Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Manchira ( 満智羅 ) - Japanese Auxiliary Armor A section taken by the  島原の乱図屏風 showing a warrior wearing a manchira. Today I want to talk with a brief article of one of the most important, and yet overlooked, Japanese armor piece found on late Japanese armor usually referred as tōsei gusoku ( 当世具足 ). The manchira (which can also be written  満智羅, 満散,満乳羅 or 摩牟知羅 ) , also known as  manjūwa ( 饅頭輪 ), mantōwa ( 満頭輪 ) or kataōi ( 肩被 ) is essentially an armored vest that was used either as a standalone armor or as a form of chest protector to be worn under or over the main breastplate, the d ō ( 胴 ). A sketch made by me showing cuirass plus manchira configuration. For those who are familiar with European armor, this item functioned both as a form of arming doublets with integrated voiders or as a form of "mail" shirt. As I've written in my detailed analysis of  tōsei gusoku  ( 当世具足 ) armor, this piece of equipment was actually used to cover the g...

Tate & Tedate (盾 & 手盾) - Japanese Shields A samurai carrying a Tate type of shield converted into a Tedate and a Nagamaki, "   石山寺縁起絵巻 ", 13th century Japanese shields are a really interesting topic to study, and an highly misunderstood one, especially inside the "pop culture". It is in fact quite common to read or hear the comment that says "samurai didn't use shield as they were dishonorable" ; however the reality of things were far from this romantic statements. Since it's a long story to tell, to really understand the development and the usage of shields in Japan, I have to start back in the early history of the " Rising sun's " country. When we talk about shield is quite hard to fit them inside a category, since they function both as armor component and as a weapon; and although some type of shields could be really complicated, most of them are quite easy to produce and is not a surprise to see that shields we...

Kusari Gusoku (鎖具足) - Japanese Mail Armor A samurai deflecting arrows, wearing a typical Japanese Mail armor set (kusari katabira  -  鎖帷子  ) an ukiyo-e by T.Yoshitoshi ( 月岡 芳年 ) Japanese Mail armor, or Kusari Gusoku, is a quite complicated topic. Japanese armorers developed the highest number of mail combinations in the world, using different types of rings and patterns for defensive purpose, but also for decoration. In this article I'll try to give you a complete overview on the subject. HISTORY AND USAGE FROM HEAIN TO EDO PERIOD The use of this type of armor is rather " odd" . Although is possible that mail armor (commonly known as "chain mail": rings connected to each others which forms a dense wave similar to cloth ) was know and use since the early Heain period, we lack surviving examples. In the Heike monogatari ( 平家物語 ) we read the term " Kusari haramaki" ( 鎖腹巻 )  which roughly means "mail breastplates" and ...