Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Kanabou (金棒) - The Samurai's Mace  A Kanasaibou wielded by a Sohei ( 僧兵 ) from  大和武者絵 Since I've received some request about this particular weapon, I've decided to write a detailed article about this iconic mace. The Kanabou ( 金棒 ) or Tetsubou ( 鉄棒 ) , better know as Kanasaibou ( 金砕棒 ) in Japanese, is a percussive weapon designed to counter armor . The name translated means "metal or iron staff". For the sake of simplicity in this blog I won't consider similar weapons like the aribo or kanemuchi as different ones since they are essentially Kanabou too. I've already talk why and when Japanese percussive weapons started to be   underrated in my previous article about war axes so I won't spent more lines talking about it; but maces in Japan were known and used  through out the feudal period, without being considered " lesser"  or  "dishonorable" tools. The Kanabou is a mace either made of hardwood like oak or

Iron and Steel Technology in Japanese Arms & Armors - Part 2:  Smelting Process Men using foot bellows to operate a Tatara furnace in the Japanese mountains, from  日本山海名物図会 5巻 . Note the box like shape and the big dimensions of the furnace in the background Last time I've covered in my "introduction" to Japanese Iron and steel technology the iron sources used at the beginning of this long journey to make arms and armors, with a perspective on quality and quantity , two features that are often misunderstood when people talks about Japanese traditional iron technology. If you haven't read it, I suggest you to do it before reading this article which is directly linked to the previous one: Iron and Steel Technology in Japanese Arms & Armors - Part 1: Iron Sources Before I start, here is a nice disclaimer I want to write again; I might have missed something here and there, and I might be wrong since I don't have neither the experience nor th