Samurai Armor You Didn't Know Existed - Hexagon Steel Vest
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- This is the flexible, light weight auxiliary kind of armour used in Feudal Japan by the samurai class and the ashigaru light soldier, the manchira.
亀甲
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An armour (spelled armor in the US) is a protective covering that is used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual, or vehicle by weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action.
The word "armour" began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a "mail, defensive covering worn in combat". The word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning "arms and/or equipment", with the root armare meaning "arms or gear".
Armour has been used throughout recorded history. It has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into today's modern composites.
Significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper.
Well-known armour types in European history include the lorica hamata, lorica squamata, and the lorica segmentata of the Roman legions, the mail hauberk of the early medieval age, and the full steel plate harness worn by later medieval and renaissance knights, and breast and back plates worn by heavy cavalry in several European countries until the first year of World War I (1914-15). The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century.
#metatron #armor #japanese
The Manchira looks like something you could get away with wearing in public today.
I never leave the house without full plate harness.
...are you saying you dont?
I dont see this as a bad thing
@@muffincutting6020 exactly, I never go outside with full gothic plate harness, especially if its a monday at which point I take a Zweihander for style points and Poleaxe for practicality
japanese knife-proof vest
"This is not a piece of sheet metal." I see what you did there.
"you can't just wrap a soldier in a metal ball" Jokes on you, time to invent the full-plate zorb ball
PRINCE KRAZIE the onion knight
*laughs in Seigmeyer of Catarina*
That was my exact thought XD "They see me rollin', I squish them, they run screamin' cus im round and spikeh!" XD Lol!
For real. Look up spherical tank designs.
rollin'. rollin' Rollin' ROLLIN'...
ARMOR PLATE ZORB BALL.
So a brigandine/coat of plates type of armor is best for the average adventurer for travel. Welp time to write a fantasy book that has this.
It depends on the type of the brigandine. The kikko we see in this video is relatively low profile, but more 'full sized' ones like the european ones or the ming/joseon type brigandines are full out body armors are heavy as any suit of full body armor and also provide more protection. Even the japanese have a bigger, full body type named the Kikko tatami dou.
Sadly I don’t think so
technically, brigandines is an eastern invention.
I've definitely read a couple books that had brigandine in them.
Greenwich armour (the school set up by Henry VIII) was often designed to have no gaps at all - and yet allow freedom of movement. The problem was that it was absurdly expensive.
"It's not a piece of sheet"
-Metatron
I would *really* love to see Metatron compare this armor, to modern stab-proof vests worn by corrections officers in the jails.
Which is better? Lighter? More comfortable? More effective?
Just because something is modern, doesn't necessarily make it better. Sometimes, we forget where we came from.
This is testing that I have been wanting to see also.
Makes me wonder why they don't wear gambison or chain mail
the short answer is yes. the examples of armor shown in this video are more protective than most modern armors. The deal is that armor used today is designed for very specific circumstances. An armor graded for a shivs in a prison setting wouldnt hold up against to being speared by a roman legionarie, just as well as modern military armor designed for sub machine fire would get shredded by a hundred pound longbow.
Looks like a modern piece of clothing. If someone saw you just wearing that over normal clothes they'll probably think its a vest jacket.
Lol "techwear"
now this dude appreciates armor:)
The Hexagonal pattern looks really cool.
Nice that you are collaborating with Theng Thrand. He really is able to take a realistic and practical view on war history.
And I am jealous of your weapons collection.
Immagine someone breaking in his house the moment he is all geared up XD
@@sinaparsi6736 I'm not entirely sure the hollow-point bullets used in civilian firearms would punch through his armor.
@@sinaparsi6736 Yeah, but who does a home invasion with FMJ rounds expecting a guy in plate armor? People use hollow points for soft targets.
@@sinaparsi6736
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How many shootings occur in California against fully kitted out Samurai? I'd have to imagine the data pool is fairly limited to the Bushido Cartel in Sacramento, and the LARPmaster Mafia in San Diego, but I could be wrong...
Lacquered plate is NIJ Level III rated, right?
@@sinaparsi6736
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Well Obviously....
So given your level of experience, why would you say modern armor offers no protection beyond central torso against any projectile / explosive / shrapnel / edged weapon attack?
Certainly mobility is a factor, as is cost, and weight, but the vulnerabilities are glaring in contrast to 500 yr old fighting armor.
"Omae wa mou shindeiru"
"NANI?!?"
Professore, you need to suplement your amazing samurai armor with that horrible expressioned war facemask what used traditionally in battles.
Great video about kikkó!
Kikko means turtle armor. Ninja turtle much? PIZZA!
It’ll never cease to amaze me both how resourceful/creative humans are in the various ways the armor themselves and also how much of that seemed to have been channeled into distinct Japanese styles. Of course also helps that the Japanese isolated themselves and banned guns relatively early on so we got to see their melee combat evolve and exists all the way into the 19th century
What a great piece of armour. This red in particular is absolutly beautiful!
Just watched one of your videos on brigandine, love your videos!
I must say, I absolutely love the brigandine. Beautiful and probably the top combinaison of protection, mobility and concealment. A marvel of medieval technology.
I've hesitated for a long time which torso armor give to the protagonist of my book, between brigandine and mail. I think I would go for something like that.
Thank you so much Metatron for sharing such historical beauties.
I consider small, overlapping plates/scales the best (of its era), in terms of mobility of a user - especially if not fitted to an individual- and keeping one alive.
Silk fabric is a GIANT advantage in terms of light strength; and there are scale, splint, then “banded” type is essentially a Brigandine with the metal woven to the outside surface of the piece.
More elaborate or heavy kit like plate seems outside the purview of what you mentioned, as does more modern ballistic armors (hard/soft) so I just contented myself to only nerd out about semi-relevant armors.
E: paragraphs, not wall’o’text
Flock of SHEEP?
We have got to get the Metatron out of Palermo.
What's wrong with a flock of sheep?
"New" and "Feudal Era" don't really fit together xD
What a cool armor! I had never heard of it.
Feudal Era in Japan ended pretty recently honestly
I guess guard duty in times of relative peace would also have been a rather standard occasion for light armour. You don't expect an attack, but in case of a burglary or other unexpected occurrences, you want to have some protection and look official. Light armour is your friend here. Plus, it's the gambeson-mail-plate hierarchy all over: you get what you can afford, keeping an eye on whether it will enhance the next level or be made useless by it, whenever you (hopefully) van afford it.
I misread the title as "Manchuria"
Even I (a Japanese) didn't know the Hexagon Steel Vest.
Thanks for the information.
It just looks like my suit vest, i could wear one to the next wedding i attend
Dont do it
I didn't expect a wedding ceremony as battlefield. What kind of horrible families you are facing?
@@chengkuoklee5734 i am guessing my cousin is marrying the equivalent of the lanisters in london
May it not be The Red Wedding 2.0
The manchira seems like something that would be VERY usefull for bodyguards and security guards who have to be wary of getting stabbed or slashed.
That means on any concert, protest, in a bar, on a football game etc. this would be absoultely mint to have.
How about trying the Kikko with period clothing so we can see how it will respond with movement.
It's perfect for winter. Wear a cardigan or a jacket over it and nobody will realise you're wearing armour.
Very appreciate for the video ! It actually answers my long-term question about why Japanese armorers will intentionally leave such unnecessary large gap between Do(Cuirass) & Tasset and why they didn't learn the experience from European counterpart who using Faulds ( consist of overlapping horizontal lames of metal, articulated for flexibility, that form an apron-like skirt in front) to perfectly balance the protection & flexibility of the waist & hip. Taking a look at Namban DO which is a typical example of incorporating European style cuirass of munition armor, while reserve the other components in traditional style.
9:12 wow. Body without waist
Completely camouflaged 😂😂😂
Japanese coat of plates rather than scale mail, interesting.
Japanese actually used alot of chailmail and brigidine armor. Sometimes as a seperate seperate armor or a under a set of Samurai armor.
Are those octagons completely flat?
A thought that occured to me, if they had a slightly convex shape, facing outwards from the wearers body, they would guide a sword thrust towards their middle. Preventing the sword tip a little extra from glancing off the plate and finding it's way into the threading between the plates.
That would cause tear
Katana weren't often a thrusting sword. Yes, kikko is meant to be dished. It's not really going to do much in the way of guiding because the curvature of the dish is less than the curvature of the body underneath it.
@@sonoffenix3399 sounds like the curvature is only enough to add strength to the metal?
Full gear with mask on and manchira + kote both look incredibly cool. I absolutely love kote since watching Akira Kurosawa movies, they may not be the most protective arm protection but they are stylish as hell.
Style is a very important armour property : )
That looks like some sci-fi virtual armor in reality thing. Like something out of the Tron franchise.
metatron, you also forgot to mention how short japanese people used to be histortically. Most of them were recorded to be around 5'2-5'7, 5'7 being the talest. Which is why when you see many museum exampels of historical samurai armor they don't look big enough to fit the average man which tends to be around 5'9-5'11
I wonder if there were variations in the size of the plates depending on who was constructing it or who was ordering it, maybe both(?).
I like the look of the kote with just the jacket, that's a very slick look and probably very easy to move in.
This is an ancient kevlar vest for the discerning merchant, or ashigaru that wanted mobility, protection , and concealability.
Your channel is criminally under-subner sir. You have so.enof the absolute best information I've seen on these subjects. Your humble attitude and willingness to take constructive criticism is great to see. You've earned my sub❤
Sensei, maybe a video of you covering the basic kenjutsu techniques? Like some simple iai, chiburi, noto like you did on the intro? Also what kind of training you had when you were studying kenjutsu. I live in a place where finding a kenjutsu dojo is rather impossible. So i think some insight from you is meaningful
The Manchira looks like it’s straight out of a Star Wars movie. Awesome!
Checkmate i knew it existed because i grew up watching naruto. I really didnt know this honestly Raph, thanks for the new info 🗾
I know he meant to say “it’s not a pice of sheet metal” but all I can hear is “it’s not a pice of shit metal” with an accent lol 2:17
Its partly because he pronounces it as "piece of sheet METAL" instead of "piece of SHEET metal". Im talking about what words are stressed.
That intro was cringy , I LOVE IT!!
Keep up the awesome content METATRON!!!
Nice keep it up metatron and where are the noble ones????
He did say that
It's just so fast
@@aaronjacobamadorsalazar1934????
@@aaronjacobamadorsalazar1934 whats fast
This Channel Is getting Better and Better, great job Bro ...
Un saluto da Roma
Grazie mille
It'd be cool another video about yourself speaking languages and another one about Japanese culture! BTW you're #1, mate👍🏻
Someone needs to draw all the big medieval youtubers as the avengers. Metatron would be Iron Man, Knight Errant would be Captain America, Skallagrim would be Hulk, Thrand would be Hawkeye, etc.
honestly the hexagonal pattern is the pattern with the highest Volume to space in between ratio, if we talk about repetitive patterns. That makes it much more effective than a square or triangle pattern and that is beautiful.
I see Metatron notif, I click.
Sorry Metatron, I don't like titles like this. It assumes I didn't know something existed when I do. It's like those "10 things you didn't know about " when I know a surprising amount of stuff.
I feel like the patterning of the hexagons would protect better against a slash than a stab. Pretty dang neat! I like it.
I want to make one of these myself.
Love the video!
Thank you, Metatron-sensei. Now I know what to wear underneath my peasant rags...
This armour is less like a brigandine, where the plates are riveted inside a textile outer layer, and more like jack-of-plate. In jack-of-plate, small plates were stitched between two layers of fabric. I'm sure it makes for a fairly sturdy, but simple-to-make armour. Thanks for the video on this. I was very curious how this armour would work, in terms of flexibility and so on.
Been waiting for someone to clarify this. Indeed kikko manchira is much closer to jack-of-plate than brigandine. JoP is one of my favourite armour types.
I love the Manchira! On my instagram I've posted one before that has nanban kusari (barbarian chainmail) on the upper third of it. Whats interesting is that that chainmail is on the outside! So basically the wearer was showing off his exotic armour. Great video as always!
Can you explain how to use a nodachi in battlefield combat?
Anti cavalry weapon. Cut off horses legs
@@JoshuaMT Yeah
@@05firen Quite obviously. I just did put up an opinion. I am not an expert.
It was a weapon used for a variety of purpose on horseback or on foot. It was characterized for being used in downward strikes as swinging it might injure your mates in a formation but generally this was a weapon that was more used in loose formation, explaining why it faded away from the battlefield in the sengoku jidai with the rise of close formations
@@theghosthero6173 thank you
Interesting video, I had never heard of the manchira before until now.
One thing though, you need to work on your camera settings and/or lighting a bit because while you're exposed fairly nice your armor isn't and the blacks are getting crushed. Whenever you showed a close up of your armor I really couldn't see anything except during that stabbing demo and even then I could only see the light reflecting off of the armor when it was moving. For close ups of you do, you might want to up the exposure or set up a light that aims more directly at the armor.
i canr explain how sick that samurai armor looks, i cant wait to get mine... *once i have the money for it*
To me, that is analogous to a modern day bullet proof vest. That raises other questions which a comment section is not the place to ask because it would take to long to type. Great video by the way.
Manchira is a term for an armoured vest. Not for the *_TYPE_* of armour. Manchira could be made of mail, kikkou, karuta-gane... etc etc. Also, it should be noted that kikkou refers to armour that uses hexagonal plates, and not specifically to ones where they are sewn to cloth. Often, they were connected by mail rings, instead. (which version was more common I don't know, but I have no reason to doubt that both were decently common)
Japanese also wear chain mail. Frequently it is of a hexaring butted mail type. It is NOT riveted. But, instead of one ring linking to four others, each is linked to six others. This is important because if a butted ring fails, the other six rings still forms a complete circle around same area. In other words, in order to penetrate it you have to open up 7 rings simultaneously instead of one. This makes up for the rings not being welded or riveted.
There was no set size - plates ranged up to palm-size. Hower, this analysis misses that the gaps between edges are vulnerable. The penetration of blades that enter an edge will be limited by the plates at either end of the gap. Smaller plates means a shorter gap so a smaller bit of the plade enters and shallower penetration. Larger plates means a longer gap and more of the blade can fit in so deeper penetration. Smaller plates are also more flexible. On the other hand smaller plates mean that the fabric will keep it less stable so getting hit near the edge is more likely to turn the plate allowing the attack to enter the gap. Everything is a tradeoff. Such armor was also made of hardened leather plates.
this video puts the final nail in the coffin of the myth that Samurai armour is rubbish made of leather & wood & is inferior to its western counterpart.
Great video as always!!!
Keep up the good work
That shirt is BLLLLUUUUEEEEE!
I like it!
Wow...you REALLY love your nodachi...
I call bs on larger size anology. The real reason for bigger hexagon plates is less sowing less amount of plates so $ to produce...
So I had created a Shinobi like group in my fantasy setting, their uniforms were initially going to be gambeson sleeves with a separate gambeson vest that would be reversible to help them hide in a crowd should they be spotted. Would this be something that could be easily reversed?
So I had captions on during this video. Man Cheetah and Mangina are what came up. :)
Any chance of a small clip of you in the Manchira with music off and the room sound on so we can hear how little sound it produces?
9:12 omg Metatron Rayman version (lol)
Congratulations on your badass armor.
Is it possible that Japanese pirates used this kind of armour?
That would actually be interesting to know just in general what the Pirates used. It's not easy finding much info on equipment.
The only armor depicted by Chinese painters show wokou wearing domaru type armor made of lamellar, the rest being unarmored. Their was probably a degree of armor that was worn but I personally don't know about it.
Given the wakō weren't one homogeneous group, they probably wore all sorts of stuff. Heck, not all the pirates the Chinese called "wako" were actually Japanese (despite the original word being the Chinese term for the Yamato people). I would also suspect that the pirates might "up-armor" a bit for coastal raids, but probably used lighter gear when raiding other boats and ships (to lower the risk of drowning).
Pirates and bandits probably would have worn pretty much whatever they could afford/steal and wanted to wear. Perhaps some would prefer as much protection as they could, while others would prefer less weight and more mobility over protection so they would not wear the best armor they had available to them. Basically like the warrior class, it was a combination of personal preference, the situation, and what they were actually able to get a hold of. Another important thing is that not everyone that was referred to as a pirate actually was. There were plenty of "pirates" who were actually smugglers. Which means they engaged in illegal trade not sanctioned by the government (mainly the Chinese government). They did not actually attack people or steal things necessarily, although there were also plenty of groups that engaged in both activities. As already mentioned not all "wako" were Japanese. There is even some research that suggests many of the groups called wako were either mostly or entirely Chinese and Korean, and there is evidence of Chinese and Koreans in those groups that were mainly Japanese. So my guess is that there was probably a variety or arms and armor available from multiple cultures.
@@SengokuStudies Thank you! this is very interesting because I read somewhere that Chinese sources report that some pirates used ssangsudo swords that were the Korean version of the Japanese nodachi, so it seems possible that some pirates were Chinese or Koreans; I also remember that when the Jurchen started the Toi invasion in XI century, the Japanese at the beginning believed the invaders were Koreans and not Jurchens. However I'm still not so sure about the relative percentage of these Chinese and/or Korean pirates because, for example, Korean military development of the navy is well known to be an answer to strong and frequent Japanese piracy and there was also a short war between Joseon and the pirates in Tsushima in XV century along with many other skirmishes between Korean navy and pirates in the previous centuries (the founder of the Joseon dynasty himself, Yi Seong-gye, killed a young samurai with an arrow) while, at the same time, the Japanese never developed ships strong enough to counter foreign ships and this is quite strange if the pirates were mainly foreigners. What could you say about my doubts since you seem very well informed? (sorry for my imperfect English)
Very, VERY cool.
I don't know if you have already, but if you could give a proper in depth guide on samurai armor especially for buying that'd be nice and you could make a fairly lengthed video out of that
Is there any overlap of the plates or would a thrusting weapon slip between the plates?
No, there's no overlap.
Grazie per le numerose interessanti informazioni sulle armature. Questa manchira l'ha acquistata da Iron Mountain Armory? Perché sul sito sembra di un qualità inferiore e soprattutto non sembra chiudersi così bene:
do the plates overlap or are they butted together?
There is no overlap, but... Butted? What do you mean by butted?
@@ZarlanTheGreen as in each plate adjacent edge to edge
@@charlesballiet7074 There is no way in which the term "butted" can apply to that. Hence why it baffled me. In trying to figure out how you got to that notion, I think I can guess that you thought of "butted mail" (as that involves having the bits merely put close together), but...
To cite a dictionary definition of "butted": "To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity". Butted mail has the "butts" (ends, extremities) of the ring, put together together. There are no butts, to a hexagon, however.
To answer the question though...
From the few photos of historical cloth kikkou armour (some kikkou armour is made by connecting the plates with mail, rather than sewing them to cloth), that are worn/torn in places, so you can see the plates underneath, there is actually a little bit of space between them. Makes sense, when you think about it. If they were too close together, they would constantly push into each other, wear things out, and seriously restrict your mobility.
Lamellar armours and brigandines and the like, had some overlap, carefully arranged in a manner that allows for some movement. If they are separate, however, they will crash into each other, unless you have some space.
Overlap is okay, separation is okay, but edge-to-edge, despite being in-between those options, doesn't work. Kinda ironic, but that's just the way it is.
@@ZarlanTheGreen thank you for that through and well reasoned reply
I love your haircut!
Perfect! Armor i can bring to school here in America!
It seems relatively weak against projectiles like arrows.
Let me explain:
as long as you dont hit the midfle of a plate, I think a protectile will bend the pattern to the point were the tip finds its way through, its like guided to it
That is a possibility, probably depends on the binding through those sewing holes and what is used as the padding/front/backer materials. Testing is required. O.o
Truth be told, I didn't realise that any japanese armour exited
can't believe i missed this one, very interesting video Metatron
Don't google マンチラ (orまんちら)。You might get directed to an R18 site.
満智羅(manchira), a type of kogusogu (小具足)or light armour, one theory of the etymology is that the word originated from the Dutch word Mantel (coat). There are manchiras that had collars, providing protection to the neck and shoulders. Regarding the protection of gaps in between the armour, wakiate (脇当て)which was commonly covered with chainmail would have been worn beneath the dou (胴)to protect the underarm and armpits.
Metatron could also have explained the word Kikko (亀甲)、which literally means turtle/tortoiseshell and is usually referred to as the hexagonal pattern (clothing, pottery etc.)
Anyway, nice piece of armour! By the way, can you dry clean it?
Magnificent!
There is also mail that could cover waist area, (and sometimes plate, but is not as common).
2:18 "This is not a piece of sheet . . . . .
. . . . metal."
i knew about these already, the're really cool to me.
Wow IT looks amasing i realy like the style of it thanks for the video
Manchira with sleeves looks like something a ronin would wear.
Metatron, please do a video about the Almogavers. I read a bit about them I just can't understand how they could win so many battles against way larger and much better equipped armies.
i love you and all your video so much brother !
Zeh, Brave One!
Make a video about the evoluition of armor after the invention of gunpowder i will pay you
So is is it similar to a jack of plate
I used to wear caps with neck flaps as a kid at school.
The reproduction scale plate looks flat, but the period piece looks domed. I can't tell if it is just thicker in the middle of the whole piece is curved. Can you enlighten me? I can see it being slightly curved in that it would provide a bit more stiffness against impact.
With the red color you can see where it fills in gaps on the armor very well. This also highlights that the armor is designed to let you flex side to side not only at your waist, but also with your torso. I do have a question about the Kote sleeves though: they seem to be open on the inside edge a lot compared to European style mail sleeves. I can see that they have plates added that function like vambraces, but it looks like there is a gap that runs along the inside edge of the upper arm is seems. I don't see this on your Kote sleeves because the black on black makes it hard to see details in the video, but I do see it on photos of other sleeves when I looked them up to see more of the detail of how they were constructed.
There are actually many styles of kote. The one he is wearing are very light indeed.
Here a full overview on various styles:
www.quora.com/Why-did-samurai-armor-have-weak-points-on-underarms-and-forearms-striking-there-would-be-easy-if-the-warrior-was-swinging-a-sword/answer/Luca-Nic-1?ch=10&share=7cd7df3e&srid=3z2sJ
I don't understand why the kusazuri just didn't start higher at the bottom of the do instead of just having nothing but cord there. It wouldn't have affected mobility at all.
Thanks for the video! I will add this on my novel
Interessante elemento per completare l'armatura, ed è anche interessante la similitudine in termini di applicazione con la nostra cotta di maglia anche essa si indossa sotto l'armatura di piastre.
lo schema a nido d'ape è intrigante, mi chiedo se questa tipologia di protezione non sia anche dovuta ad una necessità di risparmiare metallo per la creazione di protezioni.
Il ferro del resto era importato e con un armatura cosi leggera doveva essere una soluzione di comodo per gli artigiani del tempo.
This was a good video.
9:15 Metatron shows us on how he can Samurai levitate the top of his body over his feet :D
Miss those type of content.
@ 2:20 "Piece of sheet metal" or "Piece of shit metal". 😂 Either works. You decide.