Samurai Shoulder Guard

One of a pair of iron armored samurai shoulder guards (sode). A six lame shoulder guard that attaches to the armored shoulder straps (watagami) of a cuirass. The top of the shoulder guard has two toggles that attach to the watagami. The top plate has an outcurving rim painted gold and the surface below the rim has lacquer built up imitating armored scales. Each lame is coated with black lacquer formed into "false scales" (kiritsuke kozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. Lames are connected to one another with brown silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. Lacing between the top five lames is brown but between the 5th and 6th lame lacing is white. The bottom lame showcases a row of tweed lacing above a bottom row of burgundy lacing in a cross knot pattern. The reverse/interior has a blue cloth panel edged with black fabric which covers the top five lames.