Minamoto no Tametomo

[akaryu]

Hello fellow Planeteers,

One of the latest figures by Nikita Ableev for Medieval Forge is a 75mm representation of the legendary Minamoto archer Minamoto no Tametomo, 1139-1170.

Looking forward to a decent samurai figure, moreover by one of the well known young Russians, I was eager to get my hands on one.

On close inspection some doubts have arisen and I wonder if any of my fellow Japanophiles on the forum shares these doubts:

The figure is depicted in a 'dō-maru', while one would expect a 'o-yoroi' armor equipped with a protective leather 'e-gawa' to prevent snagging the bow string.

The thigh protecting 'haidate', who didn't become popular before the 13th century, are decorated with massive looking metal ornament.

To resume, I feel with this figure Mister Ableev wandered on uncharted ground, of course a common occurrence with Japanese subjects.

Any learned opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Pierre

 

[Henk]

Look, you know what you are talking about. You have a very deep knowledge of this subject ( of which I have none, but i find it interesting none the less). Voice your opinion. Those who know, but are not trodding the popular path, get shouted down, and it's getting on my wick. I'm regularly called a 'rivet counter' (as if that is some sort of insult...), when I call out bad or wrong details or paint jobs on armour models. I am getting thourouhly sick of the 'that is fantastic' 'that is brilliant' ' that is the best', when it obviously not.

Right, I'm off to paint a French Currasiair in a fetching pink tutu and a turban.

 

[Oda]

Good morming Pierre and fellow Planeteers,
Although I am not a certified expert I will add my educated opinion.Yes,beyond a shadow of a doubt there are inaccuracies and serious mistakes on this lovely sculpt.The interpretation of the lacing on the do leaves much to be desired while the two part lacing system is ,as you have spotted,completely wrong.No there were no haidate in the 12-13th century and what is more the sculptor has included haidate on the back of the figure.Presumably,having seen frontal pictures of this armour and not being familiar with the subject he interpreted the haidate as some kind of apron or other under armour protection and thought it goes all arround the body.I have spotted a few other minor inaccuracies but that could just be me not knowing everything.All in all this is,as so often the case with samurai,a lovely sculptutre by a talented artist who is not intimate with samurai armour design and construction.Thought of buying him and reworking him at first but then I thought that it would be too time consuming.In order to be fair to the artist,Niko Ableev seems to be right at home when sculpting Central Asian subjects as well as other Eras and Medieval Forge Miniatures have a lot of his top class works to chose from.

Oda.