IanB

Steve, What you have is a helmet with a shikoro that is made up from two different sources - the bottom 4 lames having nothing to do with the rest. Normally a shikoro of this type would be of 5 lames, although sometimes other numbers of lames occur. Trying to make a proper shikoro from the two parts will not I'm sorry to say, work - the lengths and curves are all wrong. What you need is a katchushi to make you three new lames. Ian Bottomley

Paul, I so much agree with what you have said. I only have one papered sword, with papers for the blades and another for the koshirae. What makes me smile is that rather shrewdly in my opinion the papers attribute the blades to 'Bungo Takeda Den' - this used to be a favourite decision years ago to park a blade in when you haven't a clue who made it. Ian Bottomley

Piers, Although it has cost you some money, nothing, not even all the cash in the world, could buy back the yari if you hadn't saved it from oblivion. You cannot recover history that has been lost. Ian Bottomley.

Looks like a kago-yari. I bought one for the Royal Armouries collection that still had its saya whose top part was covered on bristles - looks like a small sweeping brush. Ian Bottomley

I understand there was a shortage of same during the 18th c. (?), which if I recall, was owing to a diplomatic rift with China. You certainly see enough tsuka covered with pieces of same rather than whole skins, although this could be just economics. Ian Bottomley

As someone with a museum background myself, I take the point. It is the age old dilemma of restore or conserve to which there is no clear black and white answer. Do you have a rusty blade polished? Do you get a tsuka rebound when the original silk is falling off? Do you have a blade put into shirasaya and dispose of the koshirae? Do you get a damaged saya re-lacquered? I think many here would say yes to some at least of these actions. In the case of armour I once bought one that arrived in a supermarket carrier bag as almost all the original lacing having turned to dust. Ok, I relaced it with new silk. Was that wrong? should I have tied the bits that had separated to the rest with string? Sadly, silk is a material with a limited life. True, if kept in darkness at a low temperature its life will be extended considerably, but sadly few armours have had such an existence. Similarly, lacquer can flake if the substrate is rawhide that expands and contracts with changes in humidity. To a lesser extent the same is true of lacquer on iron, which it has no affinity for whatsoever and has to have the initial coat burnt on to make it adhere at all. I too would much rather live with a piece with a few cracks and chips in the lacquer, and indeed have such pieces, but sometimes, the damage is so great and disfiguring that re-lacquering is really the only option. I have a zunari kabuto that had lost a chunk of lacquer on the brow about the size of a playing card. You cannot really fill such a patch so I had it totally relacquered. It is now looking as it should and I can live with that. Ian Bottomley

Well done John, it now looks magnificent. Ian Bottomley

Thanks Barry.

O-sode were fastened to both the shoulder straps of the cuirass and to a large silk bow, the agemaki, hanging from a ring on the back of the cuirass. Each sode had 4 attachements. On the inner side, just below the upper plate, was from the front, a double silk cord with tassels on both ends, in the centre a doubled strip of leather, at the top rear, another double silk cord and finally about half way down the rear edge, a single tasselled cord. On the shoulder straps of the cuirass were two loops to which the front double cord and the leather strips fastened. The rear double cord tied to the side loop of the agemaki bow on the back of the cuirass. Finally the single cord passed through the side loop of the agemaki and tied to its opposite number around the neck of the agemaki. The whole purpose of this complex system was to keep the sode in position over the arm, yet allowing them to be raised and moved about when using either the bow or sword. Ian Bottomley

Piers, the last kanji is 尉 - jou, so he was Suke-zaemonjo. Ian Bottomley

They are illustrated in Stone's Glossary whereit states they were also used by Edo period law enforcers. Lovely little thing and very rare I imagine. Ian Bottomley

Robert, Small heraldic badges are not uncommon on armour, often across the front below the mune-ita or on the bottom row of sode, shikoro and gessan. Ian Bottomley

OK. What you have is perfectly normal. Your problem is that the kote and the sode do not belong together. So, assuming the kote belong to the dou, the top un-armoured section would go under the shoulder straps, watagami, and the two toggles (kohaze) attached at the top of the armoured section of the kote would fasten to the loops under the watagami. The two half collar sections would then fasten together at the back of the neck. The sode that should have belonged to this arrangement would not have had toggles, just loops of silk braid that would be looped over the kote toggles before they were fastened to the watagami. If it is the sode that belong to the dou, the kote would only have loops without kohaze and they would have been looped over the sode fastenings before attaching to the dou, the collar arrangement as before. The toggle at the bottom of the sode was to attach it to a simple loop on the correct kote to stop the sode swing out of place. The toggle part way down on your kote does the same thing on a sode without a toggle at the bottom, just a loop. As for the central stud, look horizontally around the dou under the left arm and you may see where there has been another. These held either a pouch for small necessities, or simple a fabric pad to stop the tsuba of the swords damaging the lacquer and lacing of the dou. Hope that makes sense. Ian Bottomley

My favourite katana has all of the mounts done with this snowflake design, but with tiny cherry petals scattered amongst them as a sign that Spring is not far behind. Ian Bottomley

The reason for the lacing is that all earlier J. armours were / are lamellar - made from thousands of small scales of rawhide or iron laced into rows with leather thongs and then into the armour with, usually, silk braid. This construction had its origins in antiquity, travelling eastward across Central Asia to China and Japan. In Central Asia, the nomads did not have large scale iron works so making small scales was a more practical proposition. Lamellar armour is also more suitable than plate when on horseback. The Japanese armourers did make large iron plates in the first millennium, but switched to lamellar when mounted archery became the preferred method of fighting. Even in the Heian period the armourers could still make large plates, forging one-piece helmet bowls. These fell out of favour, possibly because later multiplate helmets were convenient for the armourer since they could to some extent use off-cuts. Ian Bottomley

I have to agree with Justin. The major error is not flattening out the braid as it emerged from a hole to the outside. Also I suspect you have not used the paper plugs either. Start again and take your time getting each lame right before rushing to add another. Ian Bottomley

My first impression was that this nio dou was a modern fake, but one image shows that it is modelled with lacquer, some of which has flaked off. Ian Bottomley

I don't see a cross - I see an insect something like a bee. Ian Bottomley

Basically a cross-knot but a bit modified. By the way, all he cross-knots should 'go' the same way over the whole piece. So, there will be two end through the top two holes in the lowest lame. Bring what would be the under braid in all your other cross-knots over on the diagonal and cut it off just where it would go through the lower hole. Now bring the top braid over the cut end (add a touch of paste here if you wish to make sure it doesn't undo) and into the lower hole. This now goes horizontally across the back and out through the other bottom hole. Cut it off and tuck the tab under the diagonal bit, again with a touch of paste if you wish. Ian Bottomley

Just take care that as you add more lames, they add more weight on the bit already laced and stretch the lacing already done, throwing the even spacing of the lames out. You must also lace the whole of each lame before adding the next. The other very important point is that sugake lacing is fastened into the holes by little plugs forced into the holes under the lacing from the back. Without these, the lacing is dragged to the bottom of the holes by the weight and looks rather bad. Other than that it is not too difficult. Ian Bottomley

Tom, The mask may well be relatively new, but the tare definitely belongs to the armour in the Mogami Museum. Unfortunately there is no view of the interior of the mask which would show the lacquering. That often gives away new creations. Ian Bottomley.

Can I invite any reader of NMB to join the Northern ToKen Society members at our next meeting to be held in the meeting room on the 1st floor of the Britannia Airport Hotel, Manchester, UK on the first Tuesday of February ( the 4th) at 7,30pm. Just take the lift to the 1st floor, go through the swing doors and you are there. You would be very welcome. Ian Bottomley

The problem has been solvedby Jo. The armour I remembered is in the catalogue of the Mogami museum. Ian Bottomley.

Yojimbo, It is not that there is no serious discussion, it is rather that there is little that can be said. Although early somen exist, they are totally different to this one which is typical of those made for very late Edo period armours. I doubt in fact they were ever really worn and seem to have been produced to show how skilled the armourer was and how wealthy the owner of the armour was in having one made. I referred to the fact that I had seen an armour in the past with the rabbit and waves theme done on leather but could not remember where or when. I see literally hundreds of armours a year but for some reason you seem to be taking umbrage because I could not remember the detail of where or when I saw a particular one. For that I must apologise but there it is.. Ian Bottomley

ken, What you have is a katana in what are known as handachi (half tachi) mounts. They differ from a tachi in not having hangers and were worn edge up through the obi like a normal katana. Ian Bottomley