IanB

All, I think it is worth pointing out that most koshiate were worn to protect the wearer rather than to allow a katana to be worn as a tachi. I have one which is a simple pad with two loops and no cords. It was fitted around the saya near the kurigata before the sword was pushed into the obi. In that position it acted as a cushion, preventing the saya banging on the hip bone as you were walking. These items must have been common for the daimyo gyoretsu. Ian Bottomley

Ron, Yes, the UK does sink that low. The police were told 'if it comes in take it in whatever it is'. A few owners were told to contact us directly but very few. No, the Japanese gun isn't on show since it has no lock. Someone was in the process of making a new one and had made a blank brass plate for it that is still in the cavity but somehow never finished the job. I should be going in next week and I will get some pictures. Ian

John, There is a large bore one in the Royal Armouries' collection, taken in a police amnesty, with raised gilt Tokugawa kamon scattered over the barrel. In silver near the breach is the name 'Abyss'. Certainly you get that impression facing the muzzle. Ian Bottomley

Steve, Yes, I have the catalogue but didn't manage to attend that exhibition. I cannot remember the exact date but seem to think it was a bit earlier. I am reasonably sure that the V&A Museum have a complete list of the Queen Victoria gift but I have never seen it published. The Muneharu o-yoroi is normally on show at the V&A. Unfortunately, The Tower of London was going through a bad patch as far as Oriental material was concerned during the decades when the gift was made and after. The staff at the time were very Europe orientated and ultimately removed all the Oriental items that were contaminating the place and transferred it to the British Museum and elsewhere. This sad situation was not reversed until the 1960's when Russell-Robinson began to reinstate items back into the collection. Ian Bottomley

Justin, Thomas, Oh yes there is a story. The house in question was inherited by a gent called Wade whose family had made a fortune from, I think, sugar and textiles. He had a passion for antiques and collected everything from ship models to bicycles - reaching a point where he had to move out of the house through lack of space and live in a cottage next door. His passion for Japanese armour dates from the 1930's, 40's. I know that on one occasion he went to buy a tap-washer at a plumbers in Tewksbury and came out with 5 or 6 armours for the princely sum of £5. One early item he acquired was an armour on a Meiji dummy, complete with clothing, a daisho and a yari. The Japanese artist had positioned the dummy so that its left hand was resting on the hilts of the swords, the right holding its yari at about shoulder height. As he added to the collection Wade's gardener was tasked with making more dummies and it was he who decided you couldn't do better than copy the Japanese one. The result was a series of figures cut from boards with their left hands on their hips and their right arms, flexed at elbow and wrist floating vaguely off at shoulder level - basically looking like a row of teapots. When I first catalogued them, one of the tasks I undertook was to cut off the arms and re-position them so they looked slightly less fey. By chance I shall be spending a couple of days with them after Christmas with the conservation team tasked with looking after them. Ian Bottomley

Justin, As you know, the seated-on-the-box is the traditional way of displaying armour. However, it is your armour and you can display it how you like. The problem you will have with any form of commercial dummy / mannequin will be the proportions of the limbs, especially the shins. One other consideration is that I make my stands with supports under the lower edge of the dou to take all the weight off the fastening cords. On the armours that need it, I also fit padded fabric sleeves that support the weight of the kote and sode. A standing figure will add the weight of the gessan / kusazuri into the equation. Ian Bottomley

Luc, Thank you for the image of the Royal armour. A splendid item - I have always liked susogoi lacing. The menpo reminds me of the work of Muneyasu, especially the small notch in the chin. Ian Bottomley

Henk-Jan, Beware of what you read on the internet. Indian mail was not butted until the 19th century. Prior to that they were making mail that was not only riveted but with links that were swaged to a triangular cross section that made European mail look like the work of amateurs. This early Indian mail invariably has alternate rows welded and has different sized links for different parts of the garment - heaviest on the chest, plates over the lower abdomen and smallest links at the ends of the sleeves. Why put the plates there? I will let you work that one out. Two of the mail and plate coats in the Royal Armouries' collection have the welded links crossed by a central bar (the so-called theta mail) whose links are less than 1/4" diameter, yet the joining links are riveted. There is a cult out there for people to play with different linking systems, non of which were ever used in the past. The good old 4 in 1 being universal except for Japanese mail. Ian Bottomley

Luc, This is rather earlier than the gift to Queen Victoria who was given an 0-yoroi by Myochin Muneharu. What is less well known is that the armour was accompanied by a complete horse harness, two naginata and approximately 50 yari with raden shafts and gold saya. Interestingly the yari, at present divided between the Royal Armouries, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Windsor Castle, were all 10 feet long except four that are 8 feet long. The armour you refer to must be that illustrated (rather badly) in Kei Kaneda Chappelear's book 'Japanese Armour Makers for the Samurai' on page 64 where it is described as being in Leiden. Ian Bottomley

Luc, Like yours, my Nagamichi helmet has 31 rivets per plate whereas my koboshi kabuto by Saotome Ietada has 25. Ian Bottomley

Guy, There are no cranes on mine. The kamon is a diamond with the corners cut off enclosing a stylised plum flower. It is illustrated in my book on page 142 and on page 101 of Kei Chappelear's book 'Japanese Armour Makers for the Samurai'. Ian Bottomley

Jean, Are you implying that Santie doesn't exist? :? :? If so, who puts the sweeties in my stocking at Christmas? Ian Bottomley

Guy, I too have an armour by Nagamichi with a very similar helmet to this. Mine too has the nawa fukurin in shakudo. Clearly he worked for very wealthy patrons, but I have never been able to identify the kamon on mine. The kuwagata dai on yours is superb. Ian Bottomley

Eric, I know that armour well having sewn the haidate and kote onto new brocade. As you say, a very well made tatami gusoku for a samurai. I have always been unsure exactly why they were made. The usual story is that they were carried when travelling but I'm only half convinced. This one belonged to Dr. Galeno and he also had one made for the Ii family. Its box was about 3/4 the size of a normal gusoku bitsu so I suppose it would have been a bit easier to tote about, but these guys would have had plenty of staff to fetch and carry. Since they suffer from the same problem that mail does - they don't stop the force of a blow, only stopping a sword cutting, why people had them made is perplexing. The only thing that really comes to mind is that they were probably more comfortable to wear, which in a time when you were most unlikely to be attacked, may have been a deciding factor. Ian Bottomley

Eric, An interesting kusari armour. Did you notice the following? At the sides of the dou, where the waki ita would be on an normal armour, the fabric substrate is red cloth. This is echoed on the kote with shobu gawa over the tekko. I also like the way they have used heavier links in the mail to create 'shino' over the forearms not to mention the tate waku design over the inside of the arms. By the way, I bet it was a real bas***** to get the two sized links to mesh together so neatly. Now, the suneate are on yellow fabric, yet they have the same mail 'shino' and the same shobu gawa. A splendid example of the old premise that the customer gets what he wants and a complete matching armour does not need to conform to our Western idea of what matches. Ian Bottomley

Uwe, All I've done is re-lace the front of the ukebari since the original braid was falling apart. It was while doing that I first noticed the filled holes under the peak. I used purple braid because that was all I had that was narrow enough. Perhaps I should have used blue. Ian

John, I am so sorry - I was so carried away with my stream of invective I wasn't thinking straight. Actually there are some quite reasonable English close helmets, although nowhere near as good as German or Italian ones I concede. The problem is that they are never signed or marked and are generally labelled Flemish, despite the fact that most have been found in English churches. Ian

Eric, Your wish is my command. Here is the helmet that seems to have had the nasal bar. Essentially it is a form of Etchu zunari kabuto with a superstructure in the form of a court cap. The tehen kanamono is iron that internally is a thick iron tube that connects the 'court cap' to the medial plate of the zunari bachi - an incredibly strong construction. Originally it has had some form of kashiradate, the tehen kanamono having bayonet socket grooves cut inside. The various ornamental washers under the rivets suggests an Haruta origin with strong Saiga influences. My feeling is that the original bowl is late Momoyama although the present maedate and wakidate are later Edo period additions. Sitting behind the brass tsunomoto for the maedate is an iron stud positioned above the rectangular hole in the peak with its roped border. What function the stud had is open to speculation but it probably carried a socket and thumb screw to hold the bar up or down. The upper part of the tehen kanamono is roped in exactly the same way as the hole in the peak indicating both were conceived from the start. Under the peak are two holes spaced either side of the centre line that are now filled with lacquer. These I suggest held a bracket that acted as a guide to the nasal bar. Clearly it wasn't a success since it was removed. Brian, You like what!!! have you handled civil war helmets. A blind politician armed with a blunt horseshoe could turn out better armour than most of these wretched things display. Most were crude, brutish helmets, churned out in their thousands with little or no regard to either finish or aesthetics. If they could be jammed on somebody's head without causing cranial fractures they would do. Ian Bottomely

Eric, You do have a habit of picking up things! I bought that kazaghand for the Royal Armouries' collection about 8 years ago. It is in fact Turkish and is only the second known that has retained its original silk covering - the other being in the Topkapi museum. The Indians did make and wear similar garments and I bought another that was Mughal with a long long sleeves and a full pleated skirt, the mail being confined to the torso and sleeves only. At some point this had been stripped of its outer silk covering leaving only a coarse cotton under layer and wadding over the mail. Interestingly, I did some research on a load of Indian mail and plate coats that had been captured by Mughal forces in the Deccan during the 17th century and which were of some age then judging by the repairs some have. These were found to have been galvanised with zinc, presumably because they were originally textile covered. In fact, I have only managed to find one image of an uncovered mail and plate coat, in a manuscript in the Pierpoint Morgan library. As for the helmet, I will dig it out and take some pictures. My guess is that it was inspired by an Indian or Persian helmet rather than a European one - the Portuguese tending to use Italian armour. European helmets were made with nasal bars, especially during the mid 17th century during the English civil war, but rather too late to have influenced the Japanese. Ian Bottomley

Mark, As Dave has said, $25,000 will buy you a very good armour, or several of the quality of the one that you showed. Whether an armour is 'homogeneous' or not has always been a dilemma. I have two that definitely are and several that might be. Even those that definitely are could well contain re-used elements that the armourer has incorporated into his new creation. Quite a few daimyo had armours made that incorporated helmet bowls made by famous armourers of the past. Although we know little of the armour trade for the many, I have always been convinced that a middle-rank samurai would select ready-made pieces and have them lacquered and mounted into an armour. What few images we have of armourer's shops show the walls covered with pairs of sleeves, shoulder guards and the like for the customer to make his selection from. Those even lower down the scale probably bought second hand or ready-to-wear, assembled from a mixture of new and pre-used parts. Sakakibara Kozan hints at this. Even in Europe, great princes were sometimes painted wearing armours that were clearly 'a bag of bits'. In battle you wore what worked for you, not what some fashionista thought was stylish. Ian Bottomley

Eric, Yup - I got a helmet that once had a nasal bar. It was taken off later, but the evidence of its existance is beyond dispute. Ian Bottomley

Matt, Why not come and meet the guys at the Birmingham Arms Fair on the 18th November. Ian B

Mark, The internal ties are what really hold the upper plates of the dou together, the silk lacing being largely decorative. These ties are leather thongs that pass under the silk lacing on the main plate of the dou and out through pairs of holes in the lower edge of the plate above where they are tied off. In effect they lock the upper plates to the body of the dou and to each other. Because they have broken, all the weight has been thrown onto the silk lacing which has stretched. When the ties are replaced, the silk will settle back and look OK. Justin, The fabric on all parts of the san gu is a blue damask with a design of flowers and leaves, and all are edged with ko sakura gawa. The only indication they may have been associated is that the edging of the kohire is a plain leather. However, the edging of the padded collar on the inside is a blue braid. I do find it odd that the suneate are lacquered the colour they are but I have seen armours with what look like non-matching suneate before - they were after all the part getting most 'hammer' when wading rivers or walking over muddy ground. Maybe they don't belong but they have been mounted on the same fabric as the rest. When that was done I cannot tell from photos and maybe even with them in hand. I don't like the fancy knotted green cord and kohaze on the sode, They should be plain loops of blue braid as elsewhere, but the general lacing of them looks perfectly compatible with the rest of the armour. Clearly the tsunamono that should hold the crest has broken off, but I have no problem with the three byo, they are just a bit of fancy and are repeated on the sode. Dave, I'm not sure the lacing isn't plugged - look at the 2nd and 3rd plate up from the bottom of the sode - its not prominent I admit but a couple of pale dots appear. I agree with you about the kamon on the front and on the fukigayeshi, they don't look too convincing hence my comment about seeing several recently. They do not however detract from the armour as a whole and may be easy to remove, provided the dou hasn't been drilled to fasten it on. I still think it is in general a very reasonable armour in good condition. Ian Bottomley

Mark, A good straightforward armour in good condition. I would think late Edo period is exactly right. The only issue I can see is that the internal ties inside the dou are broken and need replacing - a very simple job. At first glance I had doubts about the suneate but despite the colour of the lacquer. the fabric and its edging do match. Interestingly, this is about the third armour I have seen for sale with the same kamon - I wonder if some family are selling their treasures. Ian Bottomley

Matt, Where in the UK do you live? Ian Bottomley