One of the questions most often asked by people interested in the history of the military affairs of the samurai is why they did not use shields? That is, other peoples used it, but for some reason the Japanese did not. Meanwhile, the reason for this phenomenon is very interesting and far from unambiguous. The fact is that shields were used in Japan in the Middle Ages. But these were tate easel shields, similar to the Western European paveza shields used by infantry and crossbowmen. But they were heavy and large, and riders - and the samurai, first of all, were riders, could not be used. Well, imagine a rider who gallops at the enemy, holding in his left hand … a ten-kilogram wooden … door ?!
At a certain time, the main weapon of the Japanese ashigaru was the yari spears of such a frightening length, and the means of protection for archers and arquebusiers were the tate shields.
So tate was a means of protecting exclusively infantrymen and did not appear in the Japanese arsenal immediately. So, in the Yayoi era, the weapons of the Japanese were quite traditional - straight swords with a wedge-shaped blade, sharpened on one side - chokuto, spears, picks, similar to Chinese ones, and shields made of wood with the emblem of the Sun depicted on them with spirally curled rays.
But all this was the weapon of the infantry - let us emphasize this. When the horsemen came to the fore, and not just horsemen, but those who could fight in the mountainous and wooded Japanese terrain, where it is very difficult for the cavalry to fight, such weapons as the bow came to the fore. And an archer, of course, can use a shield, even a small one, like the Mongolian, Persian, Indian, but the fact is that the samurai archers were Buddhists. Therefore, they could not only eat meat, but also touch with their hands any falling, including skin and glue from hooves. As for the skin, it is clear that if it was impossible to make armor without it, they put up with its use, turned a blind eye to it. But here's the glue - without which it is impossible to make a powerful composite bow, what about it?
Japanese samurai with a long bow. Photo of the late 19th century.
The solution was found very simply - a composite bow was invented from bamboo plates, and its power, comparable to the Mongolian bow, was reached due to the size, which sometimes exceeded human growth! But since it was necessary to shoot from such a bow from a horse, special armor was also needed, which made it possible to conveniently use such an effective, but bulky weapon.
This is how the o-yoroi armor appeared, once again the Japanese magazine Armor Modeling undertook to tell about it, which, in addition to interesting text materials, placed on its pages equally interesting and detailed graphics. The picture shown here very clearly shows the genesis of this armor - from a typically Mongolian one with a characteristic helmet, to a helmet with lapels - a kabuto and a four-part o-yoroi.
Initially, it protected only the torso and head, and the shoulders were covered with flexible plate shoulders. Moreover, the strength of such armor and its protective properties were extremely high. The fact is that it was assembled from plates with holes, but this is how armor was assembled from different peoples. What new things have the Japanese brought to this process? Here's what: in their armor, o-yoroi used plates of three sizes (the same height), which had one, two and three rows of holes. Due to this, the rows of plates overlapped each other by more than half, that is, the protection was double. The third, narrowest plate was also laced along the edges, so that at the edges it had a triple thickness! Often, the armor itself was woven from three rows of plates - a technology that was not used anywhere except in Japan. This technology even had its own name: tatena-shi - "no shield needed" - that was the strong protection this connection provided.
Heian era samurai fully armed. On the left, arrows show the stages of development of the o-yoroi armor.
Which, again, is not surprising. After all, not only were metal plates covered with varnish, they were also often wrapped in varnished leather, as a result of which the armor was not only very durable, but also possessed certain internal shock-absorbing properties. The breastplate of the cuirass was also covered with leather tsurubashiri-do gawa. This was done so that when fired from a bow, the bowstring did not touch the plates, but easily glided over the dressed leather. But this was also a defense, so that an arrow that fell into the cuirass of such an archer most often did not penetrate it!
A samurai with a wakidate plate on his right side.
The armor was arranged in a very unusual way, such a design was never found anywhere else on the globe. The first, when putting on the o-yoroi, was to put on a separate part for the right side - wakidate, which was held by a cord tied around the belt. Another cord could have been slung over the shoulder, but not always. After that, the armored sleeve of the kote was put on on the left hand. Moreover, at first the hands had no protection at all, but then it appeared in the form of such a sleeve with metal plates coated with varnish sewn onto it, and later they began to make kote from chain mail sewn onto fabric.
On the right hand, protection was not provided for a long time and appeared already in the Nambokucho era. Kote had a slip on the wrist and loops for fingers, which did not allow him to "escape". Only after that it was possible to put on the rest of the armor, consisting of three parts: front, left side and back, back. The ties had to be tied on the right side, and so they held the upper wakidate plate. Fully reinforced on the samurai's body, the "armor" was a real box and was not flexible at all, since the connection on the cords was very tight. In fact, it was a shield, complemented by o-sode shoulder plates. This is why the samurai did not need shields at all.
Another thing is the ashigaru infantry, which the samurai began to use already in the XIV century. Infantrymen were both archers and spearmen, and - since the 16th century, arrows from the arquebus. And they just lacked the protection of the samurai, because, like knightly armor in Europe, they were just fabulously expensive!
Tate shield.
So what were the tate shields used by common Japanese foot soldiers? Usually these were two planks at least two fingers thick, knocked down with two rungs. A hinged support was attached at the back, thanks to which the tate was firmly fixed on the ground. After the appearance of firearms, some of the tate began to upholster the outside with a thin sheet of iron. It was a tradition to paint tate in the same way as paveses were painted in Europe. It was convenient to draw the emblems of the Japanese clans on their smooth surface, especially since these emblems themselves were sometimes very simple.
Shields were set up in rows on the battlefield, and archers and arquebusiers were hiding behind them. For the cavalry, this was an insurmountable obstacle, since the undersized Japanese horses could not jump over them. It was also difficult for the infantry to fight such a "fence", which is why among those who rushed to the attack of tate walls there were warriors with axes, kanabo clubs, and all kinds of spears with hooks to hook the tate over the edge and knock them down. so that a gap appears in the "wall".
The use of tate shields and incendiary arrows in the siege of Japanese castles.
It must be said that Japanese archers widely used various types of incendiary arrows, first of all, because they were able to unfold them and prepare them while under the cover of tate. They used both arrows, simply wrapped in tow soaked in some kind of oil, and real "rockets" with powder boosters in the form of bamboo pipe pieces stuffed with powder softness. There were two pipes. One with a hole in the back was used as a jet engine, while the other, with a hole facing forward, was ignited with a wick after the arrow hit the target and worked as a flamethrower.
Tate - from a stretcher for the wounded to an assault bridge!
Peepholes were often made in the shield for observation, so that because of the tate it was not even possible to stick out. It is interesting that these shields were used not only to protect against enemy fire, but also … as an assault ladder. On this day, crossbars were packed on the inside, then one or two shields knocked down between themselves were thrown over the moat, while another shield (as shown in the figure) was used instead of a ladder. Very small tate shields were also used, which were used not only by ashigaru, but also by samurai who rushed to attack. A very large and heavy shield in this case was inconvenient, but a small one - just right!
The use of tate in the assault and defense of fortresses.
Tate as prongs were installed on the walls of Japanese defensive structures, and of course, hiding behind them, the Japanese infantrymen went to the attack of the gate, approaching which they tried to lay a mine under them or cut them with axes.
An ashigaru soldier loaded with weapons and equipment.
