Did Samurai Have Shields

Earliest japanese armour is thought to have evolved from the armour used in ancient china. On why didn t the samurai use shields as often in addition to the inconvenience a hand held shield poses to a horse borne archer one of the clearest reason is because the unique samurai armour the kogusoku and ōsode. Tankō worn by foot soldiers and keikō worn by horsemen were both pre samurai types of early japanese cuirass constructed from iron plates connected together by leather thongs.

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Depends on what u mean by shields.

Did samurai have shields. A samurai on horseback wearing ō yoroi 大鎧 in the beginning soldiers wore their shields so they had two hands to do other stuff like firing arrows using other two handed cqc weapons. Although the preference is not to use hand held shields sometimes the samurai class did use shields whilst riding into battle. Cuirasses and helmets were manufactured in japan as early as the 4th century ce. If u mean a personal one person shield carried on the arm then no.

Samurai who appeared around in the 10th century or so did not use personal hand held shields. The lack of defense was compensated by the way the ousode 大袖 in their armor worked. There was no use for shields for them because it hindered them from properly using the yumi japanese long bow. To be able to use effectively the bow the samurai didn t use hand held shields.

But they did have barricade like shields to protect towns and what not. Early japanese foot soldiers did at one time use hand shields dorothy perkins notes the use of wood and leather shields by foot soldiers as early as the mid 6th century. Around the 7th century when japanese warfare was very much carried out in the tang style shields were in use but they d fallen out of favour by the late 9th century iirc along with crossbows. They give birth astride of a grave the light gleams an instant then it s night once more.

The samurai started as mounted archers. While facing enemy arrows or polearms a samurai placed his big shoulder shield on the front covering the face and the upper torso. Both samurai and ashigaru used shields tate to hide behind both on land and sea these were not hand held shields they were large wood panels. Post by worldantiques onmay 16 2012 at 12 39am.

Japanese actually had shields and their use evolved with the advancing nature of warfare as weapons became more sophisticated. When ashigaru lower class infantry came along they had no use for portable shields either because they were usually armed with spears. Thegn and okamido have pretty much covered it.