Did Samurai Use Shields

There was no use for shields for them because it hindered them from properly using the yumi japanese long bow.

Did samurai use shields. The samurai started as mounted archers. Japanese actually had shields and their use evolved with the advancing nature of warfare as weapons became more sophisticated. 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. Samurai using shields on a boat mongol invasion scroll 13th century.

One aspect that may influence this lack of shields is the use of the sword scabbard as a weapon shield in and of itself. Leather and or iron scales were used to construct samurai armours with leather and eventually silk lace used to connect the individual scales kozane from which these cuirasses were now being made. When ashigaru lower class infantry came along they had no use for portable shields either because they were usually armed with spears. The samurai started to use shields mounted on the shoulders of their armor called sode around the 10th century the use of sode allowed the samurai to use both hands while riding a horse this was a significant innovation.

The samurai started to use shields mounted on the shoulders of their armor called sode around the 10th century the use of sode allowed the samurai to use both hands while riding a horse this was a significant innovation. Although the preference is not to use hand held shields sometimes the samurai class did use shields whilst riding into battle. Japanese armour makers started to use leather nerigawa and lacquer was used to weatherproof the armour parts.