Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. After V-J Day, Allied forces, led by the United States, occupied the Japanese empire, which continued until 1952. During this time many U.S. servicemen were stationed there, and brought home all swords of souvenirs. This Kendo set is quite typical of what they brought home.
This is a very nice Japanese set of Bōgu (防具, "armor"), used primarily in the Japanese martial art of kendo. More correctly called kendōgu (剣道具, "kendo equipment"), this style of equipment has been in use in one form or another since the Edo Period, mainly to reduce injuries, which were many when practicing with real swords. Kento utilizes practice swords called shinai (竹刀, shinai), usually made of bamboo or wood, which while still dangerous, have no cutting edge.
These items look to be WWII Era, and could possibly have been used by the person who brought it back. They also could simply be spare pieces that were collected, though the relatively matched colors suggests that they were used together. Unfortunately we did not receive any documentation with this, other than the information that it was brought back post war. The set consists of the following:
- TWO men (面) helmets, which are combined face mask and shoulder protectors (helmet), made up of a metal grille (面金, men-gane) to protect the face, a series of hard leather and fabric flaps (突垂れ, tsuki-dare) to protect the throat, and padded fabric flaps (面垂れ, men-dare) to protect the side of the neck and shoulders.
- One dō (胴) torso protector (breastplate) armor, very similar to the armor used by Samurai for centuries
- One Matched pair of kote (小手) hand and forearm protectors (gauntlets).
There are also various cords and ropes attached to these parts, which are used for securing them. There are unfortunately no sizes marked on these, and we have no way of knowing what size they would fit.
A very nice set, which would make a great part of any Japanese WWII display!
- This product is available for international shipping.
- Not eligible for payment with Paypal or Amazon
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