Bizarre Kabuto of Famous Samurai Lords

[Music] last month i released a video in which we explored many of the most famous real kabuto samurai helmets worn by some of japan's most iconic warriors during the height of warfare in medieval japan in that video i said i would be later coming back to talk more about some of the most bizarre helmets we know about which is exactly what we are going to be doing here today but if you haven't watched the first video i very much recommend watching it before you watch this one because i go into a little bit more detail regarding samurai helmet history and structure in that video than i will be going here previously we examined such helmets as that of kato kyomasas fukushima masanoris inaumasas honda tarakatsu's and a few more however here in this video which will be sort of a part 2 we are going to be turning away from the more epic looking kabuto to instead take a look at some of the more wacky and strange helmets just like in the last video the helmets i'm going to examine were actually real helmet designs that we still have around today in museums or perhaps even in private collections so we will once again be steering clear of any false romanticized designs the types that often show up in films and video games and sadly have little to no basis in reality now the clear thing i want to get across here in terms of a point to this video is really just to show off some of these rather unorthodox designs and if i can explain in detail what they are meant to represent and why because as you may have seen from the first video there is a lengthy meaning behind almost everything in terms of a samurai helmet's design and ornamentation remember that samurai often really tried to personify their personality with their helmets really making for some very unique artistic and beautiful designs alongside that of some really strange ones too at least by today's standards but before we go any further into examining some of these rather odd helmets i need to mention once again that this video just like the last one is being done in partnership with channels such as samurai and ninja history and sengoku studies who too have been recently making videos talking about medieval japanese helmets and ornamentation in great depth these are great channels producing a great content to really help flesh out a ton regarding not only this subject but also so much more relating to the history of warfare in medieval japan down below i'm going to be leaving some links to their videos on samurai headwear please go check them out in accompaniment to this one and with that said let's dive in and begin to look at some of these rather odd kabuto now just like in the first video most of the helmets we are going to examine here were worn by significant figures who fought at the battle of sahigahara in the year 1600. however there are going to be a number of other helmets i'm going to be mentioning as well and ones that were even made during the edo period but to start off let's begin by examining the strange helmets of the kuroda family where we can not only find one variate kabuto but actually two both of which worn by father and son kurora yoshitaka and kuroda nagamasa let's start with yoshitaka who will be the oldest person of those that i will be talking about here today his odd choice he made for his kabuto came in looking like this as you can see it resembles an upside down red cup which is exactly what it was kurora yoshitaka also known as kanbe or josui was one of toyotomi hideyoshi's top strategists and also a devout christian as for why this helmet shape well there are a couple different suggestions i found regarding why it was used with one of the more common legends simply saying that he was a lover of tea ceremonies and perhaps wishing to display his attachment to its elegant and honorable tradition decided that this was the look of his armor that he would wear and that possibly the helmet could symbolize him drinking up the enemy obviously i don't think he intended it to strike any real fear into the hearts of his enemies but surely his foes would likely come to question yoshitaka's skills and capabilities for anyone to wear such a daring style but if you thought wearing a cup on your head was odd let's look at his son nagamasa who wore what looks like a shovel no it was not actually meant to represent a shovel but rather the slope of a mountain this design is often referred to as the ichinotani kabuto which was meant to symbolize the slope of the mountainside that minamoto yoshitsune came down during the battle of ichinotani during the genpe war hundreds of years prior making the helmet design really a callback to a great triumph within the legends of samurai history but something that perhaps is even more fascinating is the idea that this helmet design actually first belonged to fukushima masanori and not kurora nagamasa if we remember back to the first helmet video i discussed fukushima masanori's brilliant golden horned kabuto well it appears that this helmet may have actually originally belonged to nagamasa while the ichinotani kabuto was masanoris both men had fought together during the imgene war the samurai invasion of korea and would later also fight together at the battle of sekigahara the story goes that perhaps some point likely prior to the battle of sahihara as a token of friendship they exchanged copies of their helmet designs and thus would forever be recognized by these two distinctive helmets truly a fascinating little historical detail if it is in fact true yet moving on another rather interesting design can be seen in that of hosokawa taraoki taraoki's helmet is one that is characterized by its unique usage of feathers and fur as rather long feathers almost just erupt out of the center of the scalp while to the rear fur adorns the sides and back this particular helmet design appears to be in the zunari style which you can tell by its smoothness however tadaoki surely made it his own and would have been an easily identifiable figure on the battlefield and i will say one thing about tadaoki's design is that although it is wacky it doesn't strike me as impractical at all because the feathers would have obviously been lightweight and there would have been no issue with mobility which makes it contrast all the more heavily to the next design that i want to look at this being the helmet worn by toro takatora toro takatora's helmet is a very strange one and one of the most unique helmets that i have ever come across the actual shape of it is believed to perhaps represent the shape of a chinese crown likely it appears from the tang dynasty but in addition to the shape what you obviously see right away are the massive ears that jut out from both sides i am not entirely sure what the purpose of the ears were on this particular helmet and it should be noted that ears on samurai helmets in general were not the most unheard of thing but i've never really seen ears to this huge scale rabbit ears upon samurai helmets likely have their roots in something esoteric but this design makes them almost appear as a completely impractical element to the kabuto itself yet by the time takatora would have been wearing this helmet he probably would not be anywhere near the actual fighting during a battle you see takatora is someone like that of hideyoshi who started off his military career as an ashigaru foot soldier yet he was able to rise through the ranks until eventually becoming a full-fledged samurai luckily all before hideyoshi banned such class fluidity he would go on to become one of the commanding figures during the imjing war and would of course later be at the battle of sekigahara his increased role as a military leader would have meant like others i have talked about here so far that he would not have been in the middle of the actual battle but rather off commanding troops and it is in that role in which a helmet like this would make much more sense because realistically there is absolutely no way anyone could really be able to effectively fight wearing something so obstructive now with that said these four kabuto were really the ones i wanted to focus on here today not only because of how they belong to famous figures but also because they are indeed believed to be real and accurate however there are three more that i want to mention really quick before we move on to look at some of the designs that would come about during the edo period these three designs are that of mori yoshinari whose kabuto looked like a large dagger just shooting straight up the mount fuji inspired look of kato yoshiaki's kabuto and of course that of maida toshinaga whose helmet was in the same iboshi style we looked at in the first video but to a much larger extent almost too large and once again i am choosing to highlight these here because we do have what appears to be real authentic versions of them held in museums or private collections today not to mention the fact that importantly they are recognizable and easy to attach to the correct historical figure there are of course many more very strange ones out there that we see during the single could you die and if i did not mention one that you had in mind please mention it in the comments below but with that said the last helmets here that i want to show off are i believe to be mostly made during the edo period and are harder to assess plenty of these look much more like stunning works of art rather than real legitimate helmets i imagine they were likely more used as status symbols and prized possessions that a samurai would place within his residence as by the edo period since peace now reigned across japan helmets no longer really needed to be practical and thus artisans were free to really be more creative with their designs there were helmets made to resemble fish squids dragonflies seashells and of course a wide array of different land animals these are definitely the most bizarre of all the kabuto we have looked at today but the reason i separate them is the fact that they likely would not have been used to any real combat purpose and like i said would have just served as elaborate decor however and this is the thing to watch out for there were a ton of helmets made during the edo period that often get linked many times falsely to real historical figures helmets which historians today argue the authenticity of yet which creates a difficult situation for samurai we have little to no other designs for keep in mind popular myths of what a lot of samurai are believed to have worn have their birth place in the edo period such as the case for samurai like nobunaga takeda shingen and maybe even a lot of what we see from uesugi kenchin which then makes it hard for us today to really know what is real and what is romanticized whatever the case the kabuto i have shown off here today are real examples of some of the strangest designs that would have come about during the later years of the singokujidai and just go to help illustrate the wide variety of ways in which samurai would decorate themselves to not only stand out but also show off their own personality if you want to learn more about samurai helmets and headwear please go check out my first video on this subject if you haven't already in fact like i said you probably should have done that to begin with but also don't forget to check out videos from samurai and ninja history and singuku studies all of which you can find linked below i highly recommend it and with that said thank you for watching and don't forget to like subscribe and ring that notification bell if you enjoyed this video and found it to be most informative

Channel: The Shogunate

Views: 44,405

Keywords: Samurai, history, helmets, Kabuto, Japan, Daimyo, Sengoku, Sengoku Jidai, period, Education, Educational, Bizarre, Iconic, Legend, Myth, Odd, Strange, Bushido, Katana, Honor, Armor, Series, Part 2, Asia

Id: RblIkyZMDUA

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022