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Sorry, I’m a bit late, but have to mostly agree with Thomas in his judgement. The seller is manly specialized in swords and it’s a pending sale. Hence I like to refrain from a value assessment…

Looks not bad, what exactly do you like to know?

It would be difficult to get an independent opinion at the spot from an expert or collector. Some knowledgeable dealers are around but I guess best would be to contact the NKBKHK… Otherwise you can post some pictures here!

Impressive!

Hmm, classic approach is right side province/ place and left side maker. In this case supported by the last characters on each side, jū “住” and saku “作” (at least that’s what I think to read 💭). Let’s see what we can get for the “rest”…

Don’t forget Munich, Luc 😉

Hi Lukrez, on your example above, the dealer did not skimp on oil! Hence the shiny look. Sengoku period? Rather not… The there offered Ō-Yoroi seems quite recent, IMHO.

Play with the angle of the light. Maybe you can get a better shot?!

Hi and welcome Georg! To which of this sets you’re referring? A mix of old, new and badly “restored” parts on this page…

Tsuba is nice! Signed “美喬作” (Yoshitaka saku = made by Yoshitaka). Maybe Iwamoto lineage??

Probably “東廣斎寿光”…

“寛隨” maybe Hiroyuki + kao ?? Not sure about the reading…

Could 三田 refer to Sanda in Settsu?

The other side is a date, Shōwa Kanoetatsu = 1940

I see, thanks Moriyama San! The writing of Ogasawara (the famous family) is 小笠原 instead of 小河原. One of my dictionaries has the second also translated as Ogasawara, though. I was probably too superficial…

DanielM asked about a translation of the omote side in the first place (last Monday), I couldn’t make any sense of the first column as well and hoped someone chimes in. So it seems not so easy… For the name, I had suggested “Ogasawara”, but all three readings are possible!

There are still something on top… “石原義定作”??

There is a Masahide of the Nomura school, late Edo…

Seems to be an “attribution”?!

“正秀” (Masahide)?… first glance and only a gut feeling….

To get the ball rolling… Left column might be: “小河原維徳應需造之” (Ogasawara Masanori* ouju kore o tsukuru). Not sure about the reading of the name and the phrase “ouju”, but it means that this guy made it on demand, I guess. (* several readings possible) Let’s hear what others thinking! Addendum for the right column: ”比総蘓毎里長” as a suggestion…

Angus, it seems that the yoroi bitsu (storage box) suggests a date and that an Iwai craftsman was involved... In case of the date the first two kanji are strangely written. If pushed I would go for: “安政七申年三吉祥” (third month seventh year Ansei = 1860) Left side is hard to read for me, but could be: ”岩井ロ助” (Iwai ? suke) Maybe I’m totally off so no warranty for both guesses! However, I don’t know if it’s helpful at all, because we can’t be sure that the bitsu belongs to the armor…

Not necessarily, Russ!

Well back to the armor! I think we are talking about a "Tetsu sabiji nimai-dô gusoku" (russet iron two part-cuirass armor - simplifiyed naming!) with nunome-zogan adornment, might dating back to the latter half of the Edo period. The helmet is a so called "Hoshi-kabuto" (or Koboshi-kabuto)* of rather good quality. Unfortunately the provided pictures don't tell much about the whole. What I can say is that kote (sleeves) and suneate (shin guards) comming from a matching set, but it seems the haidate (apron) is missing. This is also true for the dô (cuirass) and the kabuto (helmet)*. In case of the Jingasa (bajo-jingasa = riding hat) and the ogi (fan), however, we can't be sure... Note, the dô is insofar interesting, that it was made to look like a rokumai-dô (six part cuirass)! A word about the mon (coat of arms) that makes the helmet and the cuirass "matching". The example below is very close and probably related at least to 3 families, namely: 島村氏, 河村氏 and 茅野氏. The names have several readings so I won't go deeper for the time being... * The helmet might be older. It would be nice to have some more pictures (front-, side-, back- and top-view) as also some shots from inside, if the liner (ukebari) allows it?!

Hi John, heard nothing from him since about a year or so...