Introduction of Japanese armor

At present, the earliest shaped armor found in Japanese archaeology was born in the ancient grave era, which began in the second half of the third century. This era happens to be the era of "riding national conquest", so its A style is not much different from that of Chinese mainland riding national. Armor is mainly made of small pieces of leather or metal, and occasionally rich bamboo and wood are used. The most important shape is the hanging nail (see the right). The so-called hanging nail means that the nail pieces are connected and stacked with a rope, and the next piece is always covered at the bottom of the previous piece, thus forming a nail-fixing type in which the lower layer is wider than the upper layer. There were also many armor hanging in ancient China. According to experts' research and restoration, the leather armor of chariots in Shang and Zhou Dynasties was basically hung with armor. However, China's armor gradually decreased and was eventually replaced by cotton-padded jacket armor, while in Japan, armor (in a broad sense) has always occupied the dominant position of armor. Moreover, the earliest form of hanging armor was still used by Ainu people until modern times.

The main body of the hanging nail, that is, the part that protects the body, is looped and then fixed on the chest with a tie. Loose waist and free movement. In addition, the hanging wire and the wire are tied to the shoulders and are doubly fixed. The whole looks a bit like a vest (laughs).

Maybe learn from China. In the Nara dynasty, which began in the first half of the eighth century, two-way (crotch) hanging armor appeared. The thread on the shoulder is not hung or connected, but connected as a whole, wearing a pullover, and the ribs are divided and combined on both sides.

The standard court dress of the military attache of Nara dynasty is: wearing a hat, a pair of hanging armor, a belt around his waist, grass cut into several pieces, and black leather boots on his feet. In modern times, this primitive form of hanging armor has disappeared from the battlefield and only exists as a ceremony and costume for some members of Yayue.

From the ancient grave to the Nara era, cotton-padded jacket armor also existed. The so-called cotton-padded jacket nail is to sew the nail piece directly on the lining, which is accurate in assembly, but not necessarily overlapping. In the history of China, the proportion of cotton-padded jacket armor gradually increased, especially after the appearance of firearms. Now we can also see the nail shape of Qing dynasty, which is the final form of cotton-padded jacket. The left picture shows two common helmet styles in the era of hanging armor and cotton-padded jacket armor.

Finally, the short armor (see upper right) connects the leather into a whole and protects the main part of the carcass, similar to the armor of ancient Greece and Rome. This type A is relatively rare in East Asia. At present, it is only known that some southwest Yi people in ancient China and Gaoshan people in Taiwan Province Province used this type A. Dajia is a unique armor form in Japan, and it is also a cultural heritage with national characteristics and artistic value that the Japanese are proud of. It was born in the middle of heian period, and achieved great success in the late Kamakura era and the early Muromachi era. In the late Muromachi shogunate, due to frequent civil wars and the introduction of gunpowder weapons, the position of Dajia was gradually replaced by body pills, belly rolls and feet.

The picture on the right is not real armor, but a ten-to-one model of armor currently made as a work of art. The shape of this "scarlet armor" belongs to the decorative armor after Edo, which is very different from the real big armor in the prosperous and practical era. But all right, just use it to compare it, which is more convenient to explain what the real armor looks like.

The first is Zhou. After the birth of Dajia, the Japanese used to call it a pocket or a bowl. Pockets in Japan are unique. They are made of long strips of bamboo, leather and iron. , and then fixed in the circumferential direction and painted. In the Heian period, the most Japanese "Fu Jiao" appeared (see the picture below). However, in Dajia, even in the era when there were trunks and feet, all kinds of helmet styles began to change from this "attack angle and cost".

Please compare the rib pocket on the left in the picture below. This is a very old pocket, except that it was sealed by the sky and blown back to shrink, which is not much different from the big armored pocket. At the beginning of Dajia's birth, on the basis of "paying for the corner", the nails embedded in it became larger, resulting in "Xingjia", which was the prototype of the star pocket later. The cheek covering part of Lu 'an (which should be written left and right, but there is no such word in Chinese and modern Japanese, so it is temporarily replaced by Lu 'an) is turned over, turned back and blown, and the eyebrow cover becomes larger-this is the basic shape of Japanese pockets.

The pocket is semi-circular, the back of the head is slightly convex, and there is a mouth at the top, which is called "Tiankuai"-the ancients put on Ebohi before wearing a helmet. After the upper part of Ebohi is twisted, it protrudes from Tiankuai, like a peach with a sharp top and a round bottom (don't think it is a black tassel when looking at the picture). The front end of the helmet has one or three strip-shaped reinforcement belts with petal-shaped lower ends, which are called "tiles". The "eyebrow shed" is decorated with colorful decorations and equipped with a detachable front bracket.

Maybe it's because Ebush, the fortress at the top of the helmet, can't put ornaments on the top of the head like helmets in other countries, so we have to find a new way and insert them in various positions of the helmet: most of them are called "front station", left and right, "threatening station" and back station. Even after the sky disappeared, only a few helmets were decorated on it, which was called "upright".

In the Dajia era, the most common decoration was the front seat, and the most common front seat was "shovel-shaped". There are many kinds and styles of shovels, most of which are long and narrow in the early days, embedded in beautifully carved "shovel-shaped seats" Later, the shovel seat was simply made into the shape of a beast's head, which was called "lion bite". The back blow on the pocket is very large and decorated with a flower-shaped gold buckle. This decoration may appear in all parts of the whole suit of armor, and it is called "Guvencin object". The raft is divided into multiple layers (generally five layers, called five pieces), with bags on the top called "bowl board", the bottom called "two-person board, three-person board and four-person board" ... and the bottom called "diamond-seam board". There was no uniform armor and uniform in the era of samurai fighting for independence, so in order to distinguish the camps, Li Yin and Li Biao appeared one after another. The basic shape of the armor is to tie a hat print on the back of the head, so even if there is no hat print, the hat print ring and the line (rope) on it will form a total angle and will still be preserved.

The main materials of armor are bamboo and leather, and occasionally metal is used. The bulletproof vest is composed of chest plate, perforated body of main body, back plate and other parts connected into a whole. In addition to tying a knot on the shoulder with a thread passing through the chest plate, it also surrounds the body and is fixed on one side (usually the left side) with a "sling". The threat rafter consists of two parts, the upper pot plate and the lower straw folding-this straw folding is the same as the straw folding connecting the trunk armor, and it can become a perfect whole after completion. In addition, it has a separate name called "Horse Hand".

Different from the following equal-toed armor, the two pieces of armor hanging on the chest-"ebony board" and "dove tail board" are the most obvious signs of Dajia. Such obvious left-right asymmetry is rare in armor styles of ancient countries, which also reflects Japan's unique aesthetic consciousness. "rosewood board" protects the right chest, which is wide and long, and generally clearly reflects the connected nail board; "Dovetail board" protects the left chest, which is short and narrow. Generally covered with cloth and silk, except for the edge, it is a whole with plain color. Only the top of two decks is connected with the body of bulletproof vest, and it will change its position left and right with people's activities. It is said that modern people have done experiments. When the samurai stretched out his left arm and pulled the bow sideways to release the arrow, the dove tail plate just covered his heart. When the right hand immediately wields the Taidao, the ebony board can also protect the biggest flaw-the right chest or the right rib. Therefore, the appearance of these two decks is not only for the needs of decoration and beauty, but also of great practical value.

In addition to the front and rear bulletproof vests, there is also a "barrier plate" on the shoulder, which is connected with the "sleeve crown plate" (also called "horseshoe sleeve") on the top of the shoulder armor through threads. There are grass pleats under the bulletproof vest, which are divided into three parts: front grass pleats, left and right archers and rear traction.

Through the picture on the left, you can roughly understand the decomposition of the pocket and the link shape of the nail.

Please turn around and look at the picture above. First of all, apart from the existence of the final stage, there are generally no gorgeous grandstands. With the shovel shape and a golden dragon-shaped front bracket, it looks a bit nondescript. Secondly, the throat (to protect the neck) and the tibia (to protect the thigh) are two complete parts that are not available on the armor. In addition to the armor, only the cage hand (to protect the forearm), hand armor (to protect the back of the hand) and ankle (to protect the calf) are protected. Warriors in armor usually wear a pile of shoes on horseback, which are woven from hemp or grass and covered with fur.

Armor has been extinct in actual combat for hundreds of years, and its shape is gradually changing. We will introduce its evolution in detail in the next class. But it suddenly occurred to me that in the CCTV TV series Romance of the Three Kingdoms, both Cao Cao's and Zhou Yu's helmets were in the shape of shovels, and feathers were woven on them, or two boards were hung on their chests. It's really strange and inexplicable. Designers may think it's beautiful, but these parts are exclusive to Japanese armor, so it's really inappropriate to copy them! In the middle period of Ping 'an, the tube pill appeared, which originated from hanging armor. At first, this was the armor style used by junior soldiers.

The sleeve armor of the original body pill and the two "ebony boards" and "dove tail boards" on the chest are not deformed. It is mainly composed of shoulder straps and high buckles, main chest plate and bulletproof vest, as well as grass pleats and diamond plates below the waist. It's much easier to add the left rib than the big armor.

In the past, it was often confused with abdominal volume, especially upper abdominal volume. In fact, the main difference between the two is that the belly roll is tied on the left side, while the belly roll is tied at the back. There are rules for the number of nails in trunk pills, generally two in front, three in back, four in long side and four in broken grass.

In the paintings in Heian period, we can see a warrior figure wearing a bucket pill: wearing a star pocket or Ebush but not standing, wearing a bucket pill, with a rough cage hand on his wrist, bare legs, no trousers, no shin scarf and bare feet. These characters are followers of knights on horseback, that is, the later light-footed class.

When the tube pill first appeared, bamboo and leather were used as light clothes, which were specially used by barefoot lower warriors. Most of them are fake and inferior products. In the Kamakura era, some master soldiers also used barreled pills in pursuit of lightness. Of course, their equipment is different from ordinary pawns: shovel-shaped front star pocket, exquisite barrel pills, armbands, leather cage hands, pawns and leather stacks-most importantly, they ride horses.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Xiangbi Pill finally rose to the position of heavy armed forces, and gradually became popular among the upper samurai. Because the combat mode of the new era has changed from riding and shooting to large-scale group melee under complex terrain. Therefore, trunk pill has become an important type of riding and walking.

Pei Xun (first sewing leather pieces on the thighs of trousers) appeared, and Taidao and razor were widely used. Artistic apricot leaves used to tie knots on the chest also appeared (see bottom left). It is now hidden in the big house in spring. According to legend, the black-tailed seven pills used by Kusunoki Masashige are Japanese national treasures.

Abdominal pawn first appeared in the late Kamakura period and was widely used as a frugal pawn and light weapon. Until the mid-Muromachi period, the belly roll still kept its original shape (it was improved and classified as belly roll independently), sleeveless and unprotected at the back. Light archers are widely used, while advanced soldiers are only used as temporary light weapons (such as self-defense and temporary street fighting), and they are only used occasionally. In the late muromachi period, a large number of abdominal locks appeared. The so-called lock belly is to make a nail with a large piece of skin, and the process is more simplified (see the left picture).

After Edo, many contemporary furniture was greatly influenced by the abdomen, especially after the introduction of western armor, the styles of back opening increased day by day (of course, the back of contemporary furniture was also protected). For example, barrel trunk, Buddha trunk, Melissa Zhou lower trunk and Na Man trunk. Nailing methods such as vest and fish scales are also directly derived from locking methods.