The kabuto, or helmet, embodied the samurai's personality and, if anything, his wealth and identified his status in society. The 16th century saw a revolution in the kabuto's design and high-ranking samurai instructed their armourers to make helmets with ever more lavish decorations.

The hachi was generally constructed from strips of iron riveted together vertically - the number of strips used ranged from about six to as many as one hundred and twenty. Ridges and rivets reinforced the resulting shape and sometimes these ridges could be highly decorative if worn by an important samurai. Other hachi were made from a number of iron strips riveted horizontally to form a dome of concentric bands. Some hachi, on the other hand, were made from a single piece of metal. The ribbed hachi was called a tsuji-kabuto and was made up of between 16 and 120 plates; the hoshi-kabuto, or riveted hachi, was made up of strips each with many knobs.

Whatever the case each hachi had a small opening in the centre of the crown called a tehen which was itself surrounded by a ridge of metal, often ornamented. Some sources state that such an opening was because of the warrior's short pigtail which was worn upright in ancient times although other sources believe that the tehen was for ventilation. Perhaps more realistically this little hole was formed because of the way the strips were riveted together. The armourers found it easier to cut the ends off and lock them together forming this central hole rather than bit by bit form a central point where as many as a hundred strips converge.

Projecting from the front of the base of the hachi was a small peak called a maezashi. Sometimes this was quite plain and unadorned but it was normal for high ranking samurai to have the maezashi lacquered and richly decorated. The maezashi would often be fitted with a socket called a haraidate to enable the samurai to slot a crest or maedate into it. Crests were a sign of rank and could also be worn the sides of the helmet and these side crests were called wakidate and also on top, called kashiradate, or at the back of the helmet, called ushirodate. The maedate came in a myriad of shapes and sizes: there was the triple-bladed crest or mittsu-kuwagata, which was similar to the kuwagata (twin-horned crest), except that it had a sword in the centre. Antlers were very popular helmet adornments and could just as easily be found in the maezashi or as a wakidate (on the sides). Buffalo horns were also used in a similar manner. Crescent moons were very popular crests and could be small or large, broad or slim. Date Shigenori (cousin to Masamune) wore a stylised centipede for his crest and Toyotomi Hideyoshi was famous for his sunburst ushirodate.

Riveted to the hachi via the brim was the shikoro or neck guard. This consisted of from three to seven rows of metal plates sewn together by silk or leather cords. This was further reinforced by stiff leather and often contained over a hundred small plates or scales. The number and size of rows in the shikoro could identify the type of helmet: the sammai-kabuto had three rows; the gomai-kabuto had five; the o-manju had large strips and the ko-manju small ones. The lowest strip of the shikoro - called the hishinui-no-ita - was usually lined with leather so that it did not clatter on the warrior's shoulders and its cords were often fastened in a star or cross shape.

One of the most characteristic elements of the samurai helmet were the winglets or ear guards on either side of the shikoro. They were formed from rolling back one or more of the rows that made up the neck guard. The fukigaeshi, as the resulting turnback was called, was often highly ornamented with embossed leather, silver or gold. Older helmets tended to have very large fukigaeshi whereas those of the 16th century tended to be quite small. Some of these older helmets even had the right fukigaeshi attached to a hinge to allow it to move back should its wearer be drawing a bow.

Up until the latter half of the 14th century it was normal practice to wear a cap or eboshi underneath the helmet and its top was often showing through the tehen. This served to help preserve the warrior's queue of hair, which apparently folded neatly to one side when the helmet was donned, and to also make the helmet more comfortable to wear. After the 14th century the helmet was lined with cloth with an addition of straps to form an inner cap called an uchi-bari. The straps suspended the helmet just enough off the crown of the wearer's head for the fit to be comfortable. A headcloth or hachimaki (not unlike a headband) was often worn to act as a cushion for the helmet.

The zunari-kabuto ('head-shaped') appeared in around the mid-16th century and became standard issue for many armies of the day. It was cheap, easy to produce and simple to bullet-proof with its smooth surface. Although the samurai appreciated its effectiveness they found its look rather boring and decided to add their own affectations to it. They used lacquer, wood and papier mâché to sculpt their helmets into fantastic shapes resulting in the kawari-kabuto or 'unusual helmet'. Some kabuto were shaped into the likeness of supernatural entities, such as demons (kimen) or goblins (tengu).

Naga-eboshi kobuto or courtier's cap helm was quite a common kawari-kabuto because it was made into the likeness of the eboshi, an aristocratic item of headgear worn by Japanese nobles. Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611) was one of the most famous individuals to wear such a helmet and his in particular was very striking because it was so big. The eboshi's characteristically tall shape was built up by using wood and papier mâché and he is known to have worn it in the invasion of Korea.

The ichi-no-tani kabuto was just as striking as the naga-eboshi if not more so because of its highly unusual shape. This kawari-kabuto looks like a square board has been stuck on the helmet with a curve made along its top edge (Takeda Shingen wears a variant of one in the film Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa). Kuroda Nagamasa also wore one (1568-1623). The name of the helmet is taken from a famous battle in 1184 when Minamoto Yoshitsune led his army down a steep cliff and the odd shape is meant to represent this heroic action.

Another form of kawari-kabuto was the yaro-kabuto or 'hairy helmet' (yaro means someone from the country), so-called because bear fur (it was usually fur from this animal but boar fur was also used) had been stuck on the hachi of a zunari-kabuto.

The shii-nari kabuto was another of the many types of kawari-kabuto and was acorn-shaped. This was the kabuto worn by Toyotomi Hideyoshi except his was riveted and bore a sunburst ushirodate.

The momonari-kabuto was very smooth and had a raised back (almost shaped like a peach) with a central ridge. This was quite a common style in the late medieval period and was probably inspired by the European cabasset.

The morion-kabuto was a helmet with European and Japanese elements. The main helmet was every bit a morion, the characteristic European helmet of the latter half of the 16th century with a prominent central ridge and sharp brim, with a shikoro attachment. Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga were the most prominent samurai lords to wear this headgear.

Further Reading

The Samurai (Osprey Publishing) - Anthony J Bryant.

Samurai Armies (Osprey Publishing) - Stephen Turnbull.

Secrets of the Samurai - Oscar Ratti, Adele Westbrook.