O-yoroi on sale in China real?

[jutettsu8]

hello, I'm living in China and saw this o-yoroi on a second hand app. Is there a way to figure out this is real without travelling all the way? The seller has several positive reviews (no negatives)

[Shogun8]

Hi Jonas,

 

I'm assuming that your question has not been asked tongue-in-cheek, so I will attempt to give you a serious answer. This is because ANY o-yoroi in existence is either a National Treasure, in a shrine or museum or exponentially less likely, still hidden away in some noble family's kura - they're certainly not floating around on the market, much less online. The real question is if this is even a real reproduction of an o-yoroi because even reproductions made by modern day katchushi have been known to have taken years to make with prices in the hundreds of thousands. I'm not sure what this particular example is (can't make out anything really from the pictures supplied), but it is assuredly not "real". Besides, it's from China - not the bastion of authenticity when it comes to Japanese antiques.

[jutettsu8]

oh woops, I meant a real reproduction indeed. Ok I actually didn't know that about the o-yoroi, good to know. thank you

[Brian]

Don't worry...neither did I 

[Toryu2020]

Also no dimensions listed - I believe there were museum miniatures sold years ago - this could be no more than a toy...

-t

[jutettsu8]

ohh I see, and I read some of these questions on the listing as well it all seems to vague to be a good repro. 

 

[IanB]

Copies of this and other famous Kamakura period o-yoroi were made my a Mr. Miura (apparently no relation to the present armour restorer of that name) for the coronation of Emperor Hirohito. One of these copies is now in the Royal Armouries collection in Leeds, UK. The copies are all made exactly, and I mean exactly, as the originals and have had special braid, stencilled leathers and kanamono made.  Sadly the Royal Armouries one had come via Argentina where it lost one sode, a few kanamono and as a finishing touch someone had done some re-colouring of the lacing which had faded badly on one side. Even more sadly, the 'restorer' had decided the ideal way to restore the colour was to use bright red  oil paint to recolour the silk lacing - nice.

Ian Bottomley

[vajo]

Surely nothing is real from China. I remember on the thread of the christies auctions where 90% was fake. They fake all and get more an more perfect in fakeing. Chinese are the Master of Fake. And thats is a huge compliment. Btw the armor looks very good.