At the above link I have added a blog post to our family martial arts website regarding this medieval Japanese battlefield ‘kite’! It resides in the Torquay Museum in South Devon and even when we visited – there was not the usual plaque giving the provenance of this piece – other than a description of what it is. I have written to the Museum to see if I can clear-up the mystery as to the origins of this artefact. As maters stand, this is a bamboo and material device that acts as a ‘kite’ able to lift a grown man of the era into the air whilst carrying a bow and supply of arrows! He is barefoot and stands on a single bamboo pole whilst his body is held in place by two crossed baboo poles in the centre of the device!
