Gusoku Vermilion

Description

About Us:

Our photographs are taken without retouching or photoshop to ensure that the customer can judge the reality of the object.

Thanks to a constant work directly with the best collectors, museums and galleries in Japan and friendship with them, along with a profit margin much lower than the European competition we can offer objects so that many people can choose to have authentic pieces with hundreds of years at more than competitive prices. After all, samurai art is our passion and we want to share it with the world.

About The armor:

It Comes with certificate of SupeinNihonto. It comes with antique box and mounting structure.

Beautiful late 16th to early 17th century armor in a very attractive vermilion color. This armor contains the two rarest and most desired colors in armor, red and gold, so it was undoubtedly designed for a high ranking samurai or daimyo. The armor is made with a simple and practical style which made it ideal to be used in combat of that period, against the Yoroi that were for cavalry. Fantastic armour in a great combination of colours. In a very good condition despite its centuries of age. The armour is complete in all its elements in a very good state of preservation, almost pristine.

This beautiful armor combines the hanpo, the kabuto (consisting of maedate and ushirodate) and the shoulder pads in urushi vermilion lacquer and the arms, feet and skirt in gold leaf. An exquisite and very authentic work, with great historical value.

Red is possibly the most precious color in armor and one of the scarcest, especially in armor that are not reproductions of the twentieth century. This color offered a series of advantages and disadvantages. As an advantage it made the warriors who wore this armor more fierce and fearsome, as if they were demons.
On the other hand, they were much easier to see on the battlefield, making them more obvious prey for rival clans.

The idea of putting red armoured troops up front was initially a Takeda clan concept. Following the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, many of the surviving Takeda warriors were absorbed into the victor, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s army. To bolster the Ii troops numbers, these men were then placed under the command of Ii Naomasa, with Ieyasu suggesting the other Ii samurai also adopt the colour scheme.

The Ii clan, first into battle at Sekigahara, were mostly dressed in bright red lacquered armour, known as Aka Gussoku, or Aakazonae. Being in the van of the Tokugawa army, their red armour, battle flags and fittings gave a distinctive, psychological advantage. It was one of the few cases of armour being uniform, as most samurai chose their armour based on personal taste and affordability.

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