Abstract
This study is about the armors that high navy officers of Joseon wore during the period of Japanese invasion of Korea(1592~1598). The kinds of armors that these officers wore during this period are Sueungap, cheolgap, pigap, jigap and myeongap. Sueungap, cheolgap, pigap are all described in literatures, which were released in that period and the early Joseon period. According to publications that were released during that period, Yuyeopgap was a type of an iron armor. Armors that are recorded in only literatures published in the early Joseon period include swaejagap, gyeongbeongap, dujeonggap, hwangdongdujeonggap and dudumigap. Myeongap is found only in publications that were made in the above war time. The styles of armors are largely classified into chalgap and dujeonggap. The chalgap-styled armors used gapchal as their main component. Dujeonggap-styled armors used fabrics and dujeong. The names and the manufacturing methods of the gapchal did not changed since its creation in the early Joseon period until the above wartime. But, their shapes were considerably changed between the two times. This is clearly shown in armors that were found in the moat of the Dongrae-eup fortress. Dujeonggap-styled armors that were used during the period of the Japan-Korea war were a successor to those of dujeonggap-styled armors of the early Joseon period. But the former armors were different from the latter in that they had no gapchal inside. They are well represented by Jeong Chung Sin's armor.
