Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to my Blog!

Even if this might not be necessary, I just wanted to give you few words about the name I've chosen; Gunbai. A Gunbai (軍配) is a military fan, used in the ages of Samurai to direct troops on the battlefield, the age which this blog is mostly related to.

I'm an "amateur major history buff", with a great interest for the Japanese Military History, especially everything regarding Arms&Armors, and this is basically my project: try to create a place in the web where enthusiast like me, members of the SCA community, historian, Hema people, anyone interested in reenacting or role playing and any kind of people who seek some good knowledge on the field could find  accurate sources for the military technology used in Japan (a.k.a Arms, Armors and other Gear/Equipment) in english.

 I'm still on my way with my Japanese so I could understand how frustrating this could be, so even if English is not my first language, this blog will be written in English.

 With the years I was able to collect information, talking with experts, reenactors, collectors, museum curator, restorer and to do some proper research on the field, an hobby I'm still doing now: I just wanted to share some informative sources, accessible through the internet. No other purpose, just give you some accurate depiction.


 I feel that this was necessary due to the crazy amount of misconceptions concerning the Samurai,their weaponry and their armors, not to mention tactics and other stuff too.
So here we are: the project even if might be a long trip, might end some day, when everything I wanted to say and share would be available to everyone.
Until then, I hope you could enjoy your time here.

Gunbai



             

Comments

  1. Calaphorn20 November 2017 at 16:20

    Hey I just found your blog. Cool work! I am hoping for more articels in the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gunsen History21 November 2017 at 11:10

      Thank you so much! I'm planning to write more and more in the near future!

      Delete
  2. Jon Wagner10 April 2020 at 19:21

    A suggestion: a friend of mine has a blog (Tetrapod Zoology) which he specifically designed so that he could take the articles out and assemble them into a book. I think you have a lot of good material here and a solid research ethic. Maybe you could do the same?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gunsen History14 April 2020 at 13:57

      Thanks for the suggestion! I will have a look, although I won't deny it my skills at coding here on blogger are extremely low quality. It might be interesting to recollect everything in the future!

      Delete
  3. Jon Wagner14 April 2020 at 21:10

    If you get around to any academic conferences, see if one of the publishers has a an editor around, and ask if they know what you can do now to make your blogs convertible into a book (things like getting the illustration credits together and assembling a running bibliography). You may find some interest. Anyway, I do hope you do this someday... the Internet may not be here forever, but we can read books from thousands of years ago, and all this work is precious and rare. I encourage you to be a responsible steward of the knowledge you have, and share it as widely as possible!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gunsen History19 April 2020 at 09:33

      Yes that would be amazing indeed!
      As a side note I actually have a copy of everything I write so if something will change the future, I will try to re-upload everything once again!

      Delete
  4. Unknown28 May 2021 at 07:21

    Excellent work great for martial war history facts great stuff

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4 August 2021 at 12:24

    Hey, as a historian, as a HEMA trainer and fighter, as fan of feudal Japanese culture and history, as a "Samurai fan", as a history teacher, as a martial artist... I would like to say: great job!
    You call yourself a "hobby historian", but you work in a very professional way. Your research work is great and the texts are written very well.
    I found a lot of interesting facts, ideas and thought-provoking impulses on these sites.

    Thanks for sharing your research efforts. Keep up the good work! And think about studying history... ;)

    Best regards

    M.G.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tate & Tedate (盾 & 手盾) - Japanese Shields

Image
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
Read more

Masakari (鉞) - The Samurai's War Axe

Image
Masakari (鉞) - The Samurai's War Axe Samurai holding a battle axe; detail from the  春日権現験記. 第８軸 Also know as Ono ( 斧 ) or as Fuetsu ( 斧鉞 ), this weapon is one of the less related within the "Samurai warfare" context. For many years inside the internet I've read a lot of stuffs about the fact that Samurai didn't use Axes in battle. If there is someone to blame, his name is Bashford Dean .  Although I do extremely respect the man for his pioneering approach inside the field of Samurai Arms & Armors in the late 19th and early 20th century, we can read in his first catalogue, "Catalogue of  the Loan Collection of Japanese Armor" dated 1905 from the "Metropolitan Museum of Art" one of the most "romantic" cliché associated within the Samurai warrior culture.                          Bashford Dean wearing Samurai Armor Quoting from the man itself, page 10 of the catalogue: " "In Japan, on the other hand, the a
Read more

Yumi (弓) - The Japanese Bow

Image
Wakyuu ( 和弓) - The Japanese Bow DISCLAIMER: Since the article is longer than the expectations, here is a little Index: - History : Different bows structure and composition from the Yayoi to the Edo Period - The asymmetry, length and draw techniques explained - Power and range : Draw weight estimation, maximum range recorded and other sources - Arrows and quivers : Arrows types and quivers types - Bow & Armour : Some estimations and accounts Have a nice reading!!                                                    A copy of the famous Mouko Shurai Ekotoba   蒙古襲来絵詞 History & Structure The Japanese Bow or Wakyuu ( 和弓 ) , also called Yumi ( 弓 ) , is one of the most interesting weapons used by the ancient Samurai warriors, but its history is even more older. Like in many countries, bows were tools for hunting before being weapons, and Japan was no exception. Stone arrowheads unearthed by archeologists suggest that bows and arrows have b
Read more

Sengoku Period Warfare: Part 1 - Army and Battle Formations

Image
Sengoku Period Warfare: Part 1 - Army and Formations A detail from   関ヶ原合戦屏風 , late 19th century. The Sengoku period ( 戦国時代 ) is generally speaking the most interesting, intense and famous period of Japanese history. We are all familiar with the classic picture of the Ashigaru arquebusiers formation, or with the fierce Samurai horseman wielding a spear and names like Oda Nobunaga or Takeda Shingen are among the most celebrated Samurai ever existed. So I decided to dedicate a series of article talking about the military history behind the most famous warlords and battles of this period. This one will be dedicated to the Army and the classic "Battle Formations" of the Sengoku Jidai . But first we need to clarify few things ; The Sengoku period is an awfully long period which roughly goes from the 1467 to the 1600 depending on the sources and the only red line connecting more than 100 years of history is that the various provinces of Japan were constantly at w
Read more

Tosei Gusoku (当世具足) - Body Coverage Explained

Image
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
Read more

Cagayan Battles of 1582: Debunking the Hoax

Image
Cagayan Battles of 1582: Debunking the Hoax  A picture taken from the Spanish comics "Las Espadas Del Fin Mundo" depicting the fictitious battle. Before starting to write anything about the Cagayan battle, I would like to make a premise: I'm not really a fan of the kind of debates you could find on the internet about hypothetical battles, deadliest warrior scenarios or something like that. Honestly, I find the entertainment value of such discussions healthy only when they are educated and based on logic, historical accuracy and knowledge of the topic people want to discuss. However , the average quality of these debates is usually extremely low : people make their arguments based on wrong pop culture stereotypes and " fanboyism", which turn the whole discussion very quickly into a toxic one, where people just insult each other. In my Blog here you will never find anything similar; this project was born with the purpose to create a place on the internet
Read more

Wantō (湾刀): Early Curved Japanese Swords

Image
Wantō (湾刀): Early Curved Japanese Swords A classic example of a curved warabitet ō, the most common style. If you have ever tried to approach the study of Japanese swords , you might have encountered the incredible amount of different theories and the huge (and occasionally hostile ) nomenclature that pervade such field. In order to make things clear and at the same time pay omage to this long tradition, today I'm going to talk about the  Wantō (湾刀), the first c urved Japanese swords . This specific name is an umbrella term used to refer to every Japanese curved swords, although in this s artilce I'm going to present the very first types of said family, namely the warabitet ō  ( 蕨手刀 )   which differs from the usual curved Japanese sword of the later periods and all the variations that sprung from this so iconic and yet forgotten Japanese swords. As a premise I would love to point out that this is definitely not my area of expertise, and it tooks several month t
Read more