SAMURAI
ARMS & ARMOR

JAPANESE
WORKS OF ART

Welcome

Welcome to my online gallery of authentic samurai armor and Japanese art.
 
The published works have been very carefully chosen for quality, rarity and state of preservation. I have chosen the often arduous path of rigorous selection for quality and state of preservation, aimed at offering works of excellence. If you are looking for authentic samurai armor, a folding screen, or any other work of Japanese art, I trust you will find something on this site that may be to your liking. 
 
I look forward to hearing from you, 
 
Giuseppe Piva
Stories

The Ō-yoroi: Japan’s Great Armor

2026-06-30

The ō-yoroi — literally “great armor” — is the oldest fully developed form of samurai armor, and the one that most profoundly influenced everything that came after it. Produced from the late Heian period through the Kamakura period, it was conceived for a style of

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The Sankin Kōtai and the Transformation of Samurai Armor

2025-10-07

During the Edo period, the sankin kōtai system required every daimyō—the feudal lords of Japan—to alternate residence between Edo (modern-day Tokyo), the political center of the Tokugawa shogunate, and their provincial domains. While the lord himself traveled to and from the capital, usually on an

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