Almost all of these pieces date from after the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (c. 1600). From 1600 to 1850 Japan experienced a stable period marked by very little real armed conflict. During this time, the samurai transitioned from soldiers to what were effectively mid-level bureaucrats. However, unlike most bureaucrats, they managed to retain all of the trappings of a martial lifestyle, including ornate armor, beautiful swords, and the occasional mortal duel. It was during this time of relative peace that these (sometimes ridiculous) fashion pieces developed, somewhat complicated by the tradition of incorporating pieces of much, much older helmets into the "core" of the helmets (one of the helmets in the OP has a core dating from the 14th century, but was significantly embellished later on).
†This is generally true of what arms and armor have survived from around the world. The stuff that was actually used rusted away long ago; the highest chance for survival was to have been so valuable that no one dared to actually take it onto a battlefield.
Duels under Tokugawa were forbidden and punishable by death of both opponents. The only fighting that samurai could see was terrorizing of unarmed peasants.
Samurai were not warriors in European sense but more of a mob enforcers. Good for terrorizing peasants not really fit for fighting in any military sense.
During Meiji when peasants got professional military training and leadership samurai became toothless.
[BUSHIDO: WAY OF TOTAL BULLSHIT] https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kumamoto_Castle
[2] https://www.historynet.com/satsuma-rebellion-satsuma-clan-sa...
Also, the exhibition venues will often do things like find local artisans to demonstrate related skills. E.g. I demoed making the armor lacing braids (as much as 200-400 yards, in reeled silk, per suit!) when the show was at the Portland Art Museum.
A master of the more technologically advanced European saber would probably cut a Katana-wielding Samurai to ribbons. Good thing the Samurai would probably just shoot him from horseback anyway.
Side note : one of the most amazing parts of the exhibition was the archery equipment -- fantastic and frightening-looking arrow broadheads especially
"In taking a step, it is the weight rolling smoothly and the next step arising. In breathing in completely, it is this breath. In breathing out completely, it is this breath. In life, it is this life. Zanshin means complete follow through, leaving no trace. It means each thing, completely, as it is."
In other words, it is not a traditional sword system but a modern one.
I don't recall seeing another helmet with a full statue. Are there more examples?
https://frompariswithlove-becky.blogspot.com/2015/03/les-inv...
Cmd/ctrl+f, "dragon". It's not quite half way down. Picture's not great. IIRC it was right inside the entrance we came in, though I don't know how much help that is as there are probably a few, even if you narrow it down to entrances open to the public.
There's a closer, somewhat sharper shot of just the top on this page:
https://thetreesaroundnunhead.blogspot.com/2011/08/paris-3-t...
Searching on page for "dragon" brings one straight to it, again.
It's a European helmet, not a Japanese one, though.
That would be my bank holiday recommendation.
My interest is piqued.
I'm inferring that they're just very small museums? Do they have any essential characteristics?
Google isn't being very helpful.
;; Usage: (get)
;; Parse the entirety of stdin as a sequence of s-expressions. Return
;; that list of expressions.
;;
;; The definition of this function is a little contrived, because in
;; lisp it's simpler to prepend to a list than to append to it, which
;; would be the natural thing to do. So instead, we build the list
;; such that it is backwards, then we call (reverse LIST) on it when
;; we read EOF.
(define (get)
(get1 (quote ()) (read)))
;; Usage: (get CURRENT-BUFFER JUSt-READ-EXPRESSION)
(define (get1 b r)
(if (eof-object? r)
(reverse b)
(get1 (cons r b) (read))))
;; Usage: (put)
;;
;; Read the entirety of stdin as a sequence of characters, perform the
;; global string substitution ")" -> ")..", then return the result as
;; a string.
;;
;; The definition of this function is a little contrived, because in
;; lisp it's simpler to prepend to a list than to append to it, which
;; would be the natural thing to do. So instead, we build the list
;; such that it is backwards, then we call (reverse LIST) on it when
;; we read EOF.
(define (put)
(put1 (quote ()) (read-char)))
;; Usage: (put CURRENT-BUFFER LAST-READ-CHAR)
(define (put1 b r)
(if (eof-object? r)
(list->string (reverse b))
(if (char=? #\) r)
(put1 (cons #\. (cons #\. (cons r b))) (read-char))
(put1 (cons r b) (read-char)))))
;; Usage: (final LIST)
;; ???
(define (final lis)
(if (null? lis)
lis
(final1 (car lis) (cdr lis))))
;; Usage: (final1 FIRST REST)
(define (final1 f r)
(if (and (pair? f) (pair? (cdr f)) (eqv? (quote quote) (car f)))
(cons f (final (cdr r)))
(if (list? f)
(final2 f (gather (count (car r)) (cons (quote ()) (final (cdr r)))))
(if (or (vector? f) (pair? f) (eq? #\) f))
(cons f (final (cdr r)))
(cons f (final r))))))
;; Usage: (final2 f g)
(define (final2 f g)
(cons (append (final f) (car g)) (cdr g)))
;; Usage: (count SYMBOL)
(define (count s)
(- (string-length (symbol->string s)) 2))
;; Usage: (gather c lis)
(define (gather c lis)
(if (= c 0)
(cons (reverse (car lis)) (cdr lis))
(gather (- c 1) (cons (cons (cadr lis) (car lis)) (cddr lis)))))
;; 1. Use (put) to read stdin as a string and perform the ")" -> ").."
;; global string replacement.
;; 2. Feed that resulting string to (get), which parses it in to a
;; sequence of s-expressions.
;; 3. Feed that list of expressions to (final), which does something
;; to it and returns a list.
;; 4. (write) each item that (final) returns.
(for-each write (final (with-input-from-string (put) get)))