I sit by the brazier
and I watch how it gets wet under the rain
there is a prince on the street …
Issa
Armor and weapons of the samurai of Japan. The plates of Japanese armor were usually dyed in different colors using organic pigments. For example, they blackened them with ordinary soot; cinnabar gave a bright red color; brown was obtained by mixing red with black. It was the dark brown color of varnish that was especially popular in Japan, which was associated with the custom of drinking tea, and also the fashion for everything old. In this case, this color gave the impression of a metal surface, rusty with old age, although the rust itself was not there. At the same time, the imagination of the masters was boundless: one added finely chopped straw to the varnish, another poured powder of baked clay, and someone - crushed corals. "Golden lacquer" was obtained by adding gold dust to it or by covering items with thin sheet gold. The color red was also very popular, since it was considered the color of war, moreover, blood was not so visible on such armor close up, but from a distance they made a frightening impression on the enemy. It seemed that the people in them were splattered with blood from head to toe. Not only finishing the armor with varnish, but even the varnish itself was very expensive. The fact is that the sap of the lacquer tree is collected only from June to October, and since it stands out best late at night, its collectors do not have to sleep at this time. Moreover, for a whole season, which lasts six months, one tree gives only one cup of juice! The process of coating finished products with this varnish is also complicated. The reason is that Japanese urushi varnish cannot be dried, as is usually done, but must be kept in the fresh air, but always in the shade and damp. Therefore, the varnishing of large batches of varnish products is sometimes carried out in an earthen pit, arranged so that water flows down its walls, and from above it is covered with palm leaves. That is, such a production required a lot of knowledge, experience and patience, but on the other hand, the resistance of the varnish to the effects of the Japanese climate and mechanical damage was really exceptional. The sheaths of swords and metal and leather plates of armor, the surface of helmets and face masks, greaves and stirrups were covered with varnish, so it is not surprising that just one armor needed varnish from several trees, which is why its cost was very, very high !
Box perfection
In the previous material, it was said that already at the beginning of the 10th century, the o-yoroi, or "large armor", became the classic armor of the samurai, which differed from the later keiko armor in that it was one large detail that wrapped around the warrior's torso and covered him chest, left side and back, but on the right side it was necessary to put on a separate waidate plate. The cuirass sh-yoroi was called before and consisted of several rows of nakagawa plates. On the upper part of the munaita cuirass, there were fastenings for the shoulder straps of the watagami, which had a thick lining, while on their shoulders they had upright shojino-ita plates that did not allow the sword to strike the warrior's neck from the side.
The plates on the breast of the cuirass were covered with dressed leather, which was associated with the practice of Japanese archery. The shooter stood with his left side to the enemy and pulled the string to his right shoulder. So, so that when fired, the bowstring did not touch the edges of the cuirass plates, they were covered with smoothly dressed leather. The armpits in front were protected by plates fixed on cords: the sandan-no-ita, also made of plates, was on the right, and the narrow, one-piece forged kyubi-no-ita plate was on the left. The trapezoidal kusazuri, which also consisted of lacing plates, served as protection for the lower body and thighs. A carapace collar for armor was not invented by the o-yoroi, but the warrior's shoulders were covered with large rectangular o-sode shoulders, similar to large flexible shields. They held on to thick silk cords tied at the back in the form of a bow called agemaki. Interestingly, no matter what color the lacing of the armor itself, the o-sode cords and the agemaki bow were always only red.
Two arts: odoshi and kebiki
And Japanese armor also differed from European ones in that, firstly, the pattern of the lacing, and secondly, its density and the material of the cords did not play a utilitarian, but a very important role, and, moreover, were even special for the gun-makers art forms: the first is odoshi, the second is kebiki. And the point here was not just beauty. It was the color of the cords and the patterns of these cords on the armor that helped the samurai distinguish their own from others, even if the armor of the same color was on different sides. It is believed that distinguishing clans by color began even during the time of Emperor Seiwa (856-876), when the Fujiwara family chose light green, Taira chose purple, and Tachibana chose yellow, etc. The armor of the legendary Empress Dzingo had dark crimson lacing, for which they were called "armor of red embroidery."
As in many other countries of the world, the warriors of Japan preferred red to all others. But white was also popular among them - the color of mourning. It was usually used by those who wanted to show that they were looking for death in battle, or that their business was hopeless. Accordingly, the tightness of the weaving of the cords demonstrated the position of the warrior in his clan. Tight lacing, which almost completely covered the entire surface of the plates, was part of the armor of the nobility. And ordinary ashigaru infantrymen had the very minimum of cords on their armor.
Cords and colors
To connect the plates in Japanese armor, leather cords (gawa-odoshi) or silk (ito-odoshi) could be used. The simplest and at the same time popular was a dense weaving of cords of the same color - kebiki-odoshi. Interestingly, if the cords were leather, say, white, then they could be decorated with a small pattern of Japanese cherry blossoms - kozakura-odoshi. At the same time, the flowers themselves could be red, dark blue and even black, and the background, respectively, could be white, yellow or brown. Weaving with such cords gained particular popularity during the Heian period and at the beginning of the Kamakura period. However, the imagination of the Japanese craftsmen was by no means limited to such a simple one-color lacing, and over time they began to combine the colors of the cords. And for each such weaving, of course, its own name was immediately invented. So, if in one-color weaving one or two upper rows of plates were fastened with white cords, then such weaving was called kata-odoshi, and it was popular at the very beginning of the Muromachi period. The variant in which the cords of a different color came from the bottom was called kositori-odoshi; but if the color stripes in the armor alternated, this was already the weaving of dan odoshi, characteristic of the end of the same period.
Weaving from stripes of cords of different colors is called iro-iro-odoshi, also characteristic of the end of Muromachi. Iro-iro-odoshi, in which the color of each stripe was replaced in the middle by another, also had its own name - katami-gavari-odoshi. In the XII century. the complex weaving of susugo-odoshi spread, in which the uppermost strip was white, and the color of each new strip was darker than the previous one, starting from the second strip and down. Moreover, between the white stripe at the top and the rest with shades of the selected color, one strip of yellow weaving was placed. Sometimes the weaving looked like a chevron: saga-omodaka-odoshi (corner up) and omodoga-odoshi (corner down). The tsumadori-odoshi pattern had the appearance of a half corner and was especially popular in the late Kamakura period - early Muromachi period. And shikime-odoshi is a weaving in the form of a checkerboard.
And this is only a small part of the weaving options generated by the fantasy of the master armor. A very part of the lacing depicted the coat of arms - mon of the owner of the armor. For example, the swastika was on the o-sode of the northern Tsugaru clan. Well, such weaving as kamatsuma-dora-odoshi represented the original color pattern. But the pinnacle of the art of weaving, requiring special skill, was the weaving of fushinawa-me-odoshi. Its essence consisted in the use of leather cords embossed with blue paint, which, after being pulled through the holes, formed a complex colored pattern on the surface of the armor. This lacing was most popular during the Nambokucho era.
In theory, the pattern and colors of the lacing should have been repeated on all parts of the armor, including both the o-sode and the kusazuri. But there were armor d-maru and haramaki-do, on which the o-sode had one pattern, which was then repeated on the body, but the pattern on the kusazuri plates was different. This was usually the darkest color of the stripe on the do and o-sode cuirass. When describing lacing, terms such as ito and gawa (kava) often come across. They stand for flat silk cords and leather straps, respectively. Thus, the description of the cord consists of the name of the material and its color, which, for example, shiro-ito-odoshi is a white silk cord, and kuro-gawa-odoshi is a black leather strap.
The full name of Japanese armor was very complex and difficult for a European to remember, since it included the name of the color of the cords and the material from which they were made, the type of weaving used and the type of the armor itself. It turns out that the o-yoroi armor, in which red and blue silk cords alternate, will have a name: aka-kon ito dan-odoshi yoroi, while the color that was at the top was always called the first. A dô-maru with a red lacing with half a chevron would be called aka-tsumadori ito-odoshi do-maru, and a haramaki armor with black leather straps would be called kuro-gawa odoshi haramaki-do.
However, one should not think that the Japanese used only armor made of plates, both metal and leather. Known very original armor of the haramaki-do type, from the outside looked like it was made entirely of leather strips connected by cords.
Fusube-kawatsutsumi haramaki armor (covered with smoked leather). Consists of two torso plates, front and back, and a "skirt" of seven five-tiered kusazuri. Such armor was popular during the Sengoku period, the "period of wars", when the demand for them increased and it was necessary to hastily satisfy it. Here are the gunsmiths and came up with such armor. The fact is that under the skin there were also metal plates, but … very different, of different types and sizes, from different armor, collected from a pine forest. It is clear that no self-respecting samurai would wear such armor. He would have been laughed at. But … they were not visible under the skin! There is also one such armor in the Tokyo National Museum, which we will now see, both from the front and from the back.
