A PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ARMOUR FROM A JAPANESE MUSEUM
A RARE NANBAN-BACHI KABUTO [HELMET WITH "SOUTHERN BARBARIAN" BOWL]
INSCRIBED ICHIGYO IN RED LACQUER INSIDE THE BOWL, MOMOYAMA PERIOD (16TH-17TH CENTURY)
The helmet bowl of russet iron adapted from a sixteenth century Italian cabasset with incised vertical bands and vestiges of diagonal shading, mounted in Japanese style, iron agamaki no kan (ring for decorative bow) set into an applied iron leaf form to rear, applied iron rope border to lower edge, maedate [forecrest] pierced in positive silhouette with the Lotus Sutra invocation Namu Myo-Ho Renge Kyo, beneath it a pierced gilt metal plume holder, black-lacquered iron mabisashi [brim] peaked and rolled upwards at the sides, three-tiered dark blue laced black-lacquered iron ichimonji gashira itazane [straight-edged iron plate] shikoro [neck guard], small black-lacquered fukigaeshi formed with rope edges with gold lacquered kiridake [cut bamboo] mon [family badge]

Provenance:
By repute, a generation of Kuze Yamato no kami, accompanied with a certificate koshu-tokubetsu-kicho-shiryo [Particularly Special Important Material] issued by the Nihon Katchu Bugu Kenkyu Hozonkai [The Association for the Research and Preservation of Japanese Helmets and Armor] in 1978

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Lot Essay

A small number of such European cabassets were brought to Japan and adapted for use with Japanese armour by the addition of a shikoro, or neck-guard (Arts of the Samurai, Christies New York 23 October 2009 - an Italian cabasset in Spanish morion style adapted in Japan), while some Japanese armourers adopted the European toppei [pointed crown] style and made forms derived from European helmet bowls like the shii-nari [acorn-shaped] and the momo-nari [peach-shaped] helmets. Among the few surviving armours adapted from European components is the 16th century set of an Italian cabasset close in style to the present helmet, cuirass and iron gorget which was mounted in Japanese style with the addition of Japanese arm, thigh, and leg components for use by the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, who gave it to his tenth son Yorinobu. The cuirass of this Tokugawa armour bears the impressions of ten musket ball proof marks. The armour, designated by the Japanese Government as an Important Cultural Property, is kept in the Wakayama Toshogu shrine dedicated to Ieyasu.¹

Interestingly, when adapted for use in Japan the European cabasset or morion was worn back to front since the fore-crest on the Japanese version could be fitted into the original European fixture for a plume worn on the back of the helmet in Spanish style, and this present piece bears such an original fixture.

1. Morihiro Ogawa, ed., Art of the Samurai, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York, 2009), no. 15.