Bugyotsuji

Nice long blade! Look at the last 'sada' kanji of the name Kunisada 國貞 (Compare with Kanesada 兼定)

Tried to find a link between all the designs yesterday but gave up. July 7th was Tanabata (bamboo branches with Tanzaku poem sheet attached), but what are the leaves further up, decorating a nawa rope at a Jinja festival? The Okame/Otafuku mask and... a bamboo muchi whip, or just the lower main stem section with smaller branches and leaves further up?

It is also likely that large quantities of very light and thin-plate armors (which looked the part but offered little protection) simply rusted away in castle armouries, and the back corners of garden kura storehouse of many houses over the centuries.

Looks nice but the Japanese caption is too fuzzy to check.

Just tell them Michael, under no circumstances to touch the blade or its edge.

No absolute rule as there were poor Bushi too, but look for quality vs basics, Alex. What could they afford? Rule of thumb. Quality vs quantity. Is your Lord rich enough to kit out the Ashigara (light foot soldiers) with quality kashi-gusoku (lend-out armour)? Or will he provide only quantities of simple dō with a very plain unadorned kabuto?

Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke 河内の守国助

Some years ago we had the annual national meeting of the NKBKHK Japan Society for the Study and Preservation of Armours and Weapons in our local city. The prefectural museum had a grand display of armours ranging all the way from very early, to late Edo gorgeous. I saw a board member that I knew and approached him with a polite: "Which piece do you like best here?" He took me over to a small and poorly-lit cabinet. "This one", he said, pointing to a single rusty Momonari bowl with large holes in it. He waved his hand dismissively at the other room, full of splendid displays from the Edo period. That was one man's opinion, but it left an impression on me.

Blame his wife, John.

Incredibly hard to judge exactly as you say, but I am inclined to agree with Uwe here.

May I quote you on the dusting comment when I meet your wife, Colin? If not, then I think you owe me something to keep my mouth shut. (A kabuto might serve, perhaps?)🤔 Actually I like the whole piece as is. Always safer to say ‘Edo’, and then no one can argue.

As Uwe says above, the cords need to be long for actual wear. They cross over under the jaw, hook through the opposite ear loops, tie in a reef knot on your chin, then ‘work their way’ back through the strings (shinobi-no-o from the verb Shinobu to creep like a ninja) and are tied off in a large knot behind your neck. Nice fukurin edging around the fukikaeshi and mabisashi. There is a famous gold eboshi kabuto worn I think at the battle of Kawanakajima (might be wrong on that) with a musket ball hole right through the top flat fin section.

How far up the eboshi is iron, all the way to the top? Or is it just the internal bowl?

Do you have a dragon in the clouds tsuba, Damon?

Pile of rubbish. I’ll take it off your hands Colin, and give it a good home.

I had some success removing a stain by the use of repeated oiling, recommended to me by a swordsmith. He didn't mention uchiko, though.

Send him/her the bill for a polish, and collect payment first, before killing them.

Dale, it’s both. Kotobuki 寿 is one of those words with a comforting range of good meanings. Your interesting tsuba is one of the older Kanji versions for Kotobuki which is 壽. Notice the mouth bottom left.

There’s an app called KanjiLookup which I recommend. Great, in fact dead easy, once you get the hang of it!

Bazza, sometimes it’s the radical that tricks us. In this case the 9-stroke 頁 on the right is actually the radical.

I like that bowl too. A very satisfying shape.

Apparently the two boxes were simply a cheap option for armour display purposes…

Yours is full of luck, Alex.

Word of warning. Recently someone tried to import a set of empty, ordinary yoroi-bitsu into Germany. Since the paperwork said the usual 'over 100 years old' etc., German customs sent it off to 'cultural heritage protection department' for evaluation, and they are now demanding a certificate from Japan to prove it is not a national treasure.

髙橋 Takahashi perhaps. Note the first kanji.