Armor (<i>Gusoku</i>)

Hiromichi Miura

armor, 18th century; helmet, 16th century; restorations, 2015 · Iron, copper, copper-gold alloy (<i>shakudō</i>), gold, lacquer, silk, linen, felt, leather, horsehair, doeskin · Arms and Armor

The breastplate of this armor is overlaid with a tooled, gilded, and painted piece of leather likely imported from Holland, reflecting the growing interest in European culture and goods in Japan in the eighteenth century, and the creative ways in which this interest was manifested in armorers’ art. Decorative European leather, often originally intended as a wall covering, was used to embellish a range of equipment, including sword mountings and equestrian tacks.

Artist

Hiromichi Miura

Date

armor, 18th century; helmet, 16th century; restorations, 2015

Medium

Iron, copper, copper-gold alloy (<i>shakudō</i>), gold, lacquer, silk, linen, felt, leather, horsehair, doeskin

Culture

Japanese

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Gift of Etsuko O. Morris and John H. Morris Jr., 2018