Samurai Armor

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Early Japanese samurai armors were just simple solid metal cuirasses built up of several sections of metal plates, firmly laced together with a sort of a lacquer covering for protection against the rust. This kind of samurai armor called Tanko (meaning "short armor") and could be dated back to the 6th century and even before. As the time passed, designs, materials, and components of the samurai armor were changing, getting its shape that we mostly know from the movies and other media nowadays at around the 13th through 16th century. On the left, you can see a picture of the traditional Japanese samurai armor called Yoroi or O-Yoroi ("Great Armor") and its components.

The head of a samurai was protected with two pieces of samurai armor – a Kabuto and a Mempo. The Kabuto was a full battle helm and the Mempo was a face mask and beside their main function to protect from attacks, they had another not less important purpose – to intimidate an enemy, which explains rather unfriendly expression on most of the Japanese face masks. The Kabuto almost always was decorated with a Maedate (insignia) that could show a whole lot of things about a particular samurai from his belonging to a clan or a family to his occupation and religion beliefs. At the later years when the wartime was over in Japan, the Kabuto was often replaced with the Jingasa (a war hat) that was worn without a mask.

The centrepiece of the samurai armor was a cuirass or a Dou; the Dou was usually made of segments connected with hinges and wrapped around the body with openings on the back or on either of the sides. There were great many types and styles of the Dou varying from cheap Tamami Dou to more expensive and sophisticated armors, such as Dou Maru or Hamaki Dou.

The arm protection of the samurai armor was provided with two pieces: Sode and Kote. The Sode were shoulder protection similar to European pauldrons. And the Kote were armoured sleeves protecting arms and hands.

The lower body and leg protection of the samurai armor was secured with Haidate and Suneate. The Haidate was a thigh protection added to the samurai armor only in the 13th century and often disregarded by samurai as it was cumbersome and restricted their movement. The most common two types of the samurai Haidate were Kawara Haidate and Iyo Haidate. The Suneate was leg protection similar to European greaves and two most common types were Shino Suneate (splint greaves) and Tsubo Suneate (metal plated greaves).

For the centuries that Samurai were part of Japanese life and often ruled it, there were a great number of samurai armors and weapons produced in all possible designs and variations. Older samples of authentic samurai are much harder to come by and lot of them found their permanent residency in the museums. Yet it's not impossible and from time to time interesting examples emerge on the surface and are available for keen collectors and enthusiasts. There are much more reproductions of course, but some of them are really masterpieces and can reflect and repeat all or almost all details of the authentic samurai armors not mentioning that they're usually much cheaper than authentic pieces.