A COMPLETE ARMOUR
Japan, Edo period, 18th century

The armour consisting of a helmet (kabuto) with eighteen riveted plates, the shikoro neck protection with five blades joined with blue silk ribbons, large lacquered fukigaeshi and an important golden maedate in the shape of a crescent moon, the lacquered iron menpò mask with thick mustache made of animal hair, the yodarekake with five blades, the cuirass dō made of large lacquered iron plates in Yukinoshita style, the sode in metal mail and small iron plates, the tsuneate shin guards with large iron plates, containment box.

Provenance: Fabrizio Savi collection, acquired in 2000 from Nihonto, Fred Weissberg.

In the accompanying expertise, Fred Weissberg describes this armour as a 'Nanban' type, that is, inspired to European armours of the sixteenth century; the dō, in particular, was explicitly conceived to withstand the blows of a firearm, a characteristic much appreciated by the samurai in the service of Date Masamune (1567-1636), feudal lord (daimyō) of Sendai, the area in which this armour was produced, notable - especially in tsuneate and shikoro – for the stylistic references to armours of the fourteenth century.