Ni-mai-dō tosei gusoku

Ni-mai-dō tosei gusoku

Samurai armor from the Hosokawa clan

Mid Edo period (1615-1868), 18th century

Certified Juyo bunka shiryo（Important cultural work）by the Nihon Katchu Bugu Kenkyu Hozon Kai (Association for the Research and Preservation of Japanese Helmets and Armor)

Literature:
Katchu bugu Juyo bunka shiryo zuroku (Vol. 5), Tôken shunjû shinbunsha: Tôkyô, 2014. Pag. 59-60

This exceptional samurai armor is characterized by a rare high-quality manufacture.
The sixty-two plate helmet (kabuto) is a suji bachi lamellar construction. As for the rest of the armour, it is covered in black lacquer and is exquisitely refined by golden hems and metal applications reproducing the Hosokawa clan’s kuyō-type (nine stars) kamon. A majestic maedate in the shape of a shikami (a demon from the Japanese tradition) is affixed on the front of the helm, produced for this armour in 1857, as it is reported on its crate by a sculptor named Endo.
The cuirass (dō) is possibly the most extraordinary part of this armour. Tied with two different types of plates – iyo–hon–kozane in the upper part, and kiritutsuke–kozane in the lower part – it is indeed decorated in its middle with a grand, embossed (uchidashi) golden dragon, applied on a shakudo-bordered leather frame.
The armour is tethered by purple (murasaki) silk, a color that, in medieval Japan, was traditionally associated with the aristocracy, and that was afterward adopted exclusively by high-ranking samurai for their equipment.
The Hosokawa samurai clan, whose family crest is here reproduced in lacquer and metal on almost every element of the armor, was one of the five most powerful family clans in Japan. Its exponents often distinguished themselves for their genteel sense of aesthetics, and the artists who worked under their patronage are copious, particularly in the fields of weapons and armors. Even today there is a museum, the Eisei Bunko, which collects approximately 6.000 artworks, and countless documents of the family.

Samurai armor for sale. Price on application. Please include item stock number: gus-1468