Original Japanese WWII Tetsubo Type 90 Army Helmet with Partial Liner & Chinstrap - Missing Star

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a wonderful example of the classic Japanese Type 90 Tetsubo (鉄帽 - "steel cap") army helmet, also colloquially called the tetsukabuto ( 鉄 冑 "steel helmet") by Japanese troops. This example is in rough shape, missing its front star, but retaining its chinstrap and liner, which is broken.

The helmet’s exterior retains much of its original paint but shows heavy paint loss, revealing the blue manganese steel underneath. The liner is present, but one of the three liner pins are gone, which resuled in the back part of the liner falling downward and then breaking away from the rest of the liner. The chinstrap is still present but shows some repairs and heavy discoloration from age and oxidation. The helmet is in fair condition and would do very well with a replacement star. These are getting harder to find in any condition.

The Kanji character 大 for Large is stamped into the rear metal rim and remnants of the white painting of the character is barely visible.

The helmet comes ready for further research and display!

The Japanese Type 90 Helmet
The Imperial Japanese Army was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1871 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of War, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Military (Army) Aviation, became the third agency with oversight over the army.

During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad-hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the minister of war, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the inspector general of military aviation, and the inspector general of military training.

The Japanese Tetsubo, also colloquially called the tetsukabuto ("steel helmet") by troops, was a mainstay of the Imperial Japanese Army from its creation in 1932. Its construction from inferior chrome-molybdenum steel limited its ability to protect the wearer from gunfire or shrapnel.