Koboshi Kabuto and Menpo

[Luc T]

Gary, is it possible to post a top view of your kabuto?

[Tengu1957]

[Chishiki]

From the little I know I don’t see why this can’t be a momoyama or earlier hachi.  It’s a great discussion.  So good to see a team working on this.  Mark

[SteveM]

On 6/7/2021 at 7:54 AM, Luc T said:

the shinsa members were Takemura san, Matsumoto san, Nishioka san, Nagata san, and the last one I can't read, but I think it was me.

 

The last one is 菅野茂雄 Sugano Shigeo

[Luc T]

On 6/6/2021 at 1:23 AM, Iekatsu said:

I totally agree with Anthony, to add further points, three rows of rivets on the front plate is a common convention for Ko-boshi kabuto and not unique to Bamen at all and the placement and shape of the rivets is not consistent with Bamen work.

 

 

Thomas, the early Bamen had 3 rows of koboshi on the front plate.   Most of them were signed:  ́Echizen no Kuni Toyohara-jû Sadao saku ́ (越前国豊原住貞生作).

[Luc T]

20 hours ago, SteveM said:

 

The last one is 菅野茂雄 Sugano Shigeo

It turns out to be Kanno san, an expert about horse related equipment and use of armor on the battlefield.   One of the main personalities of the soma noma oi.

[Iekatsu]

4 hours ago, Luc T said:

Thomas, the early Bamen had 3 rows of koboshi on the front plate.   Most of them were signed:  ́Echizen no Kuni Toyohara-jû Sadao saku ́ (越前国豊原住貞生作).

Luc, my point was that it is not an exclusive trait, there any many Koboshi from many different smiths that have three rows of rivets on the front plate.

[Iekatsu]

On 6/9/2021 at 4:43 AM, Luc T said:

My point is, and I quote Orikasa sensei:

‘The most prolific age of Kabuto was the Warring States Period Sengoku Jidai, (in the later stages of Muromachi), when clashes and conflicts were affected by the arrival on the scene and the general adoption of guns, meaning that methods of warfare had to change. For protective wear, i.e. Katchu, this was a revolutionary challenge. In such a world, Kabuto too had to change, and all kinds of unusual Kabuto appeared, including 62-Ken suji kabuto, 62-Ken koboshi kabuto, Hineno Zunari Kabuto, etc. It is thought that the increasing frequency of armed clashes must have required kabuto to be made in large quantities, but there are very few extant examples that can be trusted to carry reliable provenance. We can speculate that most original examples were degraded in subsequent warfare, or were refashioned into new replacement kabuto, etc.’ (Koki no Shiori, Teruo Orikasa, 2019, JAS edition)

as such, it is necessary to have the item in the hand to examine the patina, corrosion etc.  And even then it is tricky.

Now, about the style. The Eastern warlords did not like fantasies.   They even skipped the hachimanza on their most precious kabuto’s.  Their kabuto were hightech at the moment, they did not need  frivolity. This kabuto has a very basic hachimanza,  which does not correspond with the fancy haraidate.    The mabezashi,  I have no first class material to compare, but I presume you have some? For the record, the kabuto by Yukinoshita Masaie had such mabezashi, but that’s a completely different style of kabuto.

I do agree that there are very few dated examples and/or examples with reliable provenance, there is also clearly crossovers in style and construction between the Late-muromachi period and Momoyama period and the presence of later modifications to contend with, which further complicates the task. While signed and/or dated examples exist, the reality is that the vast majority of work was not signed or dated in this period, which is why it is important to compare and study the stylistic features and construction methods used and compare that with known examples.

 

You have presented examples from Joshu Norikuni, we know that Norikuni was working in this period and that there are at least two signed and dated koboshi kabuto that we can draw from (1567 and 1569), there were also other Joshu smiths likely making koboshi in the same period, Norishige for example. But these really only represent a small subset of manufacture, given the number of extant un-signed examples which align stylistically. Unfortunately most of the examples we can draw from are unsigned and do not have particularly reliable provenance, I am in the process of building a library of such examples for comparison. Are you aware of any other dated examples from this period or examples with reliable provenance?

[Luc T]

the first known koboshi by the Joshu are Narikuni 1565, Norikuni 1567, 1568,1569 (3), 1570 (2) etc...  the last Joshu koboshi known at this moment is by Norikuni, 1584.  Others are Ienaga (1572); Yasushige (1569); Kunihisa (1578)...

There is an article about the Joshu kabuto in our Japanese Armor Society yearbook 'KATCHU nr 3', with some very surprising information.

These signed and dated pieces are good reference material for the many unsigned works indeed.