A reproduction of a Japanese body armor do-gusoku from the late-16th century to the early-17th century by Sergey Gorbatko (Razmafzar Ukraine)
The armor is based on a historical example for this period with authentic proportions designed for a warrior with a height of 1.6 m. The cuirass is of the ni-mai dô type, specifically the hotoke-do style. It has a movable chest section of laminar plates. All steel plates are lacquered with matt black color. The abdomen and lumbar areas (nagagawa) are made of solid profiled plates, providing the main protective function for the torso. The chest area (tateage) consists of 3 laminar plates, and the back area (tateage) has 4 laminar plates. One plate (munaita) is added to them on the chest and back areas. The shoulder straps (watagami) are attached to them with the additional protection of cords and buttons in the form of leaves of a tree (gayo). The thickness of the steel plates of the cuirass is 1.2 mm. The plates of the cuirass are assembled into a single structure using dense yellow leather lacing (kebiki-odoshi) (the width of the leather cords is 12-13 mm, the thickness is 1-1.2 mm). To prevent sagging and stretching of the main rows of lacing, reinforced white leather cords(mimi-ito) are used in the outer rows of yellow lacing.
The inside of the cuirass is covered with leather for comfortable wearing and for protecting the clothes worn below the armor. The cuirass is closed and held in this position by means of buttons: two buttons on each side and one button is positioned on each shoulder strap. To protect the lower abdomen and thighs, a protective skirt (kusazuri) is attached to the lower part of the cuirass, which consists of a soft leather base covered with mail and a block of laminar plates. The protective skirt has 4 sections on the chest and back of the cuirass. Each section consists of 5 laminar steel plates of 1 mm thickness . They are connected by dense leather lacing (kebiki-odoshi,): red (cord width 13 mm, thickness 1 mm), and decorative rows of yellow lacing and white mimi-ito cords. The rings (inner diameter 7 mm, wire thickness 1.4 mm) have special thermal bluing for corrosion protection. The protection of each shoulder (sode) consists of an upper plate with a raising and a block of laminar steel plates (1.5 mm thickness). Laminar shoulder plates are technically and stylistically assembled together in the same way as the protective skirt (kusazuri). The shoulder protectors are attached to the cuirass using a pair of buttons.
You can contact Sergey at: gorbatkowerwolf@gmail.com
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