Hi Everyone,

Here is my book review of a 118 years old woodblock print book on the colour and pattern of the Japanese yoroi.
The colour, pattern design and material of the lacing identified the clan and indicated the rank of the warrior. The colour and pattern design of lacing the plates together, odoshi was a system used for identification on the battlefield. There are many colour combination that identified the warriors from a distance.

Title: Colour and pattern of the Japanese YOROI Armour woodblock print book.
2 volume set 118 years old.
故実叢書尚古鎧色一覧 Kojitsu sosho Shoko gaishoku ichiran

Author: Honma Hyakuri

Editor: Kawasaki Chitora

Printer: Matsui

Date: Meiji 34 (1901)



Article reference on Sode armour plate:

https://jtex.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/sode-samurai-warrior-armour/


Cheers,

Felix





If you have problem with the video link, please click on the YouTube on lower right corner and set the settings to HD to view or click on the following video link:


Please click on vimeo and then four corner arrows icon to full screen format

Very interesting. Just a question of someone who wants to know- thesee colours, where they the colour of the armour plates, or of theropes that held the individual plates together. I am asking as some of them seem particularly busy (e.g. book 2 the first couple of pages with the flowers)

Seen only tiny slices of these prints before. So thought this would be a bit of a treat. Regrettably the thing won't play for me... perhaps
my computer is having 'a bit of a turn' or something. I'll try again in a bit.

Mike

The 'colours' are those of the silk lacing that held individual plates of laquered iron or ox hide together. Colours were strictly
governed by a bewildering set of conventions and superstition, and require a bit of research.... a sight of this book is invaluable.

Mike

Hi Mike (@fogie)
Thanks for the explanation. And I agree with your assessment re the book.

Wont play for me either

For those having a problem with playback, click on the title in the video (not the play arrow) and it will open on YouTube. Some videos have a disable on other sites option so that the content creators don't lose out on views and/or ad revenue. Also, an interesting bit of info, had no idea about any of this.

Kimmo

Well done that man... a 'techno-idiot' like me needs all the help he can get....thanks. (By the way, traditional Japanese colours were not
only restricted by many archaic rules, but were actually defined differently to those of the West - 'Green' for example was until relatively
recently classified as a sort of 'Blue'. So these book(s) really are no end helpful and Felix has really served us well here).

Mike

Great and interesting posting

I've been into (well, not literally) Japanese armour since I was about 15* when I first saw some at the Tower of London (now in Leeds I think?).

Felix and others have posted great reference material on all things Japanese arms etc, eg :
https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/more-samurai-references-wearing-o-yoroi-armor.118978/
https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/samurai-references.117984/

In addition, I've always found antique dealers sites invaluable, especially as they often show close up details, views from all angles and individual items.

And (believe it or not), there are two UK based Japanese armour restorers whose sites again offer much.
https://yoroi.uk/
http://katchushi.com/index.html

Dealers:
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/japanese-l18221/lot.1.html
http://www.yoroikabuto.com/samurai/
https://www.shogunart.com/
https://nihontoart.com/
https://www.giuseppepiva.com/en/opere/antique-samurai-armor
https://kurayaantiques.com/product-category/japanese-antique-collectibles/yoroi-samurai-armor
https://japaneseantiquestore.com/category/samurai-armour-yoroi/

Between them, the sites show the enormous range of styles available (albeit most of the more ornate are 17-19th cenrury Edo period parade armours).

*that's a lot of years

** I had many more but lost them all a month or so ago due to a cataclysmic IT failure

One of these days I'll finish my 1/12th scale scratchbuild mounted bod... started c 1968
Mainly DAS clay plus a few bits of plastic, fabrics, wood, my Mum's hair and, once upon a time, a metal katana and a yari with blades forged out of nails... all now in need of lots of TLC. It stalled when I attempted to do 1/12th scale laced plates



(I know the rear harness is totally wrong, it should be a sort of figure 8)

Hi Everyone,

Since there is problem with the YouTube link, I have added another video link and updated my thread.

Cheers,

Felix

excellent contribution, much appreciated !

A great resource for painting Samurai, thanks for posting it .

Gary

I've never been sure whether some of these multi-colour, complex lacing patterns were actually used in practice (most suits seem to be single colour or fairly basic patterns... what might help is a translation of the pages' text?).

Either way, I've just come across both volumes here:
http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/ke05/ke05_00230/ke05_00230_0001/ke05_00230_0001.html
http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/ke05/ke05_00230/ke05_00230_0002/ke05_00230_0002.html

Armourer, David Thatcher gives some insights into the silk braiding (odoshi-ito) here: https://yoroi.uk/katchushi-odoshi/

Other links under 'Home' on his site cover metal, leather and lacquer: https://yoroi.uk/

This is a good primer: https://myarmoury.com/feature_jpn_armour.html

I used to have a link (now lost) which covered making a yoroi armour which went into great detail about lacing etc (eg small wedges of paper where the braid enters each hole to form the perfect ^^^^^^^^^^ shapes)... it's quite an art in itself.

Out of interest, these two X-rays show how the individual laminate scales (kozane) fitted together. The first shows a mixture of leather and metal (probably where less protection was required) and the second all metal. The profusion of holes shows just how complex the lacing was. Scales were first laced and lacquered horizontally into solid strips, similar to European armour's lames; these were then laced vertically to form the larger pieces (later armours, especially during the great wars were made of solid metal lames and only had the vertical lacing).



This shows how Japanese armour works via a well known C18th print:

If you want to see some of the complexity of construction and artistry of Japanese armours, have a look at some of David Thatcher's restoration projects:

https://yoroi.uk/portfillo/