Ressei Menpo Samurai Mask, Edo Period

Menpo armor face mask in the style of me no shita bo, Edoperiod (1603 - 1868)A high-quality mask in the style of sabiji is made of ironwith a artificially cultivated, beautiful patina. The stylization of theexpression is "ressei bo" - an angry grimace with bared teeth andshiva wrinkles, with a mustache made of badger hair.The back of the mask is varnished in the usual way with rednatural urushi varnish.The realization of the neck protection tare (yodarekake) issolved in a very interesting and unusual way.The first two lines of kiritsuke sane are gilded, but thethird, the lowest one due to the mask, is completely different - it is dividedinto three separate streams like the kusazuri , ending with pointed lobes.Their contrasting kuronuri black color features a very high-quality makiedecoration - in the middle one is  a familycrest in the form of a "flower diamond" hanabishi , used, forexample, by the Takeda family. On the side lamellas, an lacquer imitation ofsilver  fukurin fittings is decoratedwith a gold karakusa ,,chinese grass" pattern . The back of the tare iswhole gilded . The sukage-style lacing is made with red-orange odoshi ito,while the mimi ito decorative lace is situated vertically, on the edge of thelast line of lamellas.