As the conservation continued, more was discovered about who made the armour and how it might have been used.
History of samurai
Samurai were members of a powerful military caste that existed in Japan for more than a thousand years.
They began as warriors, like knights in Europe, employed to serve the interests of the lords of the land, and they followed high ideals of loyalty and sacrifice. Later, after a long period of civil war ending in the 1500s, they became powerful administrators and keepers of the peace.
To find out the age of Te Papa’s armour, Conservator Rose Evans sent photographs of the suit and its maker’s signature, or ‘mon’, to experts in Japan. From the mon - a small, engraved brass plaque on the body section - and textile patterns on the undergarments, they established the suit was made around 1735 by Muneyoshi of the House of Myouchin.
Though it would not have seen battle, the armour does give a good idea of how a samurai dressed for war. In peacetime, armour continued in use for show and ceremony and the evidence from this suit, such as perspiration marks inside the mask, tells us it was worn.
Samurai remained influential in the formation of modern Japan - even as the age of the samurai as romantic hero and ruling aristocrat was ending in the 1870s.
How samurai armour worked
Samurai armour hung from the body and was made to give way under blows, unlike European armour which was designed to fit the person and resist blows.
The lacquered leather sections of samurai armour were tough as well as flexible. The individual plates or ‘lamella’ were connected by chain mail, and the sections were tied by an arrangement of silk cords. This suit weighs just 10 kilograms, as opposed to 30 kilograms for a European steel suit.
The key to its strength is the lacquer. Made from the milky sap of trees from the Rhus family, it hardens by way of a complex internal chemical reaction so that it is polymerised like plastic - unlike European lacquer which is made from layers of plant resin. Japanese lacquer is very hard and durable, and resistant to water, acids, scratches, and heat.
At what cost
The preparation and application of the lacquer and the intricately designed and detailed construction work were enormously costly. Even in their heyday, most samurai could not afford a suit of armour.
In wartime, pieces of armour were often ‘recycled’ to patch and replace parts damaged after a battle. Some peasants even made a living by selling armour stripped from warriors lying dead in their fields.