This lot is offered without reserve.

A Zunari Kabuto (Head-Shaped Helmet) and Ryubu-men (Mask for High-ranking Military Officials)

MUROMACHI PERIOD (16TH CENTURY), THE HELMET WITH SIGNATURE KATSUMASA SAKU AND HIKOTOHARA [MYOCHIN KATSUMASA (ACTIVE 1532-1554)]

Details

A Zunari Kabuto (Head-Shaped Helmet) and Ryubu-men (Mask for High-ranking Military Officials)
Muromachi period (16th century), the helmet with signature Katsumasa saku and Hikotohara [Myochin Katsumasa (active 1532-1554)]
The helmet a simple russet-iron bowl with an unadorned tehen (hole on the top of the bowl) and an exaggerated front plate extending at the sides over the temples and cheeks and down to a peak at the forehead, the brow fitted with an amakusa mabisashi (wavy peak) and small fukigaeshi (turnbacks) decorated with family crests of gingko leaves finished in shakudo, the turnbacks and peak lacquered red, the six-lame solid jikoro (neck guard) lacquered red and laced in spaced blue lacing; the russet-iron mask with a detachable bulbous nose and flanges on the sides to protect the helmet cord, the mask fitted with a solid two-plate yodare kake (throat guard) lacquered black and laced in blue, the upper plate with hinged extensions (2)

Provenance

William A. Galeno

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Sale room notice

Please note the correct reading of the signature is Katsumasa saku and Hikotahara, not Hikotohara.

Lot Essay

Previously sold in these Rooms, 5 November, 1980, lot 327

PUBLISHED:
Ian Bottomley, Japanese Armor: The Galeno Collection (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1998), p. 66 and front cover.
Kei Kaneda-Chappelear, Japanese Armor Makers for the Samurai (Tokyo: Miyoshi Printing Company, 1987), no. 5A.

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