Great armor

[BIG]

https://www.zacke.at...&sd=1&pp=96&pn=2&g=1

[The Blacksmith]

Stunning O Yoroi! I love these armours, and especially the work of Nobuiye.

 

Unfortunately, one wonders what it actually looked like in real life. I saw an armour at the Bowden sale at Christies years back, beautiful gold Haramaki do, with one time crimson sugaei odoshi. Unfortunately, the real thing left a lot to be desired. Jon Anderson, who was with me at the sale didn't even think of buying it, as he said, it would have been a lifetimes work to restore it.

 

But, that armour is absolutely stunning to look at. Thank you for posting it Peter.

[uwe]

It’s a late armor! Maybe the helmet is older? Note, the mei is chiseled on a separate plate, riveted inside…🤔

[Luc T]

Was it made for export, or display?  Bakumatsu or meiji?

[Henri]

On 6/19/2024 at 10:14 PM, Luc T said:

Was it made for export, or display?  Bakumatsu or meiji?

This armor was made late.  Gold colour armours such as this with true kozane and orange lace were made from Late Edo onward.  I believe this to be maybe Meiji or after. (but incorporating good parts such as the kabuto)  One of the most important things to notice is urushi shitaji which uses ash and has that light grey color.  This is not a traditional technique and this method tends to fail very quickly because the Ph of the ash, causes acide which can causes the shitaji to fail, and if on iron, to ruste.  MIura (Anjin) sensei was perhaps the first to write about the use of ash from the late Edo period onward. Also, the leaf that is on this armor may not be real gold.  It may be a kind of leaf made with bronze that looks like gold.   Finally, be careful because Mr. Morisaki (deceased) made similar armors that were also mass produced with real scale like this, which were very expensive and well made. However his did not use real urushi and had a grey paint primer such as on the mempo. Something to look our for. There were special dealers in this sort of armor into the 20th century, they were bought by rich families for coming of age ceremonies, and sold at large touriste ports such as yokohama.  Thence the word for them “hamamono” (things from yokohama) I have seen several such armors with “Nobuie” signatures. I wonder if there was an artist by that name with a shop there…..  

[Henri]

On 6/18/2024 at 1:19 PM, uwe said:

It’s a late armor! Maybe the helmet is older? Note, the mei is chiseled on a separate plate, riveted inside…🤔

Yes I agree on this point. I wonder if the signature was removed from an old armor and this is a replica. I did see a helmet very similar to this once that was made by one of the dealers I mentioned… but it was brass!  Very strange.