A honkozane do-maru gusoku [armour] | The kabuto signed Yamato no Kami Nagakuni saku (made by Nagakuni from Yamaoto Province) | Edo period, 17th - 18th century

VAT reduced rateUK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Lot Closed

November 2, 02:28 PM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 80,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from an American Collector

A honkozane do-maru gusoku [armour]

The kabuto signed Yamato no kami Nagakuni saku (made by Yamato no kami Nagakuni)

Edo period, 17^th - 18^th century

the thirty-two plate iron bowl with standing rivets, rising into a five-tiered copper-gilt tehen kanamono of chrysanthemum form, the lacquered iron mabisashi [peak] with three copper-gilt rivets and fukurin, the fukugaeshi [turnbacks] applied with silvered uchiwa mon [fan-shaped crests], the black lacquer and gilt-leather shikoro [neck guard] of five-tiers with spaced lacing in dark blue braid, gilt kuwagata pierced with boar's eye openings (inome-bori), the kuwagata-dai intricately carved, chased and engraved with chrysanthemums, scrolling foliage and further boar's eye openings, 20^th century maedate [forecrest] in the form of a ho-o bird, the Iwai school yasurime mempo russet iron with detachable nose plate, yak bristle moustache and chin tuft, the open mouth with gilded teeth, red lacquer interior, three-tier yodaregake [throat protector], with two-tiered nodawa [throat guard], the iron [cuirass] of do-maru form composed of honkozane [true lamellae], all laced with kebeki odoshi [close-laced] in dark blue braid, the broad osode [large shoulder guards] of six tiers, chainmail kote [sleeves], the tekko [guantlets] applied with mon, seven tassets of five-tiered kusazuri [skirt], shino suneate [shin guards], with an armour storage box

Please note that the wood armour display stand is not included in this lot. An armour stand can be ordered from the department.

The Estate of Ivan Morris (1925-1976).

H. Paul Varley, Ivan and Nobuko Morris, The Samurai, (London, 1970), frontispiece.

Author, translator and dedicated scholar in the field of Japanese Studies, Ivan Ira Esme Morris (1925-1976) was born in London in 1925. His mother was the Swedish writer and political activist Edita Morris (1902-1988) and his father the American journalist Ira Victor Morris (1903-1972). Spending his primary education at Gordonstoun, Morris then graduated from Phillips Academy before studying Japanese language and culture at Harvard University where he received his Bachelor of Arts. Returning to the United Kingdom, he received a doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Morris wrote widely on both ancient and modern Japan, translating numerous classical and contemporary literary works. During the Second World War, Morris was one of the first interpreters sent to Hiroshima after the atomic bombings in 1945. From 1960 to 1973, Morris served on the faculty of Columbia University, chairing its Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures between 1966 to 1969. In 1966 he was elected a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. He was one of the founders of Amnesty International USA and was the first chair of its board of directors from 1973 to 1976, following in his mother's activism. He was a friend of the Japanese author Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) and wrote The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan in 1975, partly to situate the circumstances surrounding Mishima's death its proper historical context.