Japanese Monk / Ninja and Ming General

[Timotheos]

The Komuso was (and is, being still around) a Zen wandering monk who wore a tengai (reed basket) over his head as an act of humility and played the shakuhachi (flute) for alms.

Ninja purportedly might disguise themselves as these mendicants while on espionage missions, because these alms collectors could travel around the provinces with little scrutiny.  The Japanese comic, Lone Wolf and Cub, makes big use of komuso monks in its depiction of the Kurogawa ninja clan.

In any event, I've been meaning to make one of these ever since placing a basket over the head of a clicky.  A flaw that I plan to repair one of these days is that, as you can see in the attached photo, the komuso wore alms bags that resembled shopping bags more so than the sash I chose.





The source is Stephen Turnbull's "Warriors of Medieval Japan", a bargain compilation of four of his Osprey publications.


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The Ming General adds to my growing Ming Chinese and Chosun (Korean) army during Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea (1592-1598).  I now regret the eye patch (makes him look like a pirate) but at some angles it gives him distinction.  The splotch of yellow on his helmet is my botching of the spray paint masking but in some ways it hints more of the original gilding than what I had planned, anyhow. 





The source for the photo is Turnbull's "Samurai Invasion: Japan's Korean War"

-Tim

[cheng]

good ones Tim ! 
I have tried making one such monk like these before and take this opportunity to share my ideas about them;
those baskets to me too are the best original playmo basket we find...so what i wanted to do was just cut (I know, its not something 'pure' customisers want to do or hear) off the handles of the basket and cut just a singlet horizontal slit for the eyes.

as for the bag, I used the baby carrier from a single "mother-with-baby and feeding bottle" set 

but didnt like the final look...
I didnt spray his white socks like you did because back then, I couldnt bring myself to do that 

please continue...your thread is very informative and interesting 

[Justindo]

Your growing army is impressive, Tim.  The general is definitely a distinctive character.

[henry_martini]

As already said i like very much to spot how you render the details of your originals. And the new themes and ideas you bring about as well.

Again a suggestion: You might create a more controlled result of the spraying using play dough to mask the rest of the piece. Not that I ever tried it but it might work on such difficult shapes.

H_M

[henry_martini]

And i will copy your komuso monk. Of course mine will have a 'chinese' head.

What about your's?

H_M

[Timotheos]

Again a suggestion: You might create a more controlled result of the spraying using play dough to mask the rest of the piece. Not that I ever tried it but it might work on such difficult shapes.

Thanks for the recommendation for Playdoh (I have a ton of it, but never thought of using it for a mask).  Will refinish next weekend. 

I tried with newspaper print in the botch job you see above, but I applied too heavy of a coat and the paint welled up past the masked area.

Of course mine will have a 'chinese' head.

What about your's?

Heh, yeah.  I should have given him the Fu Manchu beard for laughs.

-Tim

[Richard]

Very, very interesting customs, Tim.

Thanks for sharing.

Richard