Samurai Cuirass

A body wrapping style samurai cuirass (nuinobe maru do or do maru). The front of the cuirass is constructed of eight horizontal lames and the back is constructed of nine. Each lame is coated with black lacquer formed over a strip of wide, humped, "true scales" (yahazu gashira hon iyozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. Lames are connected to one another with burgundy silk cords in the sugake-odoshi style. This combination of wide iyozane style scales and sugake-odoshi lacing are the key characteristics of the nuinobe cuirass form. The upper lames are attached to solid metal plates around the neck and arm openings which are used to attach other fixtures securely to the cuirass. Each of these plates is painted gold over black lacquer and finished with a rippled texture (tataki nuri) that creates ridges of black lacquer showing through the gold. The cuirass opens on the right side and would be secured with a silk cord closure, though the cord is missing.

The upper-most back plate (boko-no-ita) supports the shoulder straps (watagami) which reach over the shoulders to the front of the cuirass. This back plate connects to the top lame of the back of the cuirass with a single row of cross knot lacing. The upper-most front plate (muna-ita) supports toggles made of ivory which would secure the shoulder straps. This front plate attaches to the top lame with burgundy silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. The shoulder straps have thick, burgundy cords designed to hold the many movable parts together. Two metal eye hooks are inserted into the back plate and would support a bracket (gattari) which is no longer present. A small cup (machi-uke) is inserted into the lowest lame on the back and would serve to support a wooden standard holder along with the missing gattari.

A brigandine armored collar (tate-eri or eri-mawashi) with an integrated shoulder pad (eri-dai) remains attached beneath the shoulder straps. The underside is of blue silk with gold brocade in a cloud pattern. The exterior is of hexagonal iron plates (kikko) beneath a top layer of black cloth. Blue tweed lacing is then sewn through each individual plate. Green thread is sewn around each plate to create a honeycomb pattern. The edge is of tan leather.

Four, five lame, pendant-like tassets (gessan) hang from the bottom of the cuirass, while four additional tassets are detached. The tassets are attached to a leather belt (kawa-koshi-tsuke) which links to the bottom of the cuirass with ivory toggles. This allows the tassets to be removed for easy storage or transport. Lames get progressively wider as they advance down the gessan. Each iron lame is made up of many small, "true scales" (hon kozane) meticulously bound together to form a solid lame, then coated with black lacquer. Lames are connected to one another with burgundy silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. A pocket (hanagami-bukuro) attached to the back of one tasset is made of blue silk and brown cloth but its condition is poor.