Ranting and Ravings
Ranting and Ravings
Why didn’t the samurai use shields?
Friday, November 20, 2015
This blog is actually in response to a question from someone I owe a favor to. He asked why shields weren't used by the samurai. The response requires a bit more than a simple note, and after working on it for a while I thought I could share it to help others like my friend.
One thing everyone needs to realize is that some words don't translate exactly between Japanese and English. There is a word in Japanese called "tate" that many sources translate as "shield." But it really means something portable that can be hid behind for protection of things like arrows. In English, tate covers not just what we would call shields, but also items that you can set up for archers to hide behind but can't be on the arm when you fight. When most Japanese talk about tate, they are referring to something that looks like a door with a folding leg to help prop it up. These were used way back when the samurai were mainly skirmishers and fought in small numbers. By the time the massive battles of the 15th century started they had really fallen out of favor due to their lack of mobility.
In ancient Roman times and others, infantry would stand in a line with their shields out so that everyone was covered and had only small gaps which their weapons would stuck through. This was called a shield wall and sometimes more specific terms such as phalanx. Well, the Japanese didn't have shield walls. They didn't use shields. They might line up the tate in a temporary camp to make a solid wall, but only the archers really could use tate. They also would hang tate from ships to help convert them for naval warfare. The naval battles documented in the 12th century and later against the Mongol invasion didn't have ready made ships for combat. Instead they took regular boats and converted them. Throwing tate on the sides took care of the fact that the civilian ships weren't meant for protection. This was called a kaidate.
Early on in Japanese history, the Japanese did use shields. This was the time that predates a written language in Japan, or even armor. Shields that went on the arms survived to the age of the sakibito, when peasants were conscripted and sent off to guard Japan against a feared invasion from the mainland.
So what happened? Why drop the shield by the time what we know as the samurai class emerged?
Well, it comes down to armor.
Obviously not all armor is the same. Much of the early armor could stop swords and other cutting instruments, but moved. That is important. Chain mail never really took off in Japan, but it was some of the first types used in the west. Sometimes rings would just be sown onto jackets directly and this did a pretty damn good job at stopping a sword from cutting through. Sometimes small plates would also be sown onto something for the same purpose.
The problem was, you could not get through these coats I am talking about, but baseball bats don't go through your jacket if you get hit by one. Impact still goes through. After several hits with a sword while wearing a coat of mail, it would feel like a gang of thugs went over you with clubs. Heavy padded clothing under the chain mail could help, but even better was a shield that could stop the swords instead of the armor.
Sewing plates helped more. It dissipated the blow over a larger area. Take a board large enough to stand on and place it on some mud. Stand on it and you will not sink too deep into the mud. Now use a pole in the same patch of mud and mount it like a pogo stick. The end will sink very deep into the mud indeed. So if a sword hit a small plate of armor it would spread the impact over a larger area and not concentrated on an edge.
Japanese had a solid breastplate from very early on. They called it a tanka. They have found them in burial mounds and represented in clay figures. They were bulky and it must have been like trying to fight in a trash can. But when you hit it with a sword, it might knock the other guy back, but his ribs were much more likely to be in one piece.
When the samurai rose as a class, they built their armor to be solid. Technically their early type of armor could be called lamellar, which is small plates joined together. But while in the west this meant fairly supple armor that could have gaps between plates, the Japanese version was solid. The plates were overlapped and made solid by use of bindings. There were no gaps between plates and no give to them. Again, early armor called the O-yoroi was rather bulky but solid. The plates were backed onto something else, and sometimes even covered with lacquer, not only to help make everything solid but also to keep out moisture and prevent rust.
This type of armor made it even to the foot soldiers.
When the Normans invaded England in 1066 they were mainly relying on chain mail with a large shield for protection. At the same time, the Japanese warriors were using solid armor that was much superior to the European version.
The upside was that the shield wasn't needed as much. Taking a look at european armor, when solid plate armor was developed, the shield started to be dropped and the knights started using a sword that took both hands to wield. In short, Europe followed Japan.
Take a look at the progress of armor in the west. First we see images of knights in chain mail fighting with huge shields in 1066 at the battle of Hastings. A few centuries later, a crusader is still mainly covered with chain mail, but he has attached small plates and his shield is smaller. Last we have a knight completely covered solid plate and instead of a shield he has a sword he can use with two hands.
The Japanese lucked onto a way to make their armor solid much earlier than the Europeans and thus were able to drop the shield in favor of their katana which was used with two hands.
It really is just that simple.
(More photos below- trying not to cover up the text.)
If you want to understand older martial arts, you need to know a bit about older ways of war.