Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

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