Samurai Kabuto

Samurai Kabuto is a full helmet that was used by Japanese samurai at the time of feudal Japan. Beside of its main protection functions, samurai Kabuto was designed to work together with the Mempo (samurai face mask) to intimidate an enemy, hence quite often featured a lot of superficial elements that would give to the helmet the supernatural look. Samurai Kabuto was produced until the end of the 19th century and nowadays smaller-sized decorative versions of samurai Kabuto are kept by Japanese people to celebrate Boy's Festival in May of each year.

The samurai Kabuto is usually made of two main parts: the hachi (bowl) and the shikoro (nape-guard). Depending on the design and construction of these two parts, samurai Kabuto can be categorized into three main types: multiplate kabuto, zunari kabuto, and kawari kabuto.

The multiplate samurai kabuto are helmets that made of more than three plates; even though three plates is still technically a multiplate design, there is a separate style for these helmets – zunari. There're several styles of multiplate samurai kabuto depending on the shape of the hachi and design and construction of the plates. The number of plates is incidental and can vary for the same style and type of a Kabuto. For making some more sophisticated helmets, up to 120 plates could be used. There're three main styles of multiplate samurai kabuto: suji kabuto, koboshi kabuto, and hari bachi.

The Zunari samurai kabuto (literally meaning "head-shaped") are helmets that made of three plates. Despite of the name, you can find almost round versions and almost pointed ones, versions with domed and angular bowls, and of course head-shaped ones as well. There're defined several types of the Zunari samurai kabuto and they will differ in the way of the plates are connected to each other and to the visor and the brim of the helmet and how they all fixed together in relation to each other.

The last type of the samurai kabuto was Kawari kabuto, which can be translated as a "replacement helmet", but also called a "grotesque helmet" or as "strange helmet". During the Momoyama period (17th century), the design of the Kabuto was simplified to less number of plates and almost no ornamental details, and to offset the plain designs, skilled craftsmen added all kind of decorative shapes, using paper, wood, lacquer and etc. As a result, samurai kabuto of that period have the most spectacular look.

Additionally, samurai Kabuto quite often featured Maedate (front insignia), Wakidate (side insignia), and Ushirodate (rear insignia). These all insignias could be just decoration elements and made in the form of horns or a crescent, or they could be clan emblems.

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