An interesting armor item.

[estcrh]

For the samurai that wanted some protection without all that heavy armor?

[IanB]

Eric, Nice kote. I don't have one but I do have the fabric bits from one that somebody stripped the metalwork off. They are called sahinuki gote and were sometimes much more like a jacket. I saw one once in a shop near Akasaka district. It was a full mail-covered jacket that opened down the front with the kote built in. I was puzzled for a while since there was a gap from the right collar-bone area to the right side of the waist, laced with cord like the inside of a kote. It finally dawned on me it was to allow the wearer to adjust the fit of the sleeve on the sword arm.

Ian Bottomley

[estcrh]

Ian, I knew there was a name but couldnt find it, here.are another couple of types.