Tosei Gusoku (当世具足) - Body Coverage Explained
Japanese Armor Body Coverage Explained Warriors of the Takeda Clan donning their armor, Utagawa Sadahide ( 歌川 貞秀 ) - 武田勇士揃 As I said before in a previous post, for any serious "Armor Enthusiast", there are some questions that suddenly come to mind when looking at a full harness. Last time I've covered the weight, today I wanted to focus on the " How much does it protect you?" question. Now, Japanese Armor is an huge topic ; to make this article "short enough", I will speak about some different configurations (the most protective ones - and thus the heaviest ) used to protect the warrior on the battlefield of the Sengoku Jidai. This analysis will cover the Tosei Gusoku ( 当世具足 ) type of armor, when it was fully developed, around the early/mid 16th century, and most of the time I will talk about the 25+ kg armor setup. I've decided to do this post using some anatomic sketches and armor sketches to illustrate how all the armor components ...