Armour
Category
Arms and armour
Date
1850 - 1899
Materials
Iron, lacquer, leather, shakudō and silk
Place of origin
Japan
Collection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1328750.4
Summary
Cuirass with hinged horizontal plates (Mogami dō), Japanese, of five sections with each of the plates divided in four places, joined by small external hinges in shakudō (copper and gold alloy) engraved with stylised foliage (karakusa). The front section is divided into the nagagawa (encircling the trunk), of black lacquered plates finished with a dimpled surface and joined by cross-knots of blue leather (shōbugawa), and the upper part which is of false scales (kiritsuke kozane) laced in the same blue leather. The cuirass is divided into sections with different lacing styles, known as dangae dō (‘changed rows’ cuirass) and the whole construction could be described as a dangae Mogami gomai dō (‘five-section changed rows Mogami-style cuirass’) On the munaita (the plate at the top of the front section) is a large ornament (kanamono) in high relief shakudō representing a dragon. A large ring to hang a baton from (saihai no kan) is attached to the right breast. As elsewhere on the armour, the outer edges of the main plates are bordered in engraved shakudō rims and there are pierced decorative plaques of the same material applied elsewhere. The skirt plates (kusazuri) are attached to the lower edge of the cuirass, in seven sections of five plates each, done in false scales (kiritsuke kozane) and laced in blue with two rows of red cross-knots (hishinui) and a row of multi-coloured braid (takuboku no himo).
Provenance
Purchased by Charles Paget Wade (1883–1956) from Wyndham Payne, 29 Portland Street, Cheltenham, 31 March 1943 (£6 for four dressed figures); given to the National Trust with Snowshill Manor, 1951.