# Armor (Yoroi) of Ashikaga Takauji > Unknown armorer, Japan - Cuirass, skirt and waidate: early 14th century, before 1333. Associated helmet: mid-14th century, not original to the cuirass. Associated left shoulder guard (no longer displayed with the armor): mid-to-late 14th century, from a different original armor. > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/unknown-14th-century-japanese-armorer/yoroi-of-ashikaga-takauji/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-11 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unknown armorer, Japan - **Date:** Cuirass, skirt and waidate: early 14th century, before 1333. Associated helmet: mid-14th century, not original to the cuirass. Associated left shoulder guard (no longer displayed with the armor): mid-to-late 14th century, from a different original armor. - **Medium:** Iron, lacquer, leather, silk, gilt copper - **Dimensions:** Cuirass, skirt and waidate as mounted: H. 37 1/2 in. (95.3 cm); W. 22 in. (55.9 cm); Wt. 25 lb. 15 oz. (11.77 kg). Associated helmet: H. of bowl 6 1/16 in. (15.4 cm); L. of bowl 11 1/16 in. (28.1 cm); W. of bowl 10 5/16 in. (26.2 cm); W. of neck defense 24 1/4 in. (61.6 cm); Wt. 12 lb. 4 oz. (5.56 kg). - **Object type:** Arms and armour - **Period:** Japanese, late Kamakura period (helmet: Nanbokucho period) - **Current location:** The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gallery 377 - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A rare early fourteenth-century Japanese yoroi, one of fewer than forty complete examples known to survive, given to the Metropolitan Museum in 1914 by Bashford Dean, the zoologist who became the Museum's founding curator of Arms and Armor and the leading American authority of his generation on Japanese armor. Shrine tradition holds that it was donated by the shogun Ashikaga Takauji to the Shinomura Hachimangu near Kyoto in 1333, on his way to the campaign that would eventually make him ruler of Japan.The object the Museum shows today is not, however, one continuous fourteenth-century survival. Research by the Museum's own curator Morihiro Ogawa, published in 1989, used Dean's original 1905 photographs, his purchase receipt and a set of early nineteenth-century drawings rediscovered in the Imperial Library in Tokyo to establish that the helmet long mounted with the armor, and at least one of the two shoulder guards recorded with it at the time of Dean's purchase, are themselves genuine armor of the right period, but do not belong to this suit. They were married to the cuirass at an unrecorded date before 1905. Dean's own dealer receipt already distinguishes the two shoulder guards as unmatched items rather than a pair, showing that the composite condition was known, if not fully understood, from the moment of purchase.This record treats the cuirass, skirt and waidate as the documented early fourteenth-century core of the object, and grades every other component, and the Takauji attribution itself, according to what has actually been established rather than what has long been displayed. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **early 14th century** Made for an unrecorded original owner `[documented]` (origin) Cuirass, skirt and waidate identified as a shiroito tsumadori odoshi yoroi of the early fourteenth century on construction and lacing evidence (lamellar kozane construction, closure type, and the surviving original silk lacing pattern), not on any inscription. See the technical block for the specific evidence. - **1333 (tradition)** Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), traditionally `[disputed]` (traditional donation to the Shinomura Hachimangu shrine) Shrine and family tradition holds that Takauji donated the armor to the Shinomura Hachimangu, near Kameoka west of Kyoto, during a ten-day stay before his March 1333 campaign against Kamakura forces. The attribution to Takauji by name was first published by the scholar Yamagami Hatiro in 1928; no contemporary fourteenth-century document or inscription names him as donor. Some secondary sources instead give a date of about 1336, apparently conflating this episode with the later Battle of Minatogawa; the Museum's own published research specifies March 1333. - **1333 (tradition)-unknown** Shinomura Hachimangu shrine, Kameoka `[unknown]` (traditional shrine custody) The armor is said to have remained enshrined for over 570 years, but no specific intermediate record locates it within the shrine year by year across this span; continuous custody is asserted by tradition and by modern secondary accounts, not documented at intervals. - **by ca. 1800** Matsui Kyosaku, physician and shrine patron, Kameyama `[documented]` (removed from the shrine and kept at the owner's home) A set of ink drawings made in the studio of Matsuoka Tokekata or his son Matsuoka Yukiyoshi (1794-1848), rediscovered by Ogawa in the Imperial Library, Tokyo, is the earliest surviving record of the armor. The drawings show the cuirass, skirt, waidate and the same mismatched helmet already mounted together, and record Matsui Kyosaku as owner at that date, apparently keeping the shrine's armor at his home for safekeeping, a documented practice for valuable shrine property. - **by ca. 1800-1902** The Matsui family, Kameoka `[unknown]` (family descent; ownership eventually forgotten) Ogawa: 'With the passage of time, the ownership of the armor seems to have been forgotten, as is evident from its sale by members of a later generation of the Matsui family.' No specific intermediate family owner between Matsui Kyosaku and the 1902 sale is named in the sources consulted. - **1902-1905** Ide Zenbei, proprietor of the Jidaiya antiques firm, Shijo Street, Kyoto `[documented]` (purchase from the Matsui family and resale on the Kyoto art market) On the market the armor drew competing bids from leading Japanese collectors of the day, among them Baron Mitsui, Professor Seki Yasunosuke and the collector Kobori Tomoto, before Bashford Dean prevailed. - **unknown-by 1905** Unrecorded `[disputed]` (composite assembly: a non-matching mid-fourteenth-century helmet and two non-matching shoulder guards mounted with the cuirass; the skirt separated from the body and reattached backward, then corrected with new lacing and one replacement plate from a different armor) Established by Ogawa's 1989 comparison of Dean's 1905 photographs, Dean's dealer receipt and physical examination of the armor and the surviving left shoulder guard. Dean's own 1905 purchase receipt itemizes the two shoulder guards as 'two things' (ni-mai) rather than a matched pair (isso), showing the composite condition was apparent, if not understood, at the point of sale. The date, location and responsible party for the original marriage of the mismatched parts is not recorded. - **1905-07-19-1914** Bashford Dean (1867-1928) `[documented]` (purchase) Dean's dealer receipt, preserved in the archives of the Museum's Department of Arms and Armor, records the purchase on July 19, 1905, for 1,200 yen, then equivalent to roughly six hundred dollars and, per Ogawa, a record price for an armor sold in Japan at that date. - **1914-present** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (gift) Accessioned as 14.100.121a-e (helmet, a; cuirass, skirt and waidate, b-e), part of Dean's second, larger donated collection of Japanese arms and armor. On permanent view in the Arms and Armor galleries as of the sources consulted. ## Open questions - Is there any independent corroboration of the 1333 shrine-donation tradition beyond the Matsui family's account, the circa 1800 Matsuoka drawings, and Yamagami Hatiro's 1928 published attribution? No contemporary fourteenth-century document naming Takauji as donor has been cited in any source consulted for this record. - When, and by whom, were the mismatched helmet and the two non-matching shoulder guards first assembled with the cuirass: during the armor's time at the Shinomura Hachimangu, during the Matsui family's custody after about 1800, or on the Kyoto art market between the 1902 sale to Ide Zenbei and Dean's 1905 purchase? - What became of the true original helmet, presumably a hoshi kabuto, that would properly have accompanied a yoroi of this type and quality? No source consulted identifies a surviving candidate. - Where is the deaccessioned right shoulder guard now, if it survives? It was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on November 15, 1956, lot 198, and has not been traced in any source used for this record. - Does the circa 1336 date given for the armor in some secondary sources reflect a documented second tradition, or a conflation of Takauji's 1333 shrine visit with his later victory at the Battle of Minatogawa? The Museum's own published research (Ogawa, 1989) specifies March 1333. - Was the circa 1800 Imperial Library drawing made by Matsuoka Tokekata or by his son Matsuoka Yukiyoshi (1794-1848)? Ogawa's 1989 study could not settle the question from the drawings alone; a firm date for the drawings would tighten the window in which the mismatched helmet was already associated with the armor. ## Sources - [1] Morihiro Ogawa, "A Famous Fourteenth-Century Japanese Armor," The Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 24 (1989), pp. 75-83. - [2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Armor (Yoroi) of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358)," collection entry, object number 14.100.121b-e. - [3] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Helmet of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358)," collection entry, object number 14.100.121a. - [4] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Armor (Yoroi) of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358)," combined collection entry, object number 14.100.121a-e. - [5] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Shoulder Guard (O-Sode)," collection entry, object number 14.100.50. - [6] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Armor (Yoroi)," collection entry, object number 28.60.1a-s, Fletcher Fund, 1928. - [7] The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API, object records for 22506, 27272, 35694, 22471, 23025, 22505 and 22498 (accession numbers, credit lines, dimensions, public-domain status). - [8] Markus Sesko, "The Ashikaga Takauji Armor," markussesko.com, February 7, 2019. - [9] Donald J. La Rocca, "A Look at the Life of Bashford Dean," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perspectives, March 4, 2014. - [10] Donald J. La Rocca, "Bashford Dean and Japanese Arms and Armor," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perspectives, April 8, 2014. - [11] Stuart W. Pyhrr, "Of Arms and Men: Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan, 1912-2012," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 70, no. 1 (2012). - [12] Wikimedia Commons, file description and licensing pages for the CC0-licensed Metropolitan Museum photographs used in this record (extmetadata LicenseShortName verified per file). - [13] Wikipedia, "O-yoroi Armor of Ashikaga Takauji." Tertiary source, consulted for the circa-1336 date discrepancy and general orientation; flagged for replacement with Japanese-language primary literature (Yamagami 1928, Yamagishi 1974-75) by a specialist reader. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. 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