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Armor (Gusoku)

Armorer:
Helmet bowl signed Saotome Iyetada (Japanese, Edo period, active early–mid-19th century)
Armorer:
Breastplate inscribed inside, Myōchin Munesuke (Japanese, Edo period, 1688–1735)
Date:
16th and 18th centuries
Culture:
Japanese
Medium:
Iron, lacquer, silk, gilt copper
Dimensions:
H. 67 1/2 in. (171.5 cm); L. of each foot defense 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm); W. of each foot defense 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm)
Classification:
Armor for Man
Credit Line:
Gift of Bashford Dean, 1914
Accession Number:
14.100.172; 14.100.527–.528
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 377
This example comes from the armory of Date Yoshimura (1703–1746), daimyo (lord) of Sendai. The helmet bowl, signed Saotome Iye[tada?], dates from the sixteenth century; the remainder of the armor was constructed in the eighteenth century. The breastplate is inscribed inside with the armorer's name, Myōchin Munesuke (1688–1735). The embossed ornament on the solid iron plates is characteristic of the Myōchin school.
Ex coll.: armor, Date Yoshimura, Sendai, Japan; [?]; Bashford Dean, New York; foot defenses, Bashford Dean, New York.
Dean, Bashford. Notes on Arms and Armor. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916. p. 20.

Bullock, Randolph. "Oriental Arms and Armor." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1947). p. 171.

Anderson, L. J. Japanese Armour: an Illustrated Guide to the Work of the Myöohin and Saotome Families from the 15th to the 20th Century. London: Arms & Armour, 1968. pp. 20–21, no. 7 (another armor in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, also made for Date Yoshimura of Sendai).

Nickel, Helmut. "Arms and Armor from the Permanent Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 49, no. 1 (Summer, 1991). pp. 59, 64, ill.



Timelines
Japan, 1400–1600 A.D.
Japan, 1600–1800 A.D.

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