Title: Kunzan tōshōgū densei no bunkazaiVery beautiful book from the Kunōzan Tōshōgū museum with a lot of pieces related to Tokugawa. Limited to 500.
Title: Nihon katchū dai zukanThis is a reprint from the famous (and very expensive) encyclopedia. Almost no pictures but many illustrations from Sasama. Off course, many illustrations come back in other publications, but the big advantage here is, that the book is big, so much more detail can be seen in the illustrations. Still in print so easy to find.
Title: Nihon katchū meihinshūSasama was well known for reusing his material in his many books. As this book focuses on several nice Japanese armour sets (also several Muromachi ones), it is however nice to have, especially with the pictures that appear in the second half of the book. As is regrettable the case with almost all books on Japanese armour, also here only one general picture is shown per set.
Title: Nihon katchū taikanThis very thick and dense encyclopedia covers a lot of ground on Japanese armour, but as it is mainly text, sparsely illustrated, it will be hard to follow for most. Can probably be best read in combination with one of Sasama’s other, more visual oriented books. The First 1050 pages is an encyclopedia, with the last 300 pages an earlier version of the katchūshi meikan.
Title: Nihon katchū zukan (3 volumes)These three volumes (limited to 800) contain an unbelievable amount of Sasama’s famous line drawings, many of which re-appear in his later works. They are also known as the “green books”.
Title: Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku (vol. 5)The fifth of the official Japanese Armour Society (Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai – NKBKHK) books with pictures and descriptions of the next 107 jūyō graded armours and samurai related items (#526-#632). Overall, very nice and big color pictures. Again many items also from the Momoyama and Muromachi periods. Most items are tucked away in private collections, so this book is for many of these probably the only way to get some documentation.
In total 5 books exist (as of 2014) in this series. All of them were quite expensive when published as they were printed in very small quantities. Every item has a picture (on the left side of the book) and an objective description of the item on the right site, with also the time period for which the item got the jūyō (top) grade. Grades are given in a yearly Shinsa session, with a jury of senior society members.
Title: Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku (vol. 4)The fourth of the official Japanese Armour Society (Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai – NKBKHK) books with pictures and descriptions of the next 135 jūyō graded armours and samurai related items (#391-#525). Overall, very nice and big color pictures and a big improvement over the previous volumes. Again many items also from the Momoyama and Muromachi periods. Most items are tucked away in private collections, so this book is for many of these probably the only way to get some documentation.
In total 5 books exist (as of 2014) in this series. All of them were quite expensive when published as they were printed in very small quantities. Every item has a picture (on the left side of the book) and an objective description of the item on the right site, with also the time period for which the item got the jūyō (top) grade. Grades are given in a yearly Shinsa session, with a jury of senior society members.
Title: Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku (vol. 3)The third of the official Japanese Armour Society (Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai – NKBKHK) books with pictures and descriptions of the next 130 jūyō graded armours and samurai related items (#261-#390). Overall, the quality of the black and white pictures has increased although some are still too small or of not good enough quality. Most items are from the Edo period. Most items are tucked away in private collections, so this book is for many of these probably the only way to get some documentation.
In total 5 books exist (as of 2014) in this series. All of them were quite expensive when published as they were printed in very small quantities. Every item has a picture (on the left side of the book) and an objective description of the item on the right site, with also the time period for which the item got the jūyō (top) grade. Grades are given in a yearly Shinsa session, with a jury of senior society members.
Title: Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku (vol. 2)The second of the official Japanese Armour Society (Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai – NKBKHK) books with pictures and descriptions of the next 130 jūyō graded armours and samurai related items (#131-#260). The black and white pictures in the first volumes of this series are not always of a good quality. Several items are from the Muromachi or Momoyama period and are tucked away in private collections, so this book is for many of these probably the only way to get some documentation.
In total 5 books exist (as of 2014) in this series. All of them were quite expensive when published as they were printed in very small quantities. Every item has a picture (on the left side of the book) and an objective description of the item on the right site, with also the time period for which the item got the jūyō (top) grade. Grades are given in a yearly Shinsa session, with a jury of senior society members.
Title: Katchū bugu jūyō bunka shiryō zuryoku (vol. 1)The first of the official Japanese Armour Society (Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai – NKBKHK) books with pictures and descriptions of the first 130 jūyō graded armours and samurai related items (#1-#130). The black and white pictures in the first volumes of this series are not always of a good quality. A large amount of the items however are Muromachi period or earlier and are tucked away in private collections, so this book is for many of these probably the only way to get some documentation.
In total 5 books exist (as of 2014) in this series. All of them were quite expensive when published as they were printed in very small quantities. Every item has a picture (on the left side of the book) and an objective description of the item on the right site, with also the time period for which the item got the jūyō (top) grade. Grades are given in a yearly Shinsa session, with a jury of senior society members.
