Now that we have had a look at the process of bōgu evolution in the Jikishinkage-ryū tradition, I introduce what it actually looked like. Having said that, as far as I am aware, there are no original Jikishinkage-ryū sets of bōgu left in existence. However, we can get a general idea from the illustrations contained in Tominaga Kengo’s 1931 book Sho-Ryūha Budōgu-Zue (Illustrations of Protective Armour from Various Martial Traditions) (See Diagrams 6, 7, and 8)
Diagram 6
Diagram 7
By taking a close look at these illustrations we can surmise that the men was made of bamboo, and there is no protective covering for the throat (tsuki-dare). The dō is made of flat bamboo slats strung together, the kote cover the whole forearm, and the shinai is a fukuro-shinai. If we compare these diagrams with the Shinkage-ryū armour in Diagram 5, we notice a couple of the main differences being that the latter has no protective cotton padding on the top and that there is no dō. The bōgu depicted in Diagrams 6-8 was probably not dissimilar to the bōgu developed by Naganuma Kunisato.
Diagram 8
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