Sode (shoulder plates)

There are o-sode, chu-sode, and ko-sode (large, medium, and small sized sode). Fasten them to the watakami or suspenders of the corselet by means of hooks, and fasten first the left one and then the right, in each case the back one before the front. Kosode and okisode (both small shoulder plates) are to defend the kotesuke (the place left unprotected between the upper end of the kote and the watakami) so that they must be worn in any case. Osode and chusode (large and medium sode respectively) are only worn by important officers.

Garbutt adds: The drawing shews the man putting them on accordingly, under the kohire (or epaulettes) a method which Sakakibara Kozan says is erroneous, and which is certainly not that of the early period, when the great Civil Wars raged.