Storeroom Stories: Japanese Armor

PAST EXHIBIT

In 2013, Museum staff discovered this suit of Japanese Samurai armor locked in a travel trunk within The Charleston Museum’s material culture collection. Very little is known how it got there or why.

With origins in the fourth century, Japanese armor has undergone significant changes in construction, style and function. This lamellar armor, so-called because it is formed with individual lacquered leather plates (referred to as lamellae), are fastened together to form sturdy, yet flexible defenses for the arms, legs. Though the earliest known examples of Japanese armor are of this construction, Lamellar armor became most popular between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Including the full breastplate, helmet and facemask a full suit of this type consisted of more than twenty-three pieces.