And Now For Something Completely Different

As I mentioned in the recent month-in-review post, in February I got the opportunity to create part of a Japanese outfit for a friend of mine, for Gulf Wars.   His persona is that of a 14th-century (Ashikaga period) Samurai warrior.  He's also a member of a fighting company/household whose colors had to be taken into account, and a Centurion (an Ansteorran grant-level fighting order), the insignia for which also needed to be worked into the garment.  Whew!

The piece I made is called a jin-baori, which later evolved into the kataginu. It's a sort of loose, sleeveless vest, tied in the front and split at either the back or the sides, which Japanese men wore over their kimonos, with thier hakama (the big "Samurai pants").

In this picture, instead of the kimono underneath, he's wearing a padded armor shirt that he made himself.  (He also created the black leather armor with red lacings that's visible through the front of the jin-baori, and the helmet in the second picture!)  The hakama were made by another friend of his.

The black panels down the front are a wide lapel which is turned back to reveal, in this case, the black lining in the garment, which is appliqué'd with six white lion heads, which are the symbol of his fighting company.

Black and gold are also part of the company's colors - and also the colors of our kingdom.  The 10-pointed star on the back of the jin-baori is also the kingdom badge.

The red displayed eagle on the lower right of the back, with another black 10-pointed star in the center of it, is the badge of the Centurions.  Their usual livery includes a red cloak with a gold eagle and black star; it would have been a bit much to wear the full Japanese kit with the Romanesque Centurion cloak, so we incorporated the Centurion badge into the jin-baori, and reversed the color scheme.


This was SO much fun to work on.  I believe there are going to be one or two more of these coming up this year, for this same person.  I can't wait to work on it again. :)



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