Nimai-Dō Gosuko Armor of Sakak­ibara Yasumasa Momoyama period, 17^th cen­tury Iron, lac­quer, and silk; H. of hel­met bowl: 5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm); H. of cuirass: 15 3/8 in. (39 cm) Tokyo National Museum Impor­tant Cul­tural Prop­erty On view Decem­ber 8–January 10

In view­ing images of the new exhi­bi­tion at The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art enti­tled, Art of the Samu­rai: Japan­ese Arms and Armor, 1156–1868, I could help but think of what is mis­tak­enly referred to as Shakudo or Shibuichi jew­elry, the Japan­ese style of work­ing in mixed-metals. In 1873, Emperor Meiji abol­ished the samurai’s right to be the only armed force, in favor of a more mod­ern, western-style con­scripted army, and thus began the decline of the cen­turies long samu­rai sys­tem. The excep­tion­ally skilled samu­rai sword– and met­al­smiths were hard-pressed to find a new mode of expres­sion, so crafts­men turned their focus to mak­ing jew­elry for the newly opened West­ern market.

These ear­rings are worked in sil­ver and gold, the black back­ground metal is pick­led iron, a very com­mon ele­ment in antique Japan­ese met­al­work. Although not present in the above exam­ple, other met­als, such as cop­per, were also com­monly used, adding rich­ness to the palette and over­all composition.