A Tosei Gusoku (Suit Of Armor), Do (Cuirass) and Abumi (Pair of Stirrups)

THE HELMET EDO PERIOD (17TH-19TH CENTURY), THE REST EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Details

A Tosei Gusoku (Suit Of Armor), Do (Cuirass) and Abumi (Pair of Stirrups)
The Helmet Edo Period (17th-19th Century), the rest Edo Period (19th Century)
The russet iron sixty-two-plate suji bachi akodanari (helmet bowl with flanges) with black-lacquered three-lame komanju itamono jikoro (solid plate neck guard) laced in scarlet sugake odoshi (spaced lacing) and pale green kebiki odoshi (close lacing), the fukigaeshi partly covered with a printed leather fukurin (helmet decoration) with a crest, the kuwagata dai carved with stylized clouds in kebori (fine line carving) and with three large gilded rivets carved as chrysanthemums and fitted with o-kuwagata, the forecrest in the form of a demon with antlers and black hair; the face mask with a three-lame lacquered-iron itamono yodarekake (solid plate throat guard); the do in yukinoshita style hinged with five russet iron plates, the front embossed with a dragon in swirling clouds on an ishimeji ground, with signature Toshu ju Myochin Oe Ki Muneyasu saku with itamono kusazuri (tasses) in eight sections laced in sugake odoshi; the o-sode constructed with a russet iron plate embossed with a dragon and five lames laced in sugake; with black-lacquered iron shino gote (mail and splint sleeves); black-lacquered iron kawara haidate (thigh guard); tsutsu suneate (plate shin guards), bearskin boots, a saihai (baton) with long white hair and a fan

The extra do a hotokedo sendai gusoku (five-hinged solid plate cuirass); the pair of inlaid-iron stirrups decorated in silver inlay with a geometric pattern and scrolling vines, the underside with waves, with signature Kashu Kanezawa ju Nagayoshi saku, the interior lacquered with crushed mother-of-pearl inlay, with a wood box

Lot Essay

Accompanied by a certificate by the twenty-third generation of the Myochin family, Naoko Iwai dated 1924.5 which states that the kabuto was made by Myochin Yoshimichi in Musashi (late 16th century), and that the iron cuirass and o-sode were made by Myochin Muneyasu in Tosa in the mid-Edo period.
Muneyasu was a pupil of Munemasa who worked for Lord Yamauchi in Tosa. He excelled at embossing iron plates and was a founder of the Tosa Myochin school.

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