Three-case gold lacquer inro in the form of a complete suit of armor

The armor is rendered with extraordinary attention to its individual components: the kabuto helmet surmounted by broad kuwagata and a circular maedate bearing a mon, above the layered shikoro neck guard and fierce dark-lacquered menpo mask; broad sode protect the shoulders, flanking the richly ornamented do cuirass, while the arms are covered by articulated kote terminating in finely detailed tekko hand guards.

Below, the overlapping kusazuri and paired haidate are carefully reproduced, their lacing, plates, textile patterns, and fittings individually delineated. The armor rests upon its yoroi-bitsu, the traditional chest in which the disassembled suit was stored and transported and upon which it could be displayed, the front embellished with the character 前 (mae, “front”) in mother-of-pearl. The interiors are finished in fine nashiji with gold fundame rims.