Traditional Japanese craft Kanzashi lacquered Edo period Kougai Vintage.

Kanzashi is a hair ornament from the Edo period in Japan. It is made of wood and is lacquered. It looks like a sword. They are small in size. Ships in insured parcel. We also sell many antique hairpins from the Edo period.

What is Kogai?

It is a prop that is stored around the scabbard of the scabbard of the sword. The old ones seem to be made of bamboo, but most are made of shakudo.

The kogai was used to hold the crown of men to the hair so that it would not fall off. There is also a story that a nobleman in the Heian period, Fujiwara no Yukinari, removed the kogai from his guard sword and straightened his hair. However, its role seems to have changed over time.

About the role of Kogai

In addition to the uses mentioned above, there is also a story that when the head became itchy while wearing an eboshi or a helmet, a kogai was inserted into it and scratched.

However, in the Muromachi period, the samurai began shaving their tsukishiro, which reduced the amount of hair and stopped wearing eboshi. is. From there, various theories about the changes in the use of Kogai were born.

There is a theory that it was used to untie the string of the glove worn when shooting a bow, another theory states that it was lifted through a kogai with a string attached to the neck that was killed in battle, and two kogai were put on the tatami mat and untied from the sword. There is a theory that the undercoat was passed between them and used instead of a pillow. (Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to make the kogai bloody, but I'm sure this is the difference between modern and samurai values.)

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