Armor in Japan and Korea

In Europe, by the late 14 th century the production of relatively large blooms of steel made possible the development of the suit of steel plate armour, and the production of all-steel swords. Steel swords were being made in Japan by the Kofun period and techniques for making them of great hardness were established by the 12 th century CE, if not earlier, when Japanese swords were exported to China. By contrast Japanese armour seems to have been largely made out of iron or unhardened steel. This paper presents the results of metallography on eight Japanese helmets from both the Muromachi and Edo periods and some other examples of Edo period armour, as well as a Chinese helmet. Even high-quality armour does not seem to have employed anything like the metallurgy that would have been found in contemporary swords. Possible reasons for this anomaly are discussed.

Samurai Armour History and Development Compendium, 2025

Japanese armour stands as a testament to the interactions between functionality, artistry, and cultural identity. Spanning centuries of evolution, its designs reflect the dynamic shifts in Japanese warfare and societal structure, from the emergence of the Samurai class in the late Heian period to the end of major conflicts in the early Edo period. This essay offers an accessible introduction to the development of Samurai armour between the 11th and 17th centuries, focusing on its chronological evolution, defining characteristics, and the role it played in warfare. While Japanese armour has been extensively studied in Japan, much of this scholarship remains locked away in specialized or untranslated texts, leaving many Western audiences with a fragmented understanding influenced by outdated literature and pop culture. By providing a concise yet comprehensive framework, this compendium aims to bridge that gap, serving as a stepping stone for enthusiasts and scholars alike. It will highlight key armour styles, their periodization, and the dual role these panoplies played, foucsing on their fucntion as tools of war and as symbols of status within the warrior elite. Simplifications will be necessary given the broad scope, but this overview lays the groundwork for deeper exploration, including the forthcoming work, Samurai Armour: History and Development – From the late Heian to the early Edo periods (1000–1600).

Bulletin of the Institute of Oriental Studies, 2023

The article describes a series of helmets of a type that probably spread across Asia and Eastern Europe in the middle to the second half of the VI century AD. These helmets are characterised by a very particular construction: they have a bowl hammered from a single piece of iron, with an additional band in the lower part, connected to the inside or outside edge of the helmet. Additionally, a chainmail collar was attached to the lower part of the helmet. The attached chainmail provides additional protection around the entire circumference including the forehead above the eyes. This characteristic would remain unpopular in European armaments for quite a long period and was only popularised in central and eastern Europe around the XVI century AD [1: 130]. This article analyses a possible Iranian provenance of the helmets of this type as well as hypothesizes about the possible reason for the spread of these helmets on the territory of Eastern Europe and Asia.

On one series of the VI century AD iron one-piece asian helmets, 2023

The article describes a series of helmets of a type that probably spread across Asia and Eastern Europe in the middle to the second half of the VI century AD. These helmets are characterised by a very particular construction: they have a bowl hammered from a single piece of iron, with an additional band in the lower part, connected to the inside or outside edge of the helmet. Additionally, a chainmail collar was attached to the lower part of the helmet. The attached chainmail provides additional protection around the entire circumference including the forehead above the eyes. This characteristic would remain unpopular in European armaments for quite a long period and was only popularised in central and eastern Europe around the XVI century AD [1: 130]. This article analyses a possible Iranian provenance of the helmets of this type as well as hypothesizes about the possible reason for the spread of these helmets on the territory of Eastern Europe and Asia.

2017

If you take the central stairwell in the research wing of the Hiroshima University Department of Archaeology up to the second floor, you will find bronze-hilted iron swords on display. The Research Centre of the Hiroshima University Faculty of Letters purchased them in Iran during the 1970s. The book Sogen no Michi (Grassland Road: Archaeological Research in Iran) which was published in 1973 by the Hiroshima University Archaeological Mission, contains photographs of these swords. (1) There is no detailed explanation of these artefacts; it simply states that they were excavated in Azerbaijan, and their total lengths are shown. In this paper, we will present eight complete bronze-hilted iron sword specimens that include those regarded as bronze swords with an 'iron core' (bimetal bronze swords). Running through the centre of the grip is an iron core. In some of the swords, this iron core runs through the grip to the pommel. As discussed below, it is now considered highly likely that this iron rod is the remainder of what was once the 'tang of an iron sword'. For this reason, we will present these specimens as bronze-hilted iron swords. While referring to observations of the material, including a four-year long physical and chemical analysis conducted with Professor Kiyoshi Shizuma of the Hiroshima University Graduate School of Engineering (currently, specially appointed professor) (Shizuma et al. 2015), we will clarify problems in the materials which stem from the fact that the swords were purchased from the antiques marketplace. We will then solicit the guidance of knowledgeable scholars and discuss their findings.

In this paper I examine the development of a particular kind of grey stoneware called kamuiyaki which was produced and traded within the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan, in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. The wares themselves, their chronology, and archaeological context are discussed. The kilns represent the first enterprise in the islands in which a commodity was made for exchange on a substantial scale. The establishment of the kilns in a remote area, with technological borrowing from both Japan and Korea, reflects social and economic trends of the beginning of the Medieval Period in Japan. Greyware production, circulation, and consumption, reconstructed from recent excavations, shows a political economy capable of fostering the development of small states on the island of Okinawa in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan, 2018

Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan brings together specialists of the European Bronze and Iron Age and the Japanese Yayoi and Kofun periods for the first time to discuss burial mounds in a comparative context. The book aims to strengthen knowledge of Japanese archaeology in Europe and vice versa. The papers demonstrate many methodological and interpretive commonalities in the archaeology of burial mounds in Japan and Europe and provide a series of state-of-the-art case studies highlighting many different aspects of burial mound research in both regions. Topics addressed by both European and Japanese specialists include research histories, excavation methods, origins and development of graves with burial mounds, the relationship of burial mounds to settlements and landscape, and above all administrative power and ritual.

A new exhibition at the DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History in Pretoria, called “Objects with Stories” was the ideal opportunity for a small section of the exhibition to display some of the Museum’s objects from different parts of the world. Many of these, including a Japanese Samurai armour and traditional Samurai sword have never been displayed before. This article unfolds the rebirth of these two objects from the state they were in when they were unwrapped in the Museum’s storerooms; dull, dusty, rusted and damaged to beautiful objects fit for any Japanese Samurai. As the Museum has no experts regarding Japanese history or Samurai armour and swords, professionals from outside were consulted. Through some research on the internet and with the assistance of the South African Arms and Armour Society (SAAAS), the Museum was able to find experts and collectors of Japanese Samurai armour and Samurai swords in South Africa. This article focuses on the research results and the conservation of the Japanese Samurai armour and the Samurai sword.

Quaternary International, 2021

Detailed study of a leather scale armor of ca. 8th to 6th c. BCE from the Yanghai cemetery cite in Turfan, Northwest China, and the only closely comparable extant example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

2017

With a focus on Chinese bronze antiquities, this study examines the relationship between collecting and studying in early twentieth-century Japan and investigates how ancient Chinese forms were appropriated for different purposes. Japanese reception of Chinese bronze antiquities can be summarized in three phases. Firstly, the 1903 exhibition organized by the Imperial Museum presented a mixture of the karamono tradition of Japan and the jinshixue antiquarian knowledge of China. Secondly, in the 1910s, the Chinese antiquarian view became dominant as acclaimed Chinese collections were transported to Japan in large numbers. Finally, in the 1920s, the Chinese antiquarian view yielded to modern art historical and archaeological analysis when unearthed bronzes gained attention and the modern discipline of archaeology was introduced to Japan. Analysis of the bronze reproductions further sheds light on the triangulation of collecting, studying and appropriating in each phase. Link to the article: https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/2991781/Reception VISITORS to the National Palace Museum in Taipei are greeted by two archaic-looking gigantic bronze ding (cauldron) sculptures -one tripod and the other tetrapod -placed outside, in the museum complex. The tetrapod, sculpted in 1992, imitates a typical Western Zhou style bronze vessel, with bird designs and protruding bosses on the belly. The appearance of the tripod vessel is rather intriguing. Modelled after a common ancient ding 4