[RobT]

Hi All,
There has been one response from the Nihonto Message Board. The respondent supports my opinion with, “my vote is for Jingasa, in origin at least”. I have requested that other members weigh in, especially with any information they may have about the design motif on the shield currently under discussion as well as the motifs on the two shields in the previous threads.

A Alnakkas,
I think the wooden grip is rigidly attached to the shield to prevent it from wobbling when hit with an opponent’s weapon. The leather grip is designed to be pulled to the wooden grip when the user’s fist is clenched, thus allowing the user to hold the shield rigidly.

Gavin Nugent,
From what I can see online there appear to be at least two methods for mounting jingasa straps and padding. In one method, the mounting points are on a circular and slightly domed metal plate attached to the inside of the jingasa and on the other the mounting points are part of the inside of the jingasa. I think the metal plate method may have been used when the jingasa had a metal finial and the other method was used on jingasa without finials. There may have been more attachment methods. In any event, the areas cut away on the inside of the shields in the previous threads appear to me to have been sufficiently large to have accommodated jingasa mounting points. The shield currently under discussion has a hole in the top so it may have used the finial/mounting plate method. In this case, the finial and plate could have been removed to allow the shield grips and padding to be added.

Sincerely,
RobT