Armour
Category
Arms and armour
Date
1850 - 1899
Materials
Iron, lacquer, leather
Place of origin
Japan
Collection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1328750.8
Summary
One of a pair of sleeves (kote), Japanese, in the ‘splint sleeve’ (shinogote) style, i.e. with black-lacquered iron strips on the forearm (the inner two divided by mail) and with rectangular plates (ikada) set in mail on the upper arm, the gauntlet (tekkō) with the heraldic device (kamon) of the Ikeda family (a butterfly) in pierced iron, all mounted blue leather with a reserved pattern in white of stylised iris flowers and leaves (shōbugawa). The fact that the leather is identical to that used in lacing the cuirass suggests they originally belonged to the same suit of armour.
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.