Osprey: Sneak Peek at July Artwork

@Giuseppe Rava

Thank you for your reply and I fully accept that the author has responsibility for the accuracy of illustrations (and yours are beautiful, as were those of Angus McBride for Osprey) so apologies for not making that clear.

A point of interest I do think is well done is the early form of dou-maru/haramaki armor with four large skirts similar to the O-yoroi but with splits at the bottom to facilitate leg movement for foot warriors. Later these would be fully split into eight pieces and further evolution would move the tassets around so the groin would be covered (good decision!) or even overlapped slightly to cover the gaps. I've only seen Ritta Nakanishi show this previously in his detailed research on armor in the early picture scrolls – e.g. the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, Heiji Monogatari Emaki etc.