290 Chinese Clay Figures 



under this helmet. Below, on the same Plate, is illustrated the black- 

 varnished wooden chest in which the suit is stored, with a special 

 conical compartment for the casque. This arrangement is also in 

 imitation of a Chinese practice. Japanese plate armor has so frequently- 

 been described * that it is not necessary to dwell on this subject. What 

 is important for the purpose of our investigation is the fact that it does 

 not arise in Japan earlier than the first part of the ninth century ; 2 that 

 is, in the T'ang period, when it was perfectly known in China. It is 

 therefore certain that the idea has penetrated into Japan from China 

 and Korea, whatever subsequent developments, changes, and improve- 

 ments plate mail may have undergone in Japan. 



Armor composed of horizontal rows of small iron plates, presumably 

 of Chinese origin, seems to occur occasionally in Tibet. A specimen 

 recently presented by the Dalai Lama to the King of England is now 

 preserved in the British Museum. 3 



Looking backward at the remarkably wide distribution of plate 

 armor, we cannot fail to recognize in this fact a certain degree of histori- 

 cal coherence. This coherence, without any doubt, exists in the T'ang 

 period between Turkistan and China on the one hand, and between 

 China, Korea, and Japan on the other hand. But the T'ang epoch de- 

 notes only the culminating point in this development, — that period in 

 which we observe plate mail wrought to its greatest perfection. Metal 

 plate mail is a complex affair of difficult and refined technique, a down- 

 right product of higher civilization, which is witnessed by the fact that 

 it is conspicuously absent among all primitive cultures of Asia, Africa, 

 and ancient Europe. Certainly it did not come into existence all at 

 once as a finished product of industry. It ran through many experi- 

 mental stages, and took time to develop and to mature. The elegant 

 specimens of the T'ang, granting the muscles free motion and aiming at 

 aesthetic qualities, were preceded by those of coarser and cruder work- 

 manship ; as we see, for instance, in the Korean specimen on Plates XLI 

 and XLI I. There is a great deal of probability in the supposition that 

 such existed, both in China and among the Iranian and Turkish tribes of 



1 First by Ph. H. v. Siebold, Nippon, Vol. I, p. 333. 



2 J. Conder, The History of Japanese Costume {Transactions Asiatic Society of 

 Japan, Vol. IX, 1881, p. 256). According to this author, the employment of plates 

 and scales of iron in armor was finally established as late as the epoch TenshO (1573- 

 1592). See chiefly Bashford Dean, Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Japanese 

 Armor. 



3 It is figured on Plate III of the Ethnographical Guide published by the British 

 Museum. See also A. Stein, Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. xvi. Armor of small steel 

 plates riveted on red velvet appears also in Europe (see, for instance, Bashford 

 Dean, Catalogue of European Arms, p. 48), but this subject is not within the scope 

 of the present investigation. 



