Samurai Dog Armor

Pink Tentacle reports:

This suit of dog armor — identified by antique Japanese armor dealer Toraba.Com as the only known and certified authentic example of its kind — is believed to have been created for the pet of a wealthy, high-ranking and presumably eccentric samurai or daimyo (feudal lord) in the mid to late Edo period (mid-18th to mid-19th century).

Spencer Burns at Yachigusa Ryu wonders why this innovation didn’t occur during the fifth Tokugawa shogunate, when Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) "prohibited the harming of dogs and ordered the establishment of dog kennels, [thus earning] the nickname of ‘dog shogun.’"