MODEL CITIZENS OF OLD JAPAN

Salvaged from Christmases Past, these are my two cast Samurai models hand painted in the early Seventies by yours truly.

Not much stuff from my early childhood has survived but some from when I was around 12 years old has.

In particular my martial arts stuff has. I put this down to two things: I collected so much martial arts material, mostly papers and small items, which I'd put in a large document case thats traveled with me throughout my life.

These short metal warriors are two of my most important surviving martial arts toys.

There's a naginata or halberd missing from the right one made by Rubin I think and the Ebira or arrow quiver has broken off the left fellow. 

I remember so clearly getting the figure on the left, a Rose kit, one Christmas in the early 1970's. 

It came in several parts in a small plastic bag and had a distinct and wonderful metallic smell once opened. 

Amazingly I have even managed to hold onto the colour scheme I worked out for this model, drawn on a school timetable! 

This has survived in an old handkerchief box I have pictured below, what I called the 'Budo Box'!

Also in the box is a postal order counterfoil for Miniature Figurines, which I kept after sending off payment for another Samurai model. A postcard from the company, ARGYLE, has survived too. 

It all relates to either the metal Rubin figure to the left in the picture above or maybe the small metal miniatures, pictured below, which have survived in a wooden Indian box my Mum gave me.

This box became the centerpiece of my Cha-No-Yu (tea ceremony) or Iai-do (Japanese Sword) paraphernalia back then when I was 13 and I wanted to be a Zen or Shaolin Monk! Happy days!

The metal figure to the left below is an Orc! I have some more Samurai model stuff [and tons of books] and will dig it out. 

Have you got any samurai models?