A JAPANESE COMPOSITE ARMOUR

A JAPANESE COMPOSITE ARMOUR, GUSOKU

LATE MOMOYAMA/EARLY EDO

The iron sujibachi kabuto helmet with 62 riveted plates and raised ridges, fitted with a five-tier tehen kanamoto (pierced circular finial), the fukigaeshi (turnbacks) and riveted mabizashi (visor) with stencilled leather; the maedate (frontal decoration) applied with silver decoration shaped as scrolling clouds; the four-tier shikoro (helmet neckguard) with blue and yellow kebiki-odoshi lacing and the reverse lacquered in red; signed Saotome Iehisa to the inside at the back of the bowl; with an iron menpo (face mask), a four-lane yodarekake (throat guard) and a three-tier nodawara (lower neck protector); the iron do (chest armour) embossed with a ferocious dragon emerging from crashing waves under two chrysanthemum-shaped gilt rings, the back with a further strip of stencilled leather; the sode (shoulder guards) laced in white and green with a circular design, both with a painted dragon on the lower part and with fittings decorated with a fan-shaped mon; with shino-suneate (shin guards) of lacquered iron; together with a lacquered wood nagayari (long spear); displayed on a European wooden artist's model and raised on a square wood base; 170cm (the spear 220cm).

Provenance: from the collection of Sir Henry Norman (1858-1939) on display at Ramster Hall, Surrey,

and thence by descent.

Saotome Iehisa lived in the Hitachi province (today in the Ibaraki Prefecture, Honshu) and his is sometimes listed as the ninth generation of the Saotome family of armour makers.

Sir Henry Norman (1858-1939) 1st Baronet Privy Councillor was an English journalist and Liberal politician. He worked as an editor for the Pall Mall Gazette and later the News Chronicle, becoming its Assistant Editor in 1895. In 1887, the Pall Mall Gazette sent him on an interviewing tour around the world. It was planned that his tour would last for at least six months, although he actually remained on tour for nearly four years, travelling through numerous countries including Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Siam and Malaya to name a few. As far as the history of the press was concerned, such a tour was an exceptional venture, and so Henry Norman's journey and the various newspaper articles he wrote during his travels garnered much attention. By the time he had returned to Britain in 1891, he had seen more of the world than most others of his generation or position and he used information collected throughout his tour to write two travel books about East Asia, both of which were enthusiastically received. In both The Real Japan and The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, he explores various aspects of these cultures and enthusiastically recounts his countless exciting experiences, many of which occurred during his time in Japan, Hong Kong and Beijing. In 1899, he retired as a journalist and subsequently became a Member of Parliament. He was knighted in 1906 and was made a baronet in 1915.