The September research meeting of the Japanese Armor Society will be a visit to the excellent armor exhibition in Yushukan (the Yasukuni Shrine Museum). Several kabuto and armors are on display, together also with horse gear.

Date: September 10th, 2017 – 13:00 ~
Place: Yasukuni Shrine, Yushukan Museum entrance
Entrance fee: 1,000 yen for members (Includes entrance fee and catalog).

As we will enter as a group, please let us know before September 4th if you want to join.

The meeting schedule for the coming months is as follows:
October 8th 2017, 14:00 ~ : Old Momonari Kabuto
November 26th 2017, 14:00 ~ : Old Zunari Kabuto
December 16th 2017, 15:00 ~ : Topic not yet decided. The meeting will be followed by the yearly bonenkai at 17:00

Topic: Suneate
Date: June 11th, 2017 – 15:00-17:00
Place: The Mansion of the Mizuinari shrine, close to Waseda Station
Entrance fee: 1,000 yen for members

Held on May 14 in the meeting room of the Mizuinari-jinja and attended by 26 members and non-members. Four of our members brought their haidate and so we had 29 pieces on display that day and so the attendees hat the opportunity to study hands-on various haidate interpretations, e.g. ita-haidate (板佩楯), karutagane-haidate (骨牌金佩楯), shino-haidate (篠佩楯), kawara-haidate (瓦佩楯), hôdô-haidate (宝幢佩楯), umayoroizane-haidate (馬鎧札佩楯), kusari-haidate (鎖佩楯), and iyo-haidate (伊予佩楯), dating from the Momoyama to the Edo period.

Executive director of your association, Mr. Kanno Shigeo (菅野茂雄), had brought eight items to the meeting and explained via two of them all the major elements of haidate, also pointing out the importance of the tsurio (吊緒) cord, i.e. being indispensable for wearing haidate, and that the omeri (於女里), which is installed at the lower edge of the ichimonjigawa (一文字革), is necessary to protect the ieji. Apart from that, Mr. Kanno explained on the basis of his long-term participation of the Sôma-Nomaoi, the Samurai Horsemen Festival, the way to hold the whip and how to insert the whip into the haidate. Furthermore, Mr. Kanno annotated that surprisingly few know about how haidate are supposed to be worn properly and pointed out several ways of how to put on haidate wrongly, accompanied by a demonstration of how haidate are today put on in Sôma where the above mentioned festival takes place.
Apart from that, Mr. Kanno explained the basic differences between Momoyama and Edo period haidate.

Mr. Kanno was followed by our vice president, Mr. Matsumoto Kunihiko, who explained in an easy to understand way all the different haidate interpretations, also stressing that the haidate are an important protective element as the thighs contain major blood vessels. Also Mr. Matsumoto pointed out that unlike kabuto or dô, haidate were exposed to more permanent stress and were therefore considered as consumable items and that this is the reason why so few old haidate are extant.

More info about how to become a member of the Japanese Armor Society can be found on the official website: www.japanese-armor.org

(Members of the society got already 65 close up pictures of this meeting in their mailbox)

The first armour society meeting of 2017 will be held this Sunday, February 26, from 15:00 till 17:00 at the normal meeting place in Tokyo.

The topic is ‘Toppai nari’.

Number 195 of the Armour Society magazine has shipped. Some of the articles are bookmarked to be translated in the translation project of the society, including one about a beautiful haramaki dō partially covered with shark skin, a rare Momoyama dō and some meeting reports.

The September meeting of the society will be held on September 24th 2016, at the normal meeting place in Tokyo. The topic is ‘Saiga Kabuto’.

The armour society meeting of May 2016 had as theme “Ko Myōchin”, the old Myōchin. Nine Myōchin kabuto from the Tenbun period (1532-1555) where brought by members of the society to look at the Myōchin smiths that were active in that time.

People interested in joining the Japanese Armour society can find more info here, and contact me at katchunobi [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Japanese Armour Society has made an illustrated calendar for 2016. Armours from the 4th and 5th edition of the Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku volumes (see book 4 and book 5) are used to illustrate the full colour B3 calendar. Only available for Japanese Armour Society members. Price is 1,500 yen plus shipping. Deadline to order is November 14th 2015. Please contact me if you are interested.