Oshu-Gusoku Samurai Armour Restoration

One of my clients purchased azunari kabuto from me. It later transpired that the wanted to source an armour to friction match. I happened to have it in storage and then nosotros decided to resurrect the entire armour to its one-time glory.

Piece of work Required

urushi, missing parts and impairment to all the silk cloth. Theodoshi was besides rotten. I had re-laced thekabuto in a dark blue colour, and so nosotros decided to carry this on with the armour. Themenpo was missing, but luckily I was able to source one that added value to the suit. My feeling is that when amenpo is added to an armour information technology becomes a focal point giving it a personality, therefore themenpo has to suit the armour. I completely stripped the armour separating all the metallic parts. There were some plates missing, one from thekote, some other from thehaidate and also some of the concatenation mail service. I made replacement plates, simply I used original chain mail from the spares I go along. Theire-ji silks would need complete replacement equally they had rotted. I sourced some vintage silk from Nihon that was a nighttime blue, and would really make a nice contrast between the lacquered plates. I as well had to remove all the flaking lacquer, consolidate the areas and rebuild them withkokuso and sabi-urushi.

yoroi 復元 restoration

Urushi, Tetsu Repair

The metal parts were lacquered in a special upshot calledtetsu-sabiji-nuri, this resembles a brown russet atomic number 26. I had to mix a lot ofbengaraurushi for the commission, this I exercise my hand using a special pigment. Mixing takes around 6hrs as the pigment has to be broken downwards, otherwise the larger particles volition sink to the bottom of the mixture resulting is a deviation in tone when applied, some plates would dry out darker than others. Once the new surface was applied I had to create a patina, I did this simply using different layers ofurushi. As the layers are slightly transparent I could create darker areas and alloy them in. At the final stage I dusted the tackyurushi to create a matt stop which resembles antique lacquer.