Samurai Cuirass Side Piece

Left side 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 front section and back 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 left side section of the cuirass is constructed of one large plate made of rawhide and coated with black lacquer. The upper-most plate (waki-ita), lying below the armpit, is covered with badly faded stenciled leather. This plate is shaped like a "U" and has toggles at the top to further secure it to the front and back sections of the cuirass. This upper plate is connected to the main body of the armor section with tweed cross knot lacing.

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. Tweed laces also line the left and right edges of the throat guard.