Samurai armour (ō-yoroi and dō-maru)
Armadura samurái (ō-yoroi y dō-maru)
- Date
- c. siglos X-XII · confidence low
- Place
- Kyoto, Japan
- Credited to
- Bushi warriors of the Heian period
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
Armour of small lacquered iron and leather scales laced with silk cords, designed for the mounted archer: the rigid ō-yoroi and, later, the lighter dō-maru for foot soldiers. Its design of articulated shoulder guards and skirts absorbed blows.
Lamellar armours already existed in the Kofun period (tankō and keikō, 4th-5th centuries); the ō-yoroi is the classic form fixed around the 10th-12th centuries.
What it led to
- plate-lamellar armours of the Sengoku era
- kabuto helmets and menpō masks
- aesthetics and status of the Japanese warrior class