Samurai Helmet

Russet iron 62-plate samurai helmet with vertical ridges and small raised rivets (tetsu sabiji roku-ju-ni ken ko-boshi suji tate-bachi kabuto). Each of the 62 plates presents a column of bullet-shaped rivets, save for the back plate which has no rivets and the front plate which has three columns of rivets. Over the entire helmet bowl, there are 63 columns of 31 rivets each, totalling 1,953 rivets. A six-stage fixture (tehen-no-kanamono) sits atop the helmet bowl and curves to conform to the shape of the helmet. The tehen-no-kanamono alternates between gold and shakudo (patinated copper and gold alloy) chrysanthemum designs. The protective metal visor (mabizashi) is attached to the helmet bowl with three large, flattened rivets and two smaller ones at the sides. The visor is undecorated save for the plain molding (fukurin) around the rim. The intact helmet lining (ukebari) is made of light brown cloth with a hole in the back revealing a signature.

A five lame, ko-manju style neck guard (shikoro) is attached to the helmet bowl with four rivets, each with a chrysanthemum base washer. Each lame is coated with black lacquer formed into "false scales" (kiritsuke kozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. Lames are connected to one another with light brown silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. The bottom lame also showcases a row of tweed lacing above the bottom row of orange lacing in a cross knot pattern. Two forward-facing wings (fukigaeshi) emerge from the top lame of the neck guard. The black-lacquered fukigaeshi bear no crests and, like the visor, possess a plain molding around the edges.

Signed by, 明珍長途, Myochin Nagamichi (early to middle Edo period) inside the rear plate of the helmet bowl.