Page 145 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

8o 81
Ntó cuirass armor Armor with giant horns made
for li Naotafea
Iron, lacquer, silk, leather, and
boar hair (on helmet) Seventeenth century
5
Height of cuirass and skirt 65.2 (25 /s) Iron, lacquer, silk, wood, leather,
Tokyo National Museum and gold leaf
Height of cuirass and skirt 70 (27 Va)
Illustrated page 113
Hikone Castle Museum, Shiga
• The Niô type of cuirass is named • Composed of iron plates covered
after the two bare-chested, exagger- with thick red lacquer, the armor is
atedly muscular guardian figures laced together with smoke-tanned
144 that stand on each side of a Buddhist leather bindings. The suit is of the
temple's gate. The cuirass of this tósei gusoku type, which was fashion-
armor is made of two substantial able from the Muromachi period. The
sheets of iron for the front and the armor covers almost the whole body,
back, shaped like a well-developed but it is lightweight overall in keep-
naked torso, with the ribs, breasts, ing with the freedom of movement
and navel hammered into high relief.
required.
Solid iron sheet was used in the sec- li Naomasa (1521 -1602), the first
ond part of the sixteenth century in lord of the Hikone domain in Ômi
response to the introduction of the province, specified red armor for his
matchlock gun from Europe. Imported entire clan. This set was made for
European cuirasses were sometimes li Naotaka (1590 -1659), of the second
adapted into Japanese armor at that
time, and it may be that this gro- generation. The cuirass is formed of
side and
at the left
two parts hinged
tesque form has its origin in similarly tied closed on the right. The helmet
sculpted European armor. Few such
sets survive, although there is a simi- is of the type known as zunari, or
lar cuirass in the collection of Tokyo "head-shaped," and is composed of
thin iron plates
riveted
together.
National Museum that has only The horns of wood covered with gold
half the chest exposed and the rest leaf were also introduced by li Nao-
covered with the linked rows of iron masa, and remained in use up to
plates of which Japanese armor is the time of Naosuke, the thirteenth-
constructed.
generation lord of Hikone Castle. VH
Helmets of this type are made of
three to five stout iron plates and
covered with the hair of the wild
boar. Both helmet and cuirass were
designed to withstand gunfire. The
rather coarse appearance of the
whole armor and the red boar hair
might have suggested the appearance
of a foreigner to Japanese viewers
of the time. VH