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Post by Onimusha on May 4, 2013 17:29:04 GMT
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Post by Elheru Aran on May 4, 2013 21:59:22 GMT
Sengoku Daimyo is one of the best sites out there as far as this goes, yeah Japanese armour is rather intriguing as it's one of the longest surviving examples of lamellar armour construction through its history... makes one wonder what armour might have looked like if more cultures had pursued lamellar rather than mail and plate.
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Post by Onimusha on May 4, 2013 22:25:33 GMT
Well, according to the sengoku daimyo site. Japanese armor moved in the maile and plate direction too. They had maile with integrated plates, lamilar over maile, and full maile suits. It's interesting stuff. The more I study Japanese sword arts and armor, the more similarities I see to western arts. I guess there's only so many ways to swing a sharp stick.
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Taran
Member
Posts: 2,621
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Post by Taran on May 5, 2013 2:28:40 GMT
Studying the differences between Western and Eastern armours, it's pretty easy to see why the East used more llamellar than plate or maille and the West the opposite. It really came down to how much of it they were making and how good the steel is. Maille and Plate require high quality steels (which Japan didn't really have) and are costly and time-consuming to manufacture (which the Koreans and Chinese couldn't afford for the size of their armies).
In the West, steel was easier to get in high quality and good quantity and they didn't field anywhere near as many heavily armoured troops. There was also less of a concentration of wealth. So more people were able to afford more costly armours.
But the Far East still used Maille and Plate, in the places where the expense was justified or where an individual could afford it.
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Post by Onimusha on May 5, 2013 2:46:32 GMT
I'm not entirely convinced that Japanese armor was any lighter than western armor. I saw one suit that weighed 70lbs. Western plate armor wasn't as heavy as a lot of people think it was. 70 lbs is about right for a plate suit. Of course, the Japanese had all sorts of armor arrangements. Some really piled it on. Others are composed of bare essentials. Japanese armor is just so.varied.
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Post by Vue on May 10, 2013 16:30:56 GMT
Japanese plate armour weren't that much lighter than European plate armour but as you know the Japanese uses many types. This leads to lots of confusion when making comparisons between the many different types....Apples and Oranges.
Steel quality was not an issue, Japanese steel was of higher quality comparing to what one would get in Europe around the same time 'early to mid medieval'. The issue was extracting the ore and the difficulties in processing the ore into steel. Look into the histories of the 'blast furnace' and you'll know whom had the ability to make high quality steel back then.
The main reasons why Japanese armour did not fully adapt full plate amour like their European counter part was simply due to a different fighting system and more importantly the local terrain/climate. Japan is mostly mountainous, their climate ranges from tropical to sub zero further north. The summer can get extremely hot and humid, while tropical rain is not uncommon which can last for quite a while. I can't imagine spending months on campaign even with just lammellar armour let a lone full plate.
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Post by Onimusha on May 10, 2013 16:51:05 GMT
Well, you can't really compare a samurai to a knight. They served two different purposes. Knights were, more or less, heavy cavalry. The samurai were primarily horse archers/light cavalry.
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Post by Student of Sword on May 10, 2013 21:00:16 GMT
When people talk about armor, the main two things being discussed are often weight and flexibility. However, there is another equally important factor - heat. Some armors are hotter than others. If you die from heatstroke; the fact that your armor is invulnerable is rather pointless. People forget how easy it is to die from heat injury. I saw people passed out from heat all the times - even without armor. Even if you don't die; your enemy can killed you while you are unconscious.
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Post by Onimusha on May 10, 2013 21:02:57 GMT
This is true.
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