A Famous Fourteenth-Century Japanese Armor

Japanese arms in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Arms and Armor, which numbers about 6,000 pieces, is generally accepted as the finest outside Japan. Indeed, the collection is so rich that in some areas it surpasses that of the Tokyo National Museum. One object in the collection stands out from the rest: a rare armor of the yoroi type, which dates to the late Kamakura period of the early fourteenth century (Figures 1-3). According to tradition, the armor is said to have belonged to Takauji Ashikaga (1305-58),' founder of the Ashikaga shogunate.