Etchū-bo, Samurai iron mask

Iwai school, early Edo period, 17th century

Literature:

IIda K., Katchū-men Momonofu no Kasō (Tōken shunjū shinbunsha: Tōkyō, 1991), Cat. 92

Iwai Yozaemon was armorer for Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Momoyama period and was appointed official bakufu armorer when he became shogun. His school has then been active in Nara for many decades, producing two main styles of masks, the oie-bo and the etchū-bo. This second one featured very well defined facial treats and the surface was covered with parallel lines called yasurime ("file marks"). In the Meiko Zukan there is a drawing which illustrates the main features and it is reported that this shape was the favourite of Hosokawa Sansai. In the oldest etchū-bo the nose is riveted to the mask, while in later specimens it becomes detachable. The continuity of the lines in the early examples suggests that both the embossing and the yasurime engravings were done later and that the mask was worked as if from a single iron sheet.

The interior is lacquered in black and there is a large ase-nagashi no ana under the chin.