Samurai Back Cuirass

Back section of a black lacquered, rawhide, five-section, samurai cuirass (nerigawa kuro urushi tatehagi go-mai-do). This section of armor is hinged on both sides where it connects to the left side section and the back right side section of the cuirass. The cuirass is secured by a tweed cord that reaches from the back right side section to the front section of the cuirass. This design allows the wearer to easily put on or remove the cuirass when assembled. This back section of the cuirass is constructed of two thin, upper plates and one large, lower plate, all made of rawhide. Each plate is coated with black lacquer. The larger plate has ridges of lacquer built up to imitate the appearance of three vertical plates (tateage) riveted together. Plates are connected to one another with faded blue silk cords laced together in the sugake-odoshi style. The top lame has a row of cross knot tweed lacing above the faded blue lacing. The upper-most back plate (boko-no-ita) supports the shoulder straps (watagami) which reach over the shoulders to the front of the cuirass. The shoulder straps are attached to the back plate with thick, tweed cords. A panel is attached to the top of each shoulder strap. On each panel is a small, metal, crest of three bamboo leaves encircled by more bamboo leaves with the negative spaces between leaves punched out. The crest may be that of the Takenaka clan. A broad, stylized, bracket (gattari) is attached to the back plate and serves to support a wooden rod which would hold a battle standard on the wearer's back.

A brigandine armored collar (tate-eri or eri-mawashi) remains attached to the shoulder straps. A blue neck pad is attached below the collar. The exterior is of hexagonal iron plates (kikko) beneath a top layer of black leather. Now faded blue lacing is then sewn through each individual plate. Burgundy thread is sewn around each plate to create a honeycomb pattern. Two, six lame pendant-like tassets (gessan), hang from the bottom of this section of the cuirass (eight total tassets when the cuirass is assembled). The lames get progressively wider as they advance down the gessan. Each rawhide lame is coated with black lacquer, though much of it has chipped off. The lames are connected to one another with faded blue lacing in the sugake-odoshi style. The bottom lame showcases a row of tweed lacing above a bottom row of faded orange lacing in a cross knot pattern.