"Samurai Armies: Movable Walls" Topic

I've seen multiple prints in Stephen Turnbull books of movable wooden walls used as field fortifications or siege mantlets, but I've never found what they were called, or battle descriptions that addressed their role. They appear to be formed of adjacent free-standing sections each roughly shoulder-height and as wide as two men. They are often depicted adorned with simple painted designs or mon.

Does anyone here know about these things?

Do you mean mantlets? I've seen several kinds, some of them of wooden planks and some of them of bundled sticks. There are also different versions, some that are simply prodded up by a stick and some that are mounted on wheels for easy redeployment. They were very common in sieges, as the sieging force would use them to keep safe from missiles shot by the defenders.

I've also seen them used in courtyards etc. during sieges for make-shift defensive lines etc. However, the sheer weight and difficulty of marching with them means that I've rarely heard of them being used outside sieges.

They are also dirt simple to make! Just chop up some icicle sticks and matches:

picture

picture

EDIT: there's some more info on them in the Osprey books on East Asian siege weaponry, but not much. One or two pictures though.

A smaller version was called pavise in Europe.

link

Jim

I make mine by cutting a popsicle stick in half. Then cut off the rounded ends. I use three across, with a third of a stick across the top inside to glue them together. Then a two thirds piece to support it at the back. Using wire cutters to cut them gives it a slightly rough edge top and bottom. TIG

Perry Miniatures makes mantlets in their Samurai line. I painted a few of them here:

link

You have to scroll down towards the bottom.

Steve
Cavalcade Wargames
cavalcadewargames.com

Actually, now that I looked through my books there are actually contemporary scrolls depicting field battles where they are used. Especially for the battles at Kawanakajima, which makes sense since many of those battles included long standoffs where there would be plenty of time to deploy them and easily defended obstacles such as rivers to place them at.

I'm sorry, I should have been specific: does anyone know the Japanese name for these mantlet/pavise things?

It does seem like all the pictures I've seen show them as being involved in sieges, except one.

There is a ink print of a Shimazu army using them to fortify a riverbank in preparation for repulsing and enemy assault in one of Turnbull's books, so apparently they could be carried/built in the field very quickly, and were occasionally deployed there.

I'm trying to figure out how they would factor into the rules my group uses for skirmish level fighting (usually with hundreds of samurai involved); I think they would be impassable until a breach was made, but an attacker with a spear could easily thrust over them. Thoughts?

Oh, nice pictures by the way. Are those 28mm scales? I'm using 15mm but I really like your idea.

Mine are 28mm, so are the ones sold by Perry. You could use my way and just scale down by half for 15's. As for the rules I'll let the experts chime in with their opinions. But you should remember that bowmen also had swords for their defense.

I use 28mm Perry Miniatures and Kingsford Miniatures in my army. I think I'm working 300+ strong now. I lost count.

I don't know the Japanese name for the mantlets, but I've seen pictures of them in period paintings. Some came with holes in them for shooting guns out of. They also used simple bamboo fences as screens in order to keep people at a distance but not offer complete cover.

Turnbull also shows a mantlet equipped on a cart so it can be pushed into battle with the arqubusiers under the cover of the mantlet. However, I've never seen one in period paintings, but that doesn't mean much. It could be just a rare war machine.

For a shameless plug, we distribute Kingsford Miniatures in the U.S. and we are producing a line of 28mm Ming Chinese with new packs coming out in late April.

Steve
Cavalcade Wargames
cavalcadewargames.com

I've seen mantlets described as "tate" or "koshitate" in Romanji. Both translate as "shield".

Has anyone seen them in rules?

I mean, other than the open bamboo (?) screen Nobunaga to disorder the Takeda cavalry. Classic move, but not quite the same piece of equipment.

@ Durruti,
Thanks, where do you find information like that? Turnbull never mentioned it as far as I could tell.

@ tigrfsgt,
Too bad, they're really nice. I'll have to see what I can come up with as soon as my army is fully painted. Just to clarify, I meant I think an attacking spearman would be able to thrust over these walls.

Killer Katanas 2 have them in the rules, including movable mantlets. I think they give a minus to the attack value of shooting against the troops behind them, I'll check once I get home to my books.

And as for how they work in close combat with spears etc, they were not really made to protect against melee. I guess they would be useful for slowing down a cavalry charge, but they were really used to protect positions against shooting.

@ Durruti,
Thanks, where do you find information like that? Turnbull never mentioned it as far as I could tell.

Ahh, you'll have to look beyond Turnbull, I'm afraid ;~)
"Koshitate" is mentioned by Thomas Conlan who wrote "In Little Need of Divine Intervention" about the Mongol Invasion Scrolls. You'll find it in the Glossary on his site on the same subject:

bowdoin.edu/mongol-scrolls

Can't remember where I've seen "tate" – probably amongst the works of Helen McCullough, Parl Varley, Karl Friday or William Wayne Farris.

Has anyone seen them in rules?

In Impetus, these types of mantlets are treated similarly to pavises, causing a minus for enemy missile fire. They are available as options for ashigaru foot archers in the Early Samurai list, and for foot archers and teppo troops in the Samurai 1550-1600 list.

Cheers,
Scott

I used the mantlets made by Two Dragons in my diorama of a generic siege on a Samurai castle. The Two Dragons mantlets are very nice but expensive, and I feel a little foolish that I bought them because I scratch built out of plastic and wire the rest of my siege equipment most of which were vastly more complex than the mantlets. You can see that diorama displayed at my vanity website warin15mm.com. That gallery was also featured in the July 2009 issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Richard