Samurai Dou

Samurai Dou is a type of a Japanese body armour similar to a European cuirass that was worn by samurai during the time of feudal Japan. Depending on the style of a particular samurai Dou, it could be a part of the O-Yoroi (samurai full armour). The Dou was the main and most visible component of the armour and it was quite often a part that identified a samurai, his rank, his power, and his belonging to a particular clan or a family. Samurai Dou, especially owned by retainers, were usually decorated with a large display of the owner's crest on the front. More powerful and high-ranked samurai usually had their identification attributes on their Kabuto (helmets), or even had their own personal standards.

Samurai Dou is generally consists of two main parts: the cuirass proper, and the Kusazuri (tassets), not counting various fittings or finishing details on the cuirass. A cuirass proper would consist of several connected plates or lames depending on the Dou style. The Kusazuri could have a varying number of tassets and there were both non-removable (when the Kusazuri was suspended directly from a Dou) and removable as well (when they hang from a small belt fixed to a Dou).

There're several types of samurai Dou; the types mainly differ in the number of sections in the armour, how it opens, and whether there are any hinges or not. The number of sections varied from one (for "Haraate") to as many as seven (for "Roku-Mai Dou") and if there was more than one section, they'd be connected by hinges. Samurai Dou could be opening either on the back, on the right, or on the left and right. The right opening armours were most common and popular especially for early armours; the back opening armours were introduced later and proved to be more convenient; and the both sides opening was used only for one type of samurai Dou – "Roku-Mai Dou" that was used for the "Ryo-Awase Dou" style.

There're a great many styles of samurai Dou with many styles being combinations of other styles or modified older styles. Just to list a few, we'll mention some more popular styles of samurai Dou here.

Dou Maru were scale armours with no hinges and opening on the right. They first were made around the 11th century and being more convenient and easy to wear eventually replaced O-Yoroi in actual battles. Haramaki Dou were the same scale construction armours as Dou Maru, but opening up at the back. Later, all armours opening at the back were called this. Tatami Dou were cheap armours used by low rank samurai and retainers; metal square or hexagonal plates were interconnected by mail and stitched down to a fabric backing. Tosei Dou was a term given to samurai Dou made in the late 16th century. These armours had rather a more delicate appearance. The last style we're going to mention here is Hotoke Dou – cuirasses that were smooth and showed no signs of lames.