ARMOURBUY

A SHORT HISTORY OF JAPANESE ARMOR

Three eras of Japanese armor.

Japanese armor changed with warfare, mobility, firearms, and peacetime ceremony.

1. 

   EARLY 14TH–EARLY 15TH CENTURY

   Ō-YOROI

   Historical context: Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate more than a century before this armor was made. The Met does not associate this object with him.

2. 

   CA. 1550

   SENGOKU-ERA DŌ-MARU

   Historical context: Oda Nobunaga was active during the 16th-century Sengoku period. The Met dates this dō-maru armor to about 1550 and does not associate it with him.

3. 

   18TH CENTURY

   EDO-PERIOD YOROI

   Historical context: Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. This armor was made in the 18th century, after his lifetime, and the Met does not associate it with him.

Images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (public domain): Armor (Yoroi), early 14th–early 15th century, object 28.60.1a–s; Armor (Dō-maru), armor circa 1550 with an 18th-century helmet, object 14.100.120a–g; Armor (Yoroi), 18th century, object 36.25.39a–p.