Artworks

Kabuto helmet in the shape of an old man’s hat

Artwork · Anonymous · late 16th century · kabuto · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A kabuto in the whimsical shape of an old man’s cloth cap, made of gilded iron and fronted by a three-pronged flame bearing an image of Fudō Myōō. Whom it was made for is unknown, but the message is clear: the wearer has nothing of an old man’s weakness. 1 Mason 2005, p. 253, fig. 291. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.