A Samurai Archer’s Glove (Mitsugake) 三つ弽

Period: Edo Period / 1603 - 1868

Origin: Japan

Medium: Leather, Cloth

Dimension: 25 cm (9⁷/₈ inches)

Provenance: Ex Private collection

Literature: note: For a Japanese table scroll, detailing a very similar glove, lying next to a bow see: (photograph) by Yoshizo Shibahara, from a private collection.

A rare survival, we are fortunate to have an ink inscription inside the glove allowing us to date the glove to 1683  寿永二年, together with the workshop where it was made: 〇武具店, O-armor. Kyūdō or ‘Kyūjutsu’ (the name used prior to 1919) was the martial art of archery within the ‘Samurai’ class of feudal Japan. The first ‘asymmetrical’ longbow recorded in Japan dates to the Yayoi period (circa 500 BC to 300 AD).