Edo period Signed Japanese Samurai Yoroi Armor

A fine Ni Mai Do Gusoku which features a 12 plate kabuto with Teppo-boshi rivets surrounding a finely worked Tehen kanamono. Prominent Fukigaeshi covered in printed leather with mimi-ito (both matching the leather, piping and lacing of the armor) curve back from the four broad plates in black lacquer forming the Manju-shikoro. The helmet is signed Nakahachiman Minamoto Yoshikazu Saku and dated the second month of Ansei Roku (1859) when the country was in the throes of revolution and war. It is crowned by a carved and gilded wood Dragon Maedate. The armor features a russet iron mask in the Ressei-ho style, also signed by the same Yoshikazu under the chin with matching black lacquered four-plated yodare kake throat defense. It has matching black lacquered Chu-sode in excellent condition. The Do is a fine black lacquered Mogami-do of iron with rows of Kusazuri hanging from the waist enriched with elements covered with Egawa, with blue, silk lacing and Mimi-ito matching the helmet.   It retains the original sangu (Kote, Haidate and Suneate), covered in chestnut  silk, which is delicate and has torn in several places. Otherwise minimal defects of time and slight loss of lacquer. It comes in an Edo period wooden storage case (Yoroi-hitsu).

Nakahachiman Yoshikazu was a armor maker of the later Edo period.  An armor from the possessions of the Daimyo of Tokushima, Hachisuka Narihiro was made by Nakahachiman Yoshikazu.

Hachisuka Narihiro was a son of the eleventh shōgun Tokugawa Ienari, and Daimyo of the Tokushima Domain. He died during the Battle of Toba-Fushimi at the start of the Boshin War at the age of 48.