you will never learn anything about swords from books - you need to hold them, look at them in different lights and feel how they handle to learn. I would say buy a sword you know is real, and is one you like, then start studying it. It might not be the best sword in the world but you will learn far more with a sword in your hand than any amount of looking at pictures and reading descriptions in books. Ian Bottomley

Nick, That brings back memories. When I saw the first image you had posted I thought I was looking at a sword I owned way back in the 1960's. It isn't, but the technique is exactly the same. Mine was mounted as a tachi with pain brass bounts that I suspect had been knocked up from a katana saya for the tourist trade. Like yours it had mainly pieces of mussel shell, showing MOP with a purple colour and a few cone-shaped shells that must have been cut into thin slices before fastening onto the saya and embedded in lacquer. Colourful to say the least. Ian Bottomley

Grev, As John will happily confirm I wouldn't know a tsuba from a dustbin lid, but the first tsuba looks to be signed Masatsugu 正次 to me. The second one is industrial strength sosho, but at least I know the kamon is Inaba family. Ian Bottomley

I would hazard a guess at the date being Genroku ? Ian Bottomley

All, I agree with all the previous commentators that this is an exceptionally fine helmet and like others I would have loved to have seen the complete armour. I'm afraid I disagree with the date however. I read the date as Genroku 16 or 1703, he second kanji of the nengo can only be 禄. There is no other nengo with that second character around that era except Bunroku, which is too early for the Saotome. The shape of the tehen kanamono is surely modelled on the turned-over apex of a European Spanish morion or a cabaset, despite the fact that the front and back plates lack a medial ridge. I suppose by the time the helmet was made, the originals had become something of a folk memory. Ian Bottomley

All, There is a 'daisho' in Keighley museum (Cliffe Castle) in the UK that also has what would normally be regarded as two wakizashi blades. Whether it is a coincidence or not I do not know, but the larger blade is signed Tadayoshi (which generation I am now no longer sure about). I remember when I first looked at these swords it occurred to me they may have been chosen by an owner who fought with both swords. Ian Bottomley

Jan, Simply the character for 10 - 'ju' in a circle. Why it was chosen I don't know. You can see why they changed it if you imagine the above with the lower leg extended. As I have said, on the kanamono of the armour is a small tick at the base of the lower leg but it is almost invisible unless you are looking for it. Just when the Shimazu changed their kamon I don't know. The Tensho Mission left Japan in 1582 with the armour as a gift so it was in use before that date. One of the daimyo funding the trip was Otomo Sorin (he was baptised as Francisco at the time) who fought the Shimazu at Mimigawa in 1578 when I assume he obtained the armour (it does have minor battle damage on the left kote). So it seems the Shimazu were still using the old form at that date. Hideyoshi had 26 Christians killed in 1597 to discourage conversion to that religion so I would suggest that is when the Shimazu changed their kamon. Why it occurs on later Edo period items I don't know - perhaps for nostalgic reasons when the Christianity problem had far less importance. Ian B

Piers, Here is the tube item whose name I have never known. I also included the koshiate since they were both handy. Ian

Jan, I have pulled this off the internet but it is almost the same as that on the armour. The major difference is that the armour version has the lower leg rather more extended, and hence looks Christian, and has the outer ends of the arms expanded. The family changed to the form that Piers' piece has during the Momoyama to avoid being thought Christian. Remember Hideyoshi proscribed the religion - although he didn't really enforce his ban. Ian

Sadly it is impossible to guess what the kashira date was like but gilded leather was the normal material being strong and light. Judging by the size of the tsunamoto it was something reasonably tall. I had thought an ichi no tani shape but doubt that a European would call it a panache. They tended to be tall and fairly narrow, often jewelled or similarly decorated. Sadly the illustration by Jan and your kamon Piers are the wrong one. The armour was made when the Shimazu used the character ju separated from the circular frame. For years the Royal Armouries thought the kamon on the kanamono was a Christian cross in a circle (and they really do look like one) but with a glass you can see they have a tick at the base of the upright. Ian B

Brian, Piers, Sadly I feel you are right, most Japanese, as well as most Europeans, have no regard for their heritage. My rummaging in Japanese flea-markets (I was going to use the older term fossicking and realised most people wouldn't understand) turned up many pieces that I regard as absolute treasures, but caused their vendors to look at me as if I was totally out of my mind wanting such rubbish. On one occasion I found a small fabric tube, about 6" long lined with silk and shaped to fit on a saya around and below the kurigata. I bet nearly every samurai had one, but how many do you see? It was to stop the saya of the two swords rubbing together and damaging the lacquer where they cross under the obi. Similarly I once found a simple koshiate that fitted around a katana saya under the obi. It is trivial, just a few bits of leather, but again I would imagine most samurai on the daimyo gyoretsu wore one to stop their left hip bone getting pounded to shreds marching day after day for sometimes months on end whilst wearing a katana. These are the kind of trivia that would have been commonplace, but were discarded for exactly that reason when the wearing of swords was abolished. This type of item, and so much else, were not the kind of items the tourists to Japan in the 19th century thought to acquire with the swords, armour and other weapons they were buying as souvenirs. As a result they almost never feature in the study of swords and other military equipment since I suspect few today know they ever existed. Ian Bottomley

Jan, The mark is interesting. Although it can mean 'top' or 'upper', I cannot see someone trying to put the maedate on upsidedown so I don't think it is being used in that context. As has been mentioned it occurs inside helmets before signatures were common as a quality indicator. Again it seems improbable that it is being used on a maedate with that meaning. One possibility is that it is being used to indicate the association of the maedate with a particular helmet. If there were several similar maedate and helmets kept together, it would seem sensible to mark them to show which belonged to which. That being the case, I would have expected numbers - but who knows? Perhaps it shows this maedate belongs to a more superior helmet or a helmet marked in the same way. Ian Bottomley

Jan, Your maedate is splendid, but as to age -who knows? Judging from its appearance it looks to have considerable age, but that could be just the life it has had. For some reason almost all the helmets I ever get my hands on have the maedate missing - I suspect that somewhere there is a warehouse full of the darned things. As for the potential age and textile component of your maedate - the Tensho Mission from Japan to Europe gave King Philip of Spain an armour in 1585 that is described in a movement order of 1603 instructing a Franciso Berdugo to transfer the armour from the Palace to the Armoury. The document says it had:- A black morion (open helmet) of the same, with a mask -?- and a crest of gilded leather and in the front a gold cross on a green field and in front two tufts (or tails) (of) black hair, and a (baruas?) in black and white.. This armour is now in the Royal Armouries in Leeds but sadly missing its crests. The helmet in question is a zunari kabuto with two large prongs (tsunamoto) on the top of the bowl that held the crest of gilded leather (actually described in the text as a panache - these were commonly used in Europe on such things as tournament helmets). On the front was a maedate of the Shimazu kamon (described by the clerk as 'a cross of that country' ) 'on a green field'. The armour still retains a few kanamono with the old Shimazu kamon of the character 'ju' in a circle. The green field is unlikely to have been metallic or lacquer so I can only think that this was of openwork gilded copper backed with a leather or textile. On either side of this was what is described as 'tufts, bunches (like a little girls' hair) or tails' of black hair. This I interpret as being a pair of kuwagata shapes, but covered in black fur with the kamon between them. In fact very similar in overall conception to yours. What the 'baruas' in black and white was I cannot imagine - possibly a helmet cord. I recently saw a helmet at an arms fair with a helmet cord made from two colours of hemp cloth rolled into cords and twisted together like a rope. This would accord with the description but I have yet to find the term baruas. With this kind of description you must realise the poor old clerk writing out the document had no idea what he was dealing with and just used words that seemed appropriate to him. Ian Bottomley

Barrie, There should be a leather band around the 'waist' of the yazutsu that has a metal ring on it and at the side a leather strap that ends in a loop. A heavy cord goes through this loop, around the waist and ties to the ring so that the quiver is positioned on the right waist. The lid hangs from loops of cord that fasten together with a toggle (kohaze), and is kept closed by a leather strap ending in a metal ring. This is fixed to the side of the yazutsu, then goes over the lid and the ring hooks over a stud on the other side. The tie at the upper back mystified me for years until I saw how it was used in a painting at Nikko Toshogu. It would normally be just a short length of cord that goes through the two eyelets and is tied in a knot. I always thought it was for hanging the quiver up, but no - a thin cord was tied to the loop that went over the left shoulder and tied either to the obi or to the armour. Its purpose was to hold the upper end of the quiver at the correct angle so that the lid was just in front of the right hip. Ian Bottomley

Jan, How I wish I could have revised that book years ago. When it was in the final throws before printing, the editor ( ) had deleted all the Japanese terminology and replaced it with what she thought was the corresponding English. As a result it went to press with all manner of errors - even to odd paragraphs being missed out. Still it made a start. Piers, Not really clever at all - what other kanji would you expect on the front of an armour box? I knew it wasn't normal but thought the general form was right. After paddling around in the pool of Japanese arms and armour for 50 odd years I have come to expect anything. Ian B.

Jan, Sorry but is a kamon I have not come across before - not unusual. The kanji is easy - 'FRONT' Ian Bottomley

Piers, Luc, There were a number of gifts sent to various European monarchs and dignitaries in the final days of the shogunate. The stand of arms sent to Queen Victoria has been partially published, but the full extent of the gift is still obscure (at least to me). It included the famous o-yoroi by Myochin Muneharu in the Victoria and Albert Museum together with the horse harness now on loan from the same museum to the Royal Armouries, but there was a vast array of other stuff. The RA have about 30 matching yari with raden shafts and there are others scattered between the V&A and Windsor Castle. I suspect the total may well have been 50 or so. There are two magnificent naginata, stirrups and other bits of horse gear. Somewhere there will be swords but I have never seen them described. Similarly, on a visit to Torino in Italy I saw in stores an absolutely knockout daisho which the conservator told me was a similar gift and there used to be a magnificent do-maru, only the helmet of which now seems to survive, that may also have been a gift. I would guess that similar gifts were sent to other royalty that have now been relegated to storerooms, unrecognised and relatively unloved. There is a research project here for someone who has the time and patience to hammer away at officialdom. Ian Bottomley

Having collected for some 50 plus years there are bits and pieces all over the place as well as being concentrated in my armour room. I know my two sons are terrified by the idea of having to deal with it all when I finally fall off the perch. One thing I did do, whilst being treated for cancer (which concentrates the mind wonderfully) is to start a file of photographs and descriptions of the major items with a general idea of what they are worth. Although I did manage to cover a reasonable amount of ground, there are still a hundred and one bits and pieces that need to go in it, but every time I think about getting back to doing it something else distracts. I have sold off a few minor bits and bobs of late, but couldn't bear to part with armours I have owned for nearly 50 years - they are too much like good friends. Perhaps it should concentrate on the minor bits, in themselves not terribly valuable, but aggregated would be. The major pieces are obvious. Ian Bottomley