SOLD! Date Family Damiyo Samurai Suit
SOLD
By repute belonging to the son of Date Masamune
Gomai-Do Yukinoshita Gusoku. Edo 17th Century.
Sixty-two-plate heavily lacquered black iron sujibachi helmet, the wide black-lacquered iron brim with gold-lacquered constellations, the fukigaeshi with gold-lacquered crests of opposed sparrows within a bamboo circle (mon of the Date clan), the maedate (forecrest) a gilt-wood sun, with two gilt-wood high-reaching trailing clouds replacing kuwagata, a menpo (facemask) of black-lacquered iron with detachable nose in the form of a large bird (or tengu) beak, the do (cuirass) of five-plate Yukinoshita-style lacquered brown, having a single bullet mark in the center of the chest, black-lacquered iron haidate (thigh guards) of kawara-kozane (“tile scales,” overlapping scales), hyotan-gote (sleeves of chain with gourd-shaped plates), black-lacquered spiral-ribbed iron tsutsu suneate (shin protectors)