Page 263 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

The set is complete, with all of the hammered iron mask extends down from shown wearing the armor with a jacket
component protective parts, and the cui- the top of the cheek and nose to a three- over it, as well as an Ichinotani helmet.
rass is of the nimaidd type, with two tiered iron throat protector, while the full AMW
hinged sections. The tiers are made of peak of the front of the helmet shields the
long, horizontal panels—iron for the cui- upper part of the face. A sleek, gold-leafed 163 Tôsei gusoku armor
rass, leather for the kusazuri (protective leather crescent moon, elegantly poised iron, leather, gold leaf, lacquer, silk,
skirt)—shaped and lacquered to give the off-center, balances on the front of the hel- wood, bear fur, wool
appearance of tiers of individual lames. met. Not atypically, the helmet bowl was cuirass h. 39.0(153/8)
Accompanying the set is a portrait of Tada- recycled from an older helmet; it is en- Edo period, igth century
katsu wearing the armor, including the graved with the name of its maker and the
prayer beads, and sitting confidently date: Mydchin Nobuie, one day in the elev- Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
spread-legged on a stool (cat. 31). AMW enth month of the fourth year ofTenbun This set of tdsei gusoku is said to have
[1535]. AMW
been owned by the thirteenth-generation
161 Tôsei gusoku armor Hosokawa daimyo Yoshikuni (1835-1876). It
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gold leaf 162 Tdsei gusoku armor reflects the influence of a tradition of ar-
cuirass h. 38.0 (15) iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood, mor design followed within the Hosokawa
Momoyama period, silver leaf family known as the "Sansai ryü," or the
1
late loth-early lyth century cuirass h. 35.8(i4 /s) Sansai mode, in which innovations con-
Sendai City Museum, Momoyama period, ceived by Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646)
Miyagi Prefecture late i6th-early iyth century were standardized. Sansai believed that
cuirass
the
colors of silk lacing on the
Fukuoka Art Museum,
The impressive tdsei gusoku armor of the Fukuoka Prefecture should be limited to black, brown, dark
Date clan of Sendai was marked by an in- Important Cultural Property blues, and purple; in this set, the cuirass is
sistence on both functional pragmatism laced with dark blue, which subtly con-
and severe elegance. This example, one of This set was originally owned by Kuroda trasts with the chestnut hue of the cuirass.
three similar sets ordered by Masamune Nagamasa (1568-1623), daimyo of a domain Another distinctive characteristic of the
(1567-1636), the first of the Date daimyo in Chikuzen Province (part of present-day Sansai mode, not always used but featured
and a patron of the arts, was given to a re- Fukuoka Prefecture). It is an example of in this set, is the construction of the left
tainer; a second set remained in the Date the gomaidd type of tdsei gusoku, in which portion of the kusazuri (protective skirt),
family while the third has been excavated the cuirass is divided into five hinged sec- the side that would be turned toward the
from the foundation of Masamune's mau- tions, one section each for the front, back, enemy, from gold-leafed panels and crim-
soleum. Copies of the armor were pro- and left sides, and two sections for the son lacing. The bottom of the kusazuri is
duced by subsequent generations of the right side, where the armor is fastened. edged with bear fur, as is sometimes the
Date daimyo. The cuirass is formed from tiers made of case in Hosokawa armor. A jinbaori (battle
Like the Kuroda armor in the Fu- single, long, horizontal panels of iron jacket) of white wool with gold brocade
kuoka Art Museum (cat. 162), the cuirass is wrapped with rough-grained, black- facing is worn over the cuirass; the left
of the gomaidd type, constructed from five lacquered leather. Small iron parts, sleeve is made of red wool, matching in
hinged sections, though here each section trimmed with gold embedded in lacquer, color the lacing of the left portion of the
consists of a single black-lacquered iron border the top of the cuirass. A four-tiered kusazuri.
plate. Characteristic of Masamune's ar- kusazuri (protective skirt) constructed Sansai is reported to have said that he
mor, the kusazuri (protective skirt) is di- from large lames made of lacquered, preferred a fragile helmet ornament, for
vided into nine sections, each with six tiers smooth leather is divided into seven sec- when it broke in combat it would do so
of single, black-lacquered iron plates. The tions, bound with dark brown silk lacing easily, without distracting him; he thought
tiers are bound together with blue silk lac- and suspended from the cuirass. that the sight of a helmet ornament break-
ing. The other parts maintain this insis- The helmet is in the Ichinotani style. ing on a battleground was something truly
tence on black and functional severity: the Ichinotani is a place name, the site at heroic and beautiful. Although this set was
haidate (protective apron) is made of six which the twelfth-century tragic hero not made for use in battle, the enor-
rows of card-shaped, black-lacquered iron Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189) achieved mously long and gracefully curved, black-
on a ground of black figured silk; each of his greatest military triumph. The broad, lacquered wood ornaments of Yoshikuni's
the tubular suneate (shin guards) are two silver-leafed appendage is formed from a helmet seem to reflect this attitude. YS
full sections of black-lacquered iron; the thin sheet of wood attached to the back of
black-lacquered kote (armored sleeves) are the iron helmet bowl. The four-tiered shi-
made of iron chain mail backed with black koro, unlike the rest of the armor, is lac-
figured silk, with six iron splints at the quered in reddish-brown. Kuroda family
forearm and gloves of iron plate. records indicate that when Kuroda
The black-lacquered, ridged suji ka- Nagmasa participated in Hideyoshi's Ko-
buto helmet continues the austere ele- rean expeditions, he received the helmet
gance typical of the whole set. It lacks any from Fukushima Masanori (1561-1624), a
decorative embellishment around the hole warrior who became daimyo of the Hiro-
at the top of the crown. The shikoro is shima domain, as an offering to help mend
made of four tiers of thin horizontal iron their strained relations. Nagamasa trea-
strips and the top tier is turned back to sured the helmet and is recorded to have
form small fukikaeshi tabs, each with a worn it in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600
simple openwork decoration of a five- (cat. 104) and at the Siege of Osaka in
petaled plum blossom. The grimacing 1614-1615, which may account for the
many repairs. In an early seventeenth-
century portrait (cat. 32) Nagamasa is

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