Samurai Shoulder Guard

Left guard of a pair of armored samurai shoulder guards (sode). A seven lame shoulder guard that attaches to the armored shoulder straps (watagami) of a cuirass. The top of the shoulder guard has two silk cords that attach to the watagami. The top plate has an outcurving rim and the surface below the rim has lacquer built up imitating armored scales. Three metal plates decorated with flowers are riveted to the top plate and the ends of the plates have heart-shaped cutouts (inome). A similar rectangular metal plate (kogai kanamono) with a ring is riveted to the 4th lame toward the back of the shoulder guard. The kogai kanamono has a short, decorative, burgundy and tan tassel attached. Each lame is coated with black lacquer formed over a strip of wide, humped, "false scales" (kiritsuke yahazu gashira iyozane) to give the appearance of individual scales. The 1st (top) lame connects to the second with tan silk lacing and the 2nd lame connects to the 3rd with purple lacing which repeats until the final lame. The 6th lame connects to the 7th and final lame with brown lacing. This lacing pattern with similar colors at the top and bottom with a band of different color through the middle is called odoshi-katadori-kon, and is inherently laced in the kebiki-odoshi style. The bottom lame also showcases a row of brown lacing above two lowers rows of faded orange lacing in a cross knot pattern. The reverse/interior has a burgundy cloth panel which covers the top six lames. A white toggle is attached to the bottom of this panel.