Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Hoko (鉾) - Early Japanese Spears  A double edge Hoko spear, from  後三年合戦絵巻 The Hoko ( 鉾 ) also written with the character  矛 ,   is an old type of spear used in Japan from antiquity until the 14th century, when the most known Yari ( 槍 ) was introduced. I wanted to dedicated a short and brief article to this early spear due to its importance, since almost every polearms developed in Japan owes its origins to this weapon. The Hoko was probably derivative of early Chinese spear design which might have been introduced during the Yayoi period ( 弥生時代 ), although most of the survivals were found inside Kofun burials. These spears were initially made of bronze and later on, when Iron Age started in Japan, they were made of iron and steel as well. The differences between Hoko and Yari Now let's address the "elephant in the room" . Japanese language is somewhat hard to translate into other languages, and to make things even worse, there is a relevant flaw inside Ja...

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 ...