Yoroi Armor with Red-Leather Lacing

Yoroi Armor with Red-Leather Lacing

The rise of the samurai in the late Heian period gave way to a new era of military devoted class that would drastically change art and the way craftsmen would evolve their skills. The martial skills and daily life of the samurai, their governing lords, the daimyo, and the ruling shoguns would also be evoked through the stylized armor and weaponry that would be produced until the samurai were abolished in 1868. 

This particular early work is made from a tanned deerskin, dyed red to symbolize the intensity of the passion behind a warriors devotion to combat. All of the materials are closely related to nature and the spirit of the individual warrior.

Armor was normally preserved in temples to honor the deceased warriors who died honorably in battle, but some, such as this one, were passed down through a samurai's family as a token of their ancestors courage.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Heian period, 12th century