"Why didn't Japanese infantrymen and samurai use shields?" Topic
9 Posts
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Tango01  | 18 Aug 2017 8:55 p.m. PST |
Interesting question… " Shields were considered useful in Europe until the development of full plate armor. Despite the fact that they never had anything comparable to plate armor, shield use was apparently abandoned by the Edo period. The freestanding tate was used to protect archers, but aside from this, shields…"
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firebase2012  | 19 Aug 2017 12:25 a.m. PST |
check this out might explain why the samurai didn't use shields YouTube link The quality of their armor. |
| photocrinch | 19 Aug 2017 7:51 a.m. PST |
As is the classic Japanese bow which was a main weapon of the samurai. |
| Tango01 | 19 Aug 2017 10:03 a.m. PST |
So… a Roman shield could never have a chance…?
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 optional field | 19 Aug 2017 11:59 a.m. PST |
I had never wondered about this before, but given that the importance of the bow in Japanese warfare, and difficulty of using a bow in combination with a shield, it seems that photocrinch has hit the nail on the head. In other words it's because it takes too long to ready a bow if one has a shield on one's arm (or too lone to ready a shield if one has a bow in hand). |
 Patrick R | 19 Aug 2017 1:18 p.m. PST |
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| Tango01 | 19 Aug 2017 9:52 p.m. PST |
But in the Middle Agest the archers wore no shields … have you seen the recent Battle of Games of Thrones?… (smile)
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| Lion in the Stars | 21 Aug 2017 10:02 p.m. PST |
Up until the Mongol Invasions (1274), war was mostly between nobles (and their retainers), and they were almost all horse archers. Foot archers usually fought behind pavises. It wasn't until the Mongols showed what massed bows could do that the Japanese started massing foot archers, and even then using a bow takes a lot of practice. |
| CAPTAIN BEEFHEART | 06 Sep 2017 2:08 a.m. PST |
Europe pretty much dropped the shield when better armor arrived. Also, they, like the Japanese often needed 2 hands for their main weapons. |
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