Kawari Kabuto

For some reason in my searches around the web all these odd Kabuto or Samuri helmets have been popping up. One in particular a friend pointed out to me, little miss MonstrousIndustry. It's a bunny, and I LOVE him!

"A kabuto (兜, 冑) is a helmet used with traditional Japanese armour as worn by samurai. It features a strong bowl, the "hachi", which protects the crown of the head, a suspended series of articulated plates (the "shikoro") to protect the neck, and often a crest of the clan (mon). In the Japanese language, the word kabuto is a generic name for just any helmet, but in Western usage it refers to a distinctively Japanese Samurai helmet. Another form of kabuto is the "kawari kabuto", or "strange helmet". During the Momoyama period of intense civil warfare, theproduction of helmets was simplified to a three or four plate design that lacked many of the ornamental features of earlier helmets. To offset the plain, utilitarian form of the new helmet, and to provide visibility and presence on the battlefield, armorers began to build fantastic shapes on top of the simple helmets in harikake, or lacquered paper over a wooden armature. These shapes mimicked forms from Japanese culture and mythology, including fish, cow horns, the head of the god of longevity, bolts of silk, head scarved, ichi-no-tani canyon, and ace heads, among many others. Some forms were realistically rendered, while others took on a very futuristic, modernist feel. A definitive show of kawari kabuto was mounted by the Japan Society in 1985. The catalog, entitled "Spectacular Helmets of Japan" (ISBN 0-87011-784-X) is a good guide to this form. (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuto )"