Samurai Cuirass

A two-section, or clam-shell, style samurai cuirass (nuinobe ni-mai-do). The front of the cuirass is constructed of eight horizontal lames and the back is constructed of nine. Each lame is a strip of wide, double humped, "false scales" (kiritsuke koishi gashira iyozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. Lames are connected to one another with 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. A distinction of this cuirass is that the entire surface is wrapped with leather and then painted with black lacquer. Two metal rings are attached to the left and right sides 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 is painted with black lacquer and has a decorative gold rim (fukurin). A hinge on the left side of the cuirass allows it to open and close and leather straps on the right side secure it when worn.

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 brown lacing. The upper-most front plate (muna-ita) supports toggles made of horn which would secure the shoulder straps. This front plate attaches to the top lame with brown silk lacing in the kebiki-odoshi style. The shoulder straps have thick, brown cords designed to hold the many movable parts together. Armored lames (kobire or kohire) are attached to the outside of the shoulder straps and serve to protect the area between the cuirass and the shoulder guards. These lames are formed and laced in the same style as the actual shoulder guards, black lacquered false scales (kiritsuke kozane) and laced in the kebiki-odoshi stlye. 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.

Seven, five lame, pendant-like tassets (gessan) hang from the bottom of the cuirass. The tassets are attached to a leather belt (kawa-koshi-tsuke) which links to the bottom of the cuirass with horn toggles. This allows the tassets to be removed for easy storage or transport. Lames get progressively wider as they advance down the gessan. 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. The bottom lames are trimmed with black animal fur. Pockets (hanagami-bukuro) are attached to the backs of two tassets.