Samurai Helmet

Russet iron 32-plate samurai helmet with vertical ridges and small raised rivets (tetsu sabiji san-ju-ni ken ko-boshi suji tate-bachi kabuto). Ten bullet-like rivets arranged vertically on each plate aside from the frontmost and backmost plates which feature seven rivets and nine rivets, respectively. 316 total rivets on the entire helmet bowl. A three-tiered, gilded fixture (tehen-no-kanamono) sits atop the helmet bowl with the lowest tier showcasing openwork craftsmanship. The protective metal visor (mabizashi) is attached to the helmet bowl with three large, flattened rivets with chrysanthemum base washers. The visor is undecorated and missing the molding (fukurin) around the front rim. The crest holder (haraidate-dai) features a V-shaped cut at the top with a small hole drilled below. The underside of the visor and interior of the helmet bowl is painted gold. A large metal ring protrudes from the backmost plate where a decorative silk bow (agemaki) would hang.

A five lame, ko-manju-jikoro style neck guard (shikoro) is attached to the helmet bowl with four gilded rivets, each with an etched cross-hatch pattern and with a chrysanthemum base washer beneath. Each lame is coated with brown lacquer formed into "false scales" (kiritsuke kozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. Lames are connected to one another with dark blue silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. The bottom lame possesses a decorative, gold-painted, molded rim (fukurin), likely made of lacquer. The bottom lame also showcases a row of tweed lacing above the bottom row of faded orange lacing in a cross knot pattern. Two forward-facing wings (fukigaeshi) emerge from the top lame of the neck guard. Like the rest of the neck guard, the fukigaeshi are coated in brown lacquer and bear the encircled diamond family crests (mon) of the Ogyu branch of the Matsudaira clan.

An illegible inscription, possibly that of Masanobu Saku, is present on interior of the backmost plate, visible through a hole in the still-present helmet lining (ukebari). A second inscription may be present on the interior of the frontmost plate but cannot be seen because of the helmet lining.