ooyoroi　大鎧

KEY WORD :　art history / crafts

Lit. big armor. The most formal type of armor for high-ranking samurai 侍, it was loose-fitting defensive armor originally designed for mounted archers. Used for combat from the middle Heian through the late Kamakura periods, it functioned ceremonially in later periods, often made cheaply in the Edo period as a reaction against medieval armor fashions. Constructed of leather and iron lames bound into horizontal tiers covered with lacquer for vertical support, it is named after these large sections joined with smaller, solid iron or leather parts. The upper cuirass consists of a small solid iron muna-ita 胸板 (chest plate) and the tateage 立挙, two lamellar tiers in the front and three in the back. The lower cuirass consists of a four-tiered section called kabukidou 衝胴, which shields the front, back, and left of the lower torso. The separate element called wakidate 脇楯 protects the right side. The kusazuri 草摺, a protective skirt suspended from the cuirass, is divided vertically into four sections. The oosode 大袖 (large upper-arm guards) have seven tiers. Two independent plates hang from the shoulders: the three-tiered sendan-no-ita 梅檀板 on the right of the chest; and the solid iron kyuubi-no-ita 鳩尾板 on the left . A soft peace of leather called tsurubashiri 弦走 provides a smooth front to the cuirass for drawing the bow. The helmet worn with ooyoroi is the hoshikabuto 星冑 (star-helmet), named after the many surface rivets that punctuate it for reinforcement and decoration. A large five-tiered lamellar *shikoro 綴 (neck guard) hangs from the helmet's bottom, its upper tiers folded in the front to form the curved panels at each side of the rim *fukikaeshi 吹返し.

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