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When it comes to purchasing armor its usually better to ask questions about it before you purchase it, especially if you do not have much knowledge about the subject. That being said it looks like a nice armor with mostly matching parts with the exception of the haidate (thigh armor), I do not see any detailed images of the suneate (shin armor) but from what I can see they look like they could match, I would call this a hineno zunari kabuto, sugake odoshi, kiritsuke iyozane, ni-mai dou gusoku.

I could not find any either, this is about the best I could do.

Condolences can be left here. http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/Batesvi ... =168764209

Not all odachi were as over sized as the ones that get the most attention.

Malcolm, unfortunately there are very few samurai related images in their collection and the images they do have are quite small, and they are watermarked (I HATE THAT!!!) Here is a links with hundreds (900+) samurai related images from the Edo and Meiji periods, many previously unseen newly edited images here as well, enjoy :D http://www.pinterest.com/nihonnokatchu/ ... otographs/

George I was thinking the same thing, some were between the late 20s to early 30s, that is not to long after the end of the samurai era, with the last fighting between samurai and the new Meji government taking place around 1877. It did not take long for the government and its new army to erase all knowledge of the previous military (the samurai) from the collective memory.

Miha, we can look at some period photographs which show this type of jingasa being worn. In my opinion, if we are speaking about the Edo period it is likely that the armor in use would be a form of tatami armor, in other words, a light weight, portable style of armor, capable of being worn on top of or under clothing. This can take may forms, I will show some examples. Don Cunningham in his book "Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai" describes the types of armor worn by samurai police, the high ranking yoriki would "oversee an arrest from the saddle of his horse while wearing body armor and his jingasa". The lower ranking doshin "wore chain-mail undergarments as well as heavy cloth hand and shin wraps with metal strips sewn into the cloth. To protect their heads they wore hachimaki (head band) with either metal wires sewn between the cloth layers or a metal strip placed strategically over the forehead". This photo is described as being a samurai escort officer, his duties were to ensure the safety of visiting foreigners. Under the jingasa an armored hachi-maki (hitaiganemaki) could be worn, this one has small hexagon armor plates (kikko) sewn between layers of cloth. Over or under the kimono a yoroi katabira, an armored jacket, this one is a long kusari katabira, chain armor sewn to a long wool coat which is split up the back for wearing while on horse back. Kikko tatami dou, a light weight body armor made of small hexagon armor plates sewn between layers of cloth. Yoroi hakama, armored pants, these are kusari hakama with chain armor sewn to the front and back of the thigh. Kyusho-ate (abdomen protector), a cloth belt with chain armor sewn between layers of cloth. Kusari han kote, gauntlets with chain armor sewn between layers of cloth. Kusari yugake, gloves with chain armor. Kusari suneate, shin guards with chain armor. Kusari tabi, leather socks with chain armor.

Not all iron jingasa were made for ashigaru, just those of a particular style. This tetsu bajo jingasa is certainly not an ashigaru jingasa.

From "The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Sword" By Kōkan Nagayama.

Guido, that is just how a young samurai showed how cool he was, by wearing his haidate down low....but how do you explain this?

You will find a few more images here. http://www.pinterest.com/nihonnokatchu/ ... -naganata/

Here is an example of what a little modern image editing can do to revive old photos, you can also enlarge individual parts of an image in order to see previously unseen details. Before. After.

I do not know were this notion came about, I see matchlocks that never left Japan that have decorations, just like swords, some samurai preferred a plain simple koshirae and some liked highly decorated koshirae.

Bill, good idea, see if you can do that and take some pictures, that should help solve this mystery.

...another dealer! Uwe Uwe, and Andy is not also a "dealer"?

So Andy from what you are saying you are presenting yourself as an expert, so how do you quantify what makes you an "expert" in samurai armor. Second, lets say that Alex decides that you are indeed an expert, how does he know that you are able to tell if the price of a samurai armor is within the realm of reasonable? It is not like there is a masters degree available for expertise in samurai armor. For an "expert" to properly judge an armor at this price level they would need to see it first hand in my opinion, that is the only reliable way to tell if the cloth, lace, lacquer, kusari etc are all original and matching to the armor, at this price pictures alone would not be enough for me. Once an armor is examined and it is shown to be exactly as described how do you know what it is worth? Authenticating and properly describing an armor is just the first step, you would need to know what other similar armors have sold for recently. If as you say what steps would you take to ensure that the buyer you represent would not have the same problem with an armor they would purchase using you as the determining factor.

Brian I knew that you felt this way, its a testament to this forum that people do have loyalty. The success of this forum and how you have allowed members so much freedom to express their views here was the inspiration for the samurai armor forum.

I just wanted to discuss something that has been mis-interpreted by some of the members of this forum. It seems that a few nihonto forum members feel that forming a dedicated Japanese armor was in some way insulting or disrespectful to Brian since he did make the effort to allow the discussion of Japanese armor on this forum, and not without some members being upset about a non nihonto category being created. I can assure anyone who feels this way that everyone involved with the decision to form and participate in the samurai armor forum has a deep respect for what Brian has done with this forum and that this decision was not taken lightly. Ever since the owner of the only dedicated samurai forum in English closed his forum and completely locked the members out without even allowing people to view the topics and posts (without notice or reason) it was apparent that some kind of action needed to be taken. We did not think it would be right to ask Brian for more space on this forum and yet there was and is a desperate need to collect what is currently known about Japanese armor all in one place. Unlike the subject of nihonto there are only a handful of people in the world who thoroughly understand the subject and without a place to meet, discuss and store their collective knowledge, valuable information gained over many years of study and research could be lost forever. Currently there is a very steep learning curve for anyone to acquire even a slight grasp of the subject and with only a handful of good books available on the subject it is very hard for newly interested people to educate themselves about Japanese armor. Dave Thatcher agreed to oversee the new forum only after thinking it over for a year, this was not an easy decision to make and it was not lightly made in the least. Competing with this forum was never the intention, in fact even though there is a "nihonto" category there is also a sticky post with this message Japanese armor is an extremely complicated subject with a history at least as long as the Japanese sword, I hope that the nihonto forum members will see the samurai armor forum as a parallel forum with both having the exact same goals and not as any type of competition.

Before you go any further you may want to consult some of the other dealers of high end Japanese armor so you can compare their stock and prices, maybe they would be willing to give you an opinion privately on this armor, they would have a better idea as to its current market value than the average collector. http://www.giuseppepiva.com/ http://www.winterjapaneseart.com/ http://www.yoroikabuto.com/

James, unlike ebay auctions Japanese auctions at least on some sites can be ended in the last few seconds by the seller if he does not like the selling price. The item can then be relisted on the same site or on a different site. Items can be on ebay auction and a Japanese auction at the same time as well. Unlike ebay auctions, Yahoo Japan auctions do not have a time limit, if a bid is put in at the last minute the time resets, allowing another bidder time to bid higher.

Uwe, I agree with you, a beautiful seemingly matching kikko armor for that price??? Of course the extremely bad description by the auction house did not help the selling price, calling it a "kusari gusoku" when it should have been a "chochin kabuto, kikko tatami dou gusoku" may have lost the seller a lot of money. Then you have a complete Hosokawa clan "etchu zunari kabuto, hon iyozane maru dou gusoku" with an armor box delivered to your door for that price?? I think those prices are exceptional especially considering the extremely over inflated prices that we have seen lately of some Japanese armor auctions. In reality though price wise not so unusual, tatami armor is just not as appreciated as conventional armor no matter how well made and how good the condition is, Hosokawa armor as well is not appreciated due to its very somber low key look, despite being one of the few types of armors were you can immediately identify the clan by the armor type and the incredible workmanship required to make a hon iyozane maru dou with its hundreds of individual leather covered scales but thats how the market is. Both of these armor were available for anyone to buy and I use the prices to show how extremely over priced the armors being shown in this thread are especially when you can not see any details including damage.

Piers, as far as the market goes I see authentic antique bukuto / bokken for sale occasionally in Japan, I have never seen them any were else, they do not sell cheap considering that they are just wood practice swords. I have seen them from around 48in on down to tanto size, with leather or wood tsuba and with out any tsuba. Here is an image from a previous thread showing various shapes and sizes and an image showing some varieties. http://japanbujut.exblog.jp/i16

Piers, it appears to be straight rifling, which I think would require less technology to manufacture than spiral.

Here are examples of recently sold armors to compare quality and price. The first is a chochin kabuto, kikko tatami dou gusoku which sold at a recent auction for $ 2,750 inc. premium without shipping, the second is a Hosokawa clan etchu zunari kabuto, hon iyozane dou gusoku which sold for $5000 including an armor box and shipping from Japan. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20983/lot/8602/ http://www.kinokuniya.tv/japanese_armor/box03/index.php