Chest protector and hip guards

Unlike the heavy metal-plate armor of the West, Japanese helmets and body armor were made of a variety of materials, including textiles, metal, leather, and silk. Through distinctive forms and colors, Japanese armor proclaimed to the enemy the identity of individual clans and the glory of their houses. The chest protector (do) is a major component of samurai armor. Missing from the set to which this object would have belonged are other guards and protectors that would partially have obscured it. With those pieces missing, we can more easily see how the chest protector is constructed. Leather thongs fasten red-lacquered square iron plates to a fabric backing. The hexagonal blue cotton chest and side plates are cross-knotted with blue silk. Shoulder straps attached to the back plate end in metal hooks, which are in turn attached to loops on the front plate.

Six pendant hip guards, three each in front and back, are attached to the lower edge of the chest protector. Each guard consists of three bands of plain leather, printed leather, and red-lacquered square iron plates. This type of armor, when worn by a foot soldier rather than a highranking samurai, would have included metal fittings to hold a bamboo flagpole. The act of carrying a flag bearing a clan crest showed allegiance to that clan. Two such fittings are intact at the back of this example, one at the waist and the other close to the neckline.