Tatami

[uwe]

Hi folks,

a friend of mine is doing some slight restoration work on my new tatami-do. During his work, the do reveals his construction. Surprisingly, only the mail has a backing of dark blue fabric strips Than, as usual, followed from a layer of linen (or hemp?) and finally covered with dyed leather.

 

 

 

Furthermore, every single plate is marked on the backside with characters in red lacquer. I assume, it helps the katchu-shi to determine the position of a plate in the whole arrangement.

 

 

 

 

What you don`t can see in the pics is, that the front and the back of the dou are hinged, just like a "normal" dou. All in all, not that simple and cheap as tatami armors always postulated.

 

 

Note, that the kusazuri for front and back are different

 

Uwe

[IanB]

Uwe, That is an interesting find but not too surprising, armourers were often very frugal with their fabrics. It is common on pieces like suneate to paste a strip of brocade onto the core fabric where it will show through the mail but have nothing under the plates. It was I suppose a way of using up all the off-cuts of fabric from the other parts of the armour. I have also seen pieces of paper pasted onto the core, under the finishing fabric where there was no need for a great amount of flexibility such as the upper arm area. These pieces are usually just old documents but on one wrecked sleeve I found a piece of paper with Buddhist texts and various seals on it inserted between the layers of fabric. I assume this guaranteed the wearer would be far better protected. There is a Myochin armour in the Royal Armouries collection with the kamon of a member of the Matsudaira family that has almost every available space on it covered with religious invocations and references to Shinto and Buddhist shrines. A nervous individual I suspect

Ian Bottomley

[uwe]

Ian, I wasn`t aware that armorers where such stingy with their fabrics Obviously a matter of economy! However, the papers you mentioned I know from helmets. One I handled in the collection of a friend, with Buddhist motives and texts for shelter (I believe). What do you think about the marked plates? Maybe a hint of serial production?

Uwe

[DaveT]

Stingy is king.

I find recycled paper, hemp almost as standard on the kote and haidate I repair. When I was learning how to use urushi my sensei would save every last dab in saru-wrap so it could be reused. Our generation is rather wasteful with commodities being so easily sourced and discarded. I bin what's left over.

 

On the tatami-do, which way round is the gesan affixed.

[uwe]

.....misers

 

Hi Dave, regarding the gessan we can`t be sure. As I bought the do, the tripartite was affixed at the front side. Although, both have the same length and the holes matching both ways

But I bet, three front-side, four back-side

Uwe

[DaveT]

.....misers

 

Hi Dave, regarding the gessan we can`t be sure. As I bought the do, the tripartite was affixed at the front side. Although, both have the same length and the holes matching both ways

But I bet, three front-side, four back-side

Uwe

 

I agree with you on the 3 facing the front, like a kendo tare. I like the mimi-ito as the odoshi.

 

As to the damaged cloth, you can pick up a noren on ebay for the middle hemp layer fairly cheap. If you have a contact in Japan ask them to nip into tokyu-hands, they sell brand new dyed indigo asa. I hunt ebay and buy up old kimono that have a hemp lining. I can get the smoked deer skin should you need it pm me.

[uwe]

pm send

Uwe

[IanB]

Uwe, Like Dave says - three gessan in front and four at the rear. The marked plates are interesting. No doubt done to ensure the person assembling the plates with the mail got them in the right places. I doubt the armourer did any assembly of the mail - it was probably out-sourced, like the drilling of holes and similar repetitive jobs.

Ian Bottomley

[uwe]

Ian, thus the katchu-shi, as the "designer" of a particularly armor, had to provide a kind of construction manual for the sub contractors

Uwe

[IanB]

Uwe, In a way yes. The armourer, especially in the Edo period, would design the armour, buy in raw materials such as plate, cut the plates out and shape them. I doubt he would waste his time drilling holes or making the mail. Even today much Japanese manufacture is based on sub-contracting. Walk around parts of Tokyo today and you will see whole families working a massive press in their house making parts for companies like Nissan or Toyota.

Ian