Horo (母衣) - Samurai Cape

Horo (母衣) - Samurai Cape

A detail from "一の谷合戦図屏風" where Kumagai Naozane is depicted  wearing an Horo on horseback.

The Horo (母衣), also written with the characters 袰, 幌 and 保呂, is a type of Japanese cape associated to the Samurai class.

It is quite unique as a form of cape and it was worn by the Japanese mounted warriors on the battlefield of the Heian and Kamakura period.

It was a mantle-like gear worn on top of the O'yoroi when on horseback. When riding, it was flapping or if tied to the hips, it blew up like a sail and it is assumed that it was worn for threatening the enemy and to enhance the majestic appearance of a mounted warrior.

An horo fixed on the back of the armor, from 軍用記 7巻. [3] You can see how the cords were fixed on top of the shoulder area and on the hips.

However, when not being inflated by the wind, the Horo was hanging down in an unsightly manner and so a framework of bamboo or whalebone, the Horo-bone (母衣骨 or 幌骨) was introduced around the 13th/14th century to hold the cloth in its inflated position; as the Horo worn with a Horo-bone had to be larger in size than an ordinary Horo, it was called Ou-horo (大母衣), but normal sized Horo were worn too with this frame.
The cape was fixed with a variable number of cords, from six to twelve.
In the old times, it is recorded that the upper and lower ends of the Horo were bordered with brocade and the centre had either bonji (梵字 - sanskrit characters ) or the name of the wearer.

The Horo-bone frame, a detail from 甲冑着用指南

A normal Horo was around 150 cm in width, and the bigger version was around 300 cm according to the "Aro kassen monogatari” (鴉鷺合戦物語); however it is unlikely that such a big cape was worn on the battlefield.
They came in different colors, which were chosen by the Samurai and although they might be weird from a western perspective, the Horo tell us how these warriors wanted to be recognized on the battlefield.
It is one of the first symbols of a culture that will be fully developed in the Kawari Kabuto; but that's a topic for another article.
To make it simple, the Samurai used a lot of weird looking regalia to be unique, from banners to exotic armors.

An example of a unfolded Horo, from 軍用記 7巻. [3] 

The Horo was also worn during the tumultuos Sengoku Jidai, however the days of mounted archers were ended by few centuries; it is assumed that the ones wearing the Horo were messengers and the cape was a device to be identified by the troops.
It was also worn by generals to highlight their high ranking position within the military hierarchy.

Myths and Misconceptions

If you are familiar with Samurai arms & armors you might already have heard about the "arrow proof" property of this capes; well, it is likely to be a myth.

I was into this myth too but then I realized how this is not properly logic.
The Horo was never meant or intended to be used against arrows; it might work when inflated: being made of silk, which is a resilient material, and whit the pressure of the wind, it could avoid penetration by arrows.
Mike Loads did some test within this context, but the Yumi they were using was probably an extremely low poundage bow, not a great analogy for a warbow.
However, armors are meant to stop arrows and other threats; a cape is just a cape, made for display and for show the warrior's position.

Regarding Samurai armors used in conjunction  with the Horo, here are some sketches made by me to show how the Horo wasn't needed to stop arrows from behind;

Here you can see on the left an O'yoroi type of armor (10th - 14th century) and on the right a Tosei Gusoku type of armor (16th century) from the rear, on horseback. Note how protective are the two configurations, especially the O'yoroi, where the two big Osode are fixed behind the wearer's back and cover the entire arm. An Horo won't add much protection in my opinion.

I've also read that the Horo was meant to be used as a flying tool, to allow its user to plane above his enemies when unhorsed... again this might work but I'm quite skeptical about this theory.

It is unclear where and when this myths were created, but the real problem is that we assumed that the Horo was used for the aforementioned purpose, even if we actually don't know the real function of this piece of gear.But it seems that even the successors of the early Samurai didn't have a neat idea of its proper usage:

Hope you liked this brief article about the Horo! Please feel free to share it and leave a comment below!

Gunbai