One of two greaves [Suneate]. Floral textile design, with fluted and chain mail sewn into it. There is a patch of leather in one corner. [BH [OPS Move] 29/6/2017]

Collection type: Object
Description: One of two greaves [Suneate]. Floral textile design, with fluted and chain mail sewn into it. There is a patch of leather in one corner. [BH [OPS Move] 29/6/2017]
Long description: For the thigh guards please refer to [.1], cuirass [.2], shoulder guards [.3-.4], sleeves/gaunlets [.5-.6], the other greaves [.7], helmet [.9], and face mask [.10] [BH [OPS Move] 29/6/2017]
Geographical reference: Japan
Asia > Eastern Asia > Japan
Cultural groups: Japanese
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date / Period: Date made: Possibly before 1874
Date collected: ?By 1874
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884
Materials and processes: Material Textile, Material Metal, Material Pigment, Material Yarn, Material Animal Leather Skin, Process Dyed, Process Stitched, Process Woven, Process Painted, Process Forged (Metal)
Dimensions: Depth: max 6 mm, Width: max 302 mm, Length: max 334 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.31.40.8 PR Cat other PR nos: ? 103
Research and responses: It is clear that it is not known that Whitmee (see biographies file) spent any time in Japan or Korea. It is also clear the Whitmee collection seems to have come to the Museum not partly via the founding collection from Pitt-Rivers, as previously thought, but via George Rolleston and the Oxford University Museum (of Natural History). I think that the supposition that the black and white oil cloth label must mean that this object came from the Whitmee collection is at best that, a suggestion (it is true that other Whitmee objects have what appears to be the same label from the description) but it could as well identify items associated with George Rolleston. Until this label is firmly identified I think one has to assume that the object was not part of the Whitmee collection, but was obtained by some other collector. This is confirmed because except for the additional accession book entry, written in the 1920s there is no primary source that suggests that Whitmee is the collector [AP 03/09/2012]
For the collector's account of his voyage in the Pacific in 1870, see A Missionary Cruise in the South Pacific...among the Tokelau, Ellice and Gilbert Islands, in the Missionary Barque 'John Williams', during 1870, by Samuel James Whitmee (Sydney: Joseph Cook & Co., Sydney, 1871). [AP 27/2/2003; JC 26 8 2009]
Japanese iron armours were initially of lamellar construction, but armour became increasingly plate-oriented over time. The Sengoku Jidai (‘Age of Battles’, 1550-1600) was a period of intense and nationwide conflict in Japan, and this promoted a rapid acceleration of armoury innovations in this time. All of the armours on display in Case U6A are of the tosei-gusoku (‘modern armour’, post-1500) type, with a fully fitted cuirass, smaller shoulder guards and a lighter form than the box-like hanging lamellar plates of o-yoroi (‘great armours’), which characterised the preceding centuries. Following Tokugawa Ieyasu’s 1615 reunification of the country under the Shogunate, Japan enjoyed over a century of unprecedented peace (the Edo or Tokugawa period). During this time, daimyo and the samurai class as a whole underwent a significant change from practical to symbolic warriorhood – becoming administrators and diplomats rather than warlords. This – and particularly the Sankin Kotai obligation for daimyo to attend the court at Edo, with the extensive annual parading to and fro – promoted major changes in armour, which became richer and more ornate than it had ever been. Various components of the armours also became associated with religious and mythical figures during the early Edo period – overlaying them with layers of symbolic reference. Between 1709-22, the master armourer Arai Hakuseki wrote The Armour Book in Honcho-Gunkiko (1964) – in which he deplored the decline of the ancient o-yoroi (‘great armours’). He also argued that the sight of a general (Taisho) in imposing and grand antique-style armour was of tactical morale-boosting value to an army. This book caused an archaistic shift in armour-making, throughout the 18th century. In 1799, Sakikibara Kozan wrote an armoury manual criticising Japanese armour as showy and impractical, which caused a return to the more functional armour styles of the Sengoku Jidai. After 1868, and the overthrow of the Shogunate during the Boshin War, the Imperial party suppressed the cultural status of the samurai class. It became a legal offence to wear the paired katana and wakizashi swords (the de facto insignia of samurai status), and armour suffered similarly. Japan was undergoing radical social, economic and technological change during this period, under the influence of external Western powers, and the Japanese army was progressively Westernised on the most modern German model of the day. Some interesting features of kabuto (Japanese helmets): The crown-tube (Tehen / Hamchiman-Za) is of particular interest. Historically, the construction of a hollow tube at the crown of the helmet is a feature acquired ultimately from the Mongols; the Japanese bushi of the remote past – alongside the Koreans and other peoples influenced by Mongol culture – drew his long hair up through the tehen, and wore it into battle as a natural plume. While the practice was abandoned, the hollow tube permitting this remained. In more recent times, the tehen came to be known as Hachiman-Za (‘the seat of Hachiman’). Hachiman is a Japanese Buddhist deity, the God of Worldly Prosperity and God of War, and the leader of the Shi-Tenno (Four Guardian Gods). He was the patron deity of bushi, and the tehen can consequently be seen as a means of taking the deity into battle. Hachiman is closely related to Bishamon – another major Japanese god of war, and both are understood by the Japanese to be forms of the martial bodhisattva Daibosatsu. Similarly, a number of Japanese helmets bear four rivets on their bowls - pointing NE, SE, SW, NW – which are known as the Shi-Tenno-Byo (‘Rivets of the Four Guardian Gods’). These, again, invoke major deities of protection and military success, and take them into battle (Arai, 1964: 49-51). When armourers worked, their finest pieces were invariably offered to Bishamon or Hachiman, in order to reciprocate his assistance in further works. The fore-crest (datemono) was often created from gilt brass, and those kabuto which do not bear datemono often bear a two-pronged oharaidate or ‘august prayer-slip stand’ – alluding to the fact that protective Buddhist texts on paper were historically worn over the forehead. Relevant Reading: Norman, F.J. (1905) The Fighting Man of Japan: The Training & Exercises of the Samurai. London: Archibald Constable & Co. Swann, P.C. (1958) An Introduction to the Arts of Japan. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer. Ryukasu, T., de Bary, W.T. & Keene, D. (1962) Sources of Japanese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press. Arai, H. (1964 (1709-22) The Armour Book in Honcho-Gunkiko. London: The Holland Press. Robinson, H.R. (1965) A Short History of Japanese Armour. London: HMSO. Moad, M.I. (1982) An Exhibition of Japanese Armour from the L.J. Anderson Collection. Rochester-upon-Medway: City Council Guildhall Museum. Bottomley, I. & Hopson, A.P. (nd) The Samurai Armour at Snowshill Manor. London: The National Trust. Carey, J. (1995) Samurai Undressed. Torquay: The Devonshire Press. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge Project 2006/2007 [AM]

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