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Armor with helmet and cuirass decorated by kurikara sword and dragons
Japan, XIX century
AA6
polymateric
The helmet is of the suji-bachi kabuto type (spherical bowl with raised ridges) with 62 plates. The maedate (front decoration) represents a two-horned monster head. The mask is of the me-no-shita-men type with a removable nose.
The shoulder guards are made of white leather. The lower part consists of pseudo-plates in iron covered in lacquered leather, connected by interlaced cords.
The cuirass is of the yukinoshita-dō type (cuirass with large plates connected by hinges). The central plate is divided in three smaller sections. The central part is decorated with the kurikara sword (the sword held by Fudō Myō-ō the Immovable, the most important of the five Wisdom Kings protectors of the faith in Mikkyō, esoteric Buddhism), and two flying dragons on the sides. The tassets of the skirt follow the style of the shoulder guards, featuring a pseudo-plate lacquered iron construction, connected with interlaced cords; the greaves are decorated with white leather bearing an hexagonal cell motif of the same color.


