Samurai Helmet

Black-lacquered iron five-plate head-shaped samurai helmet (tetsu kuro urushi nuri go ken zunari kabuto). The helmet is constructed of only five iron plates, however the exterior surface has ridges of lacquer built up to imitate the appearance of a more expensive 22-plate helmet. Thus, the helmet is intended to appear as a black-lacquered iron 22-plate helmet with vertical ridges (tetsu kuro urushi nuri san-ju-ni ken suji tate-bachi kabuto). The surface and ridges are all coated in glossy black lacquer. A five-stage fixture (tehen-no-kanamono) sits atop the helmet bowl. Each level of the tehen-no-kanamono is made of gold metal and is designed to look like chrysanthemum petals. The protective metal visor (mabizashi) is attached to the helmet bowl with five large, flattened rivets. The visor is covered with stenciled leather and has a gold metal molding (fukurin) around the rim. The orange helmet lining (ukebari) is intact and an orange helmet cord is attached. A five lame, hineno style neck guard (shikoro) is attached to the helmet bowl with three rivets (a fourth is missing). Each iron 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 blue silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. Two wide, forward-facing wings (fukigaeshi) emerge from the top lame of the neck guard. Like the visor, each fukigaeshi is covered in stenciled leather and has a gold fukurin. The fukigaeshi also have a row of orange lacing above two rows of orange cross knot lacing. Each fukigaeshi bears a circular metal crest, likely in a design representing paving stones. The design is of four gold squares forming a cross with a black square in center (丸に四つ石). The black central square and the negative space around the cross is painted black and textured with small dots.