Samurai Cuirass

A two-section, or clam-shell, style samurai cuirass (ni-mai-do). The front of the cuirass is constructed of seven horizontal lames while the back is made up of eight. 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 dark blue silk cords in the kebiki-odoshi style. The top lames of both the front and back have a row of cross knot tweed lacing above the dark blue lacing. The lower five lames wrap around the entire torso while the upper lames are separated because of the arm openings. A metal ring is attached to the right side of the second front lame with chrysanthemum base washers. 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 has a decorative rim (fukurin) which was likely originally painted gold.

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 upper-most front plate (muna-ita) supports toggles made of horn which would secure the shoulder straps. The shoulder straps have thick, blue cords designed to hold the many movable parts together. A 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. The wooden rod would extend down to the lower back where a small cup (machi-uke) would receive it. However, that component is missing in this instance.

A brigandine armored collar (tate-eri or eri-mawashi) with an integrated shoulder pad (eri-dai) remains attached beneath the shoulder straps. The lining of the underside is in poor condition with some of the padding lying exposed. The exterior is of hexagonal iron plates (kikko) beneath a top layer of tan leather. Dark blue lacing is then sewn through each individual plate. Faded green thread is sewn around each plate to create a honeycomb pattern. The edge is of blue leather with a white flower design. Eight, five lame, pendant-like tassets (gessan) hang from the bottom of the cuirass, four from the front and four from the back. Lames get progressively wider as they advance down the gessan. The silk cord and the lacquered scales mirror the rest of the cuirass. The bottom lames are trimmed with gray animal fur.