Early 17^th Century

This interesting helmet from Saiga is in the form of an ‘okitenugui’ (head towel), made of russet iron, with ‘zaboshi’ (standing rivets with small washers beneath them), applied iron eyebrows and ‘kirigane’ applications around the bowl. A pair of ‘wakidate’ (side crests) in the form of a pair of gilded deer antlers decorate each side.

The rounded ‘shikoro’ is made of five lames of lacquered iron ‘kiritsuke kozane’ (false scales), the bottom lame is wrapped with stenciled doe skin. The interior of the ‘shikoro’ is lacquered red and secured with purple and white silk wide spaced lacing.