Title: Yoroi to kabuto ten - Momoyama - Edo jidaiOld exhibition catalog. The pictures are rather small and black and white. 52 items.
Title: Kanagawa no katchū meihin tenVery nice exhibition catalog from the (then) Kanagawa branch of the armor society, at the occasion of an exhibition related to the 27th annual meeting in 1988. 43 beautiful pieces are shown in color, many of them probably not in many other books or catalogs. Saotome, nanban, saiga, kawari etc…
Title: Kawari kabuto goju tōtenNice exhibition catalog from 1977 with 50 kawari kabuto, four of them as part of a complete set. Several Saiga kabuto are included. Pictures are black and white and sometimes a bit too dark.
Title: Yamagataken bunkazai chōsa hōkokusho. 15, Yamagataken no katchūOld and rather rare booklet from 1968 related to armours from Yamagata prefecture. Some armours are famous, and although the pictures are small, it is always interesting to see how they looked and were set up almost 50 years ago…
Title: Collection du Docteur Mène - Première Vente Paris 1913This rare catalog from the legendary Mène auction in 1913 has brief description of more 1343 lots, many of them not illustrated. However, several of the main armor and helmet lots have nice pictures (for 1913), and show the amazing quality of the collection. Even now, people are proud to have an ex-Mène piece in their collection.
Title: Kakuzen zukōRare 1939 copy of the Kakuzen Zukō (originally from 1845), illustrating many stencil patterns used for decorating leather, used for example in armours. Review of the original edition will follow later.
Title: Buki nihyaku zuThis is a facsimile from a very rare book, originally from 1848. It contains drawings of 200 items related to warfare, in a kind of visual dictionary way. The original book will be reviewed later.
Title: Kōrō yadan: Tōsei gusoku no kumi himoThis is a very rare manuscript of Asajirō Morita, one of the great post-edo armor maker, about the cords used in armours, mainly tōsei gusoku. It contains 77 color pictures of cord-remains from Nambokucho onwards, with his comments.
The same content was one year later bundled with 5 articles Mr. Morita wrote in the magazine of the armor society (will be reviewed later).
Title: Samurai - The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese WarriorNice overview book that covers the main weapons of the samurai.
Title: The Shogun Age Exhibition: From the Tokugawa Art Museum, JapanBeautiful catalog of what must have been an amazing traveling exhibition in 1984-1985.
