Samurai Helmet

Russet iron 32-plate samurai helmet with vertical ridges (tetsu sabiji san-ju-ni ken suji tate-bachi kabuto). A six-stage fixture (tehen-no-kanamono) sits atop the helmet bowl and is made up of gilded metal and shakudo (patinated copper and gold alloy) metal chrysanthemum designs. The protective metal visor (mabizashi) is attached to the helmet bowl with three large, flattened rivets. The visor is undecorated save for the twisted, rope-like molding (nawame fukurin) around the edge. The underside of the visor is painted with red lacquer. The intact helmet lining (ukebari) is made of blue cloth with a light brown and blue helmet cord still attached. A five lame, ko-manju style neck guard (shikoro) is attached to the helmet bowl with three rivets (a fourth is missing), 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 burgundy silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. Two forward-facing wings (fukigaeshi) emerge from the top lame of the neck guard. The black-lacquered fukigaeshi each bear a crest of an encircled ivy leaf (tsuta). The ivy leaf outlines are painted in gold and the negative spaces between the outline are left as unpainted black lacquer. Like the visor, the fukigaeshi possess the same twisted, rope-like molding around the edges.