4. Samurai Armour

The Quiet Armoury · Oct 29, 2026 · 40m

Gusoku: Japanese, 'complete', a full armour with every piece. Summer 1750, in a castle town at peace: a young samurai helps his uncle air the clan's armours in the sun, box by box, from a four-hundred-year-old great armour to the face masks with real moustaches... Inside: a leather panel for the bowstring, ten thousand little plates laced in silk, the coward's plate, a fan shot from a rocking boat at Yashima, helmets shaped like crescents, antlers and cliffs, lacquer that hardens only in damp air, Japanese mail sewn onto cloth, and two armours sent to King James I in 1613. Nasu no Yoichi will…