Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-06
OLD JAPANESE ARMOR
EXHIBITION AT THE METRoPoLI-
TAN MUSEUM OF ART.
Interesting Collection Of Metal Masks
and Breastplates From
the East.

From the New York Evening Post.
The director of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art is now installing loan collection Of
Japanese armor which bids fair to be OF
considerable interest, in the matter of curl
GUS masks and brilliant coloring, and from
the standpoint of the art and history of old
japan. The collection is contained in the
hall cases, nearly thirty in number, at the
head of the main staircase of the new build
ing. Those who recall the Colman sale OF
Japanese objects will be pleased to learn
that the deliberately ornamented suit of
iron armor is included in the present collee-
tion-this with similar examples of artistic
workmanship have been kindly loaned by
Mr.. Louis B. McCagg; other examples es-
pecially interesting from artistic stand
point are part OF the collection Of Mr. Sam
uel Isham. Among these are a number of
gold lacquered suits of daimyos, and q suit
of red lacquer characteristic of the samurai
OF the warlike clan of Satsuma. All of these
pieces are excellent examples of the armor-
er's art of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
The Fujiwara Period.
Professor Bashford Dean of Columbia
University, who collected in Japan several
years ago, contributes the remaining OBJ
jects of the exhibition-about two-thirds of
the cases. and in these is illustrated the
earliest history Of japanese armor. In one
case are specimens Of the Fujiwara period
Seventh to eleventh centuries), which in
spite OF their outward unattractiveness are
among the rarest objects in museums
these, indeed, are possibly the first which
have passed out of Japan; they include he'll
NETS and bits of armor from sepulchres, a
huge shoulder guard eleventh century, OF
boiled leather scales bound by cotton
thongs and decorated curiosly with copper
ornaments and gilded leather of Indian
origin, also unique curiass (haramakD Of
boiled leather plates, fish scale in pattern.
There Is also fragment of a shoulder
guard or the Japanese hero, Hachman
Taro from a Shinto shrine near Sendaf.
The next historical period. that Of the Taira
and Mtnamoto wars, twelfth to fourteenth
centuries, is represented in two cases. One
contains complete war panoply Of an
oncer who may have served in the battles
OF the Mongol invasion of Japan in 1881.
NO other complete suit of this period is
known to have been preserved. 1t is, more
over, the work Of the famous family of
armorers. Miochin, whose generate of
craftsmen are recorded from the eleventh
century down to the present day. This suit
Is black-lacQuered iron fastened with
white bands of deer skin; it's various parts
are signed by Miochin Munechika fifth
generation) and dated with the equivalent
or our 1872. A further interesting feature
OF this suit Is that the bowl (hachD Of the
helmet Is the work Of the Miochin of the
first generation, for it was the custom Of
the Japanese to set great store by an an
cestral helmet and to have 1t remounted In
the new harness. OF this period is a he'll
met Of the second generation of Miochin
and a corselet (domaru).
The Ashikaga Period
The Ashikaga period, fourteenth to seven
teenth centuries. is also rarely represented
in collections; DIR. Dean, however, Illus
trates the work in half dozen cases. In
one Of these Is the complete armor attrib-
uted to a prince Of Sakai, in flame-color
(hiodoshD and gold. an excellent example
Of the highest grade of the period-the
color, 1t may be remarked, was at that
time confined to the five great families"
of Japan. In another case an extraordi-
nary helmet covered with long white
horsehair and furnished with a beaked
mask is a historical piece; it was designed
for the general Taketa Shingen during the
late sixteenth century, and was intended
to represent mountain god tengu). In
neighboring case are shown the various
thanks to which the warrior intended to
terrtfy or, by suggesting childhood or old
age mislead his enemies
OF the first class are the ghost, the mon.
key. the demon and the mailman masks;
Of the second class, the old woman the
child, the old-man mask. OF the rare forms
here shown is a foreign barbarian mask
which gives us a rather unvarnished jap
anese impression Of the European trader
at Nagasaki. Interesting also in this con-
nection are three European helmets which
DR.. Dean secured from Japanese collectors
they have received native mountings, and
were probably traded through Nagasaki
In the remaining cases are the various
forms Of japanese armor, chain mail. fore
head helmets. siege breastplates, brigand-
ines, gauntlets, horse armors and an in
teresting example of the repousse work for
which the late generations Of the Miochtn
family were famous