Ebay finds

[estcrh]

With all the bad press ebay gets I just wanted to show that for those that are watching carefully ebay has some buried treasure, I purchased this armor on ebay a while back, This is from my collection and was purchased from and certified by one of the worlds leading authorities on samurai armor to be a complete matched set of non-restored early 1600s Hosokawa clan full suit of armor in the Etchu style. It features Etchu style zunari helmet or kabuto and a real Iyozane maru dou or chest armor, Iyozane is true individual large scales (around 100) and maru means the dou is constructed in 1 piece with no hinge, the wearer just pulls it open to wear it, the hanpo or face mask is Etchu style low cut with a black interior found on older armors instead of the red lacquer found on armors made later in the 1600s and on. The sangu or arm,thigh and shin armor are in Etchu style, the thigh guards or haidate and the kote or arm guards are made of small shino plates and so-gusari chainmail and the suneate or shin guards are made from small shino plates with NO cloth backing which is accurate for this style. This armor is a well preserved piece of history http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... f%20armor/

[sanjuro]

Eric.

 

Can I... Dare I, ask from which seller this was purchased? I'm no Katchu expert, far from it, but this appears to be an armour which would have been used by an Ashigaru of the period. Is this correct?

[estcrh]

Eric.

 

Can I... Dare I, ask from which seller this was purchased? I'm no Katchu expert, far from it, but this appears to be an armour which would have been used by an Ashigaru of the period. Is this correct?

Sanjuro, it came from Trevor of Toraba, a very well known and respected name,.... a good lesson...do not start an ebay auction for a valuable item at a very low price thinking that people will understand what it is and bid it up to its real value...actually this armor would have been rather expensive at the time since the chest armor or dou is actually made from around 100 small individual scales or iyozane, less expensive armors used a kind of faux iyozane. This armor is more like what a real samurai of the time would have worn even though it is not flamboyant, in fact many of the more ostentatious armors were worn by higher up samurai while the average samurai who would actually be in battle wore armor more like this. Ashigaru or the lower level retainers from what I have read did not usually own their armor but would use armor from the stock pile of the person who employed them, their armor was even more plain and basic, the funny thing is...good ashigaru armor is very hard to find, it was kept stored and because it was not owned by an individual and seen for many years as having no value they were left to rot. I passed up buying a beautiful full matched set of Ashigaru on ebay a while back and regret it now.

[sanjuro]

Thanks Eric

 

Just goes to show how little I know about Katchu.

[estcrh]

Thanks Eric

 

Just goes to show how little I know about Katchu.

I know just enough to get into trouble...usually..every once in a while I get lucky.....this is a good site with some pictures of ashigaru armor http://hirasefamily.com/antiquesyoroi.aspx

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

I know just enough to get into trouble

 

This is from my collection

 

Are you cleaning up your whole collection ? :

 

http://samuraiantiqueworld.com/antiques ... mor36.html

 

it came from Trevor of Toraba, a very well known and respected name

 

Frome the description : "1600-1650 certified by one of the leading experts in the field of samurai armor".

 

Would you like to elaborate which type of certification this Katchu has ?

[estcrh]

I know just enough to get into trouble

 

This is from my collection

 

Are you cleaning up your whole collection ? :

 

http://samuraiantiqueworld.com/antiques ... mor36.html

 

it came from Trevor of Toraba, a very well known and respected name

 

Frome the description : "1600-1650 certified by one of the leading experts in the field of samurai armor".

 

Would you like to elaborate which type of certification this Katchu has ?

Carlo...do you know who Trevor Absolon is?

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Carlo...do you know who Trevor Absolon is?

 

A few members of samurai archives are his customers... Anyway :

 

1) Is a member of any Japanese katchu association that allow him to issue certificates on his own ?

 

2) again, are you selling your whole collection ?

 

I know just enough to get into trouble

 

3) I begin to think you're right.

[Brian]

I can't see this going anywhere constructive.

 

Brian