AN IRON SOMEN (FULL FACE MASK)

Myochin Munesuke (1642-c. 1735), whose name appears on the lot here, aggrandized his lineage with the Myochin rekidai zofuku, a list of supposed ancestors tracing back several centuries. The Myochin flourished, founding branch schools in the provinces. By the middle Edo period, the Myochin were confident enough to style themselves as”On katchu no kiwame-dokoro, Nippon yuitsu no katchu no ryoko,” or “official appraisers of armour, the best in Japan.” There were successive generations of skilled armourers using the name Munesuke, though the work attributed to the first of that line may be considered the finest.