The Styles of Menpo - Samurai Face Masks
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- Опубликовано: 19 май 2022
- In this quick video we dive in and discuss the different designs/styles of Samurai face masks and theorize as to what some of them mean and why they were used.
Check out Samurai headwear videos in accompaniment to this one:
"Samurai Face Masks" by Samurai and Ninja History
• Samurai Face Masks
"Mengu and the Helmet Cords" by Sengoku Studies • Mengu and the Helmet C...
"Why Did Samurai Use Masks? How Many Types Existed? What do they mean?" by Metatron • Why Did Samurai Use Ma...
Sources Used:
"Menpō (面頬): Samurai War Mask" Article by Gunsen History gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspo...
"The Book of Samurai: Arms, Armor, & the Tactics of Warfare" By Antony Cummins and Yoshie Minami
"Samurai Weapons & Fighting Techniques" by Thomas Conlan
Another Great Article in Japanese www.touken-world.jp/tips/37265/
Music:
"Sinfonia Tapkaara" by Akira Ifukube
Artwork and Images:
Photographs from Museum exhibits
Classical art, which in most cases can be considered public domain.
Other modern artist renditions and photos, if you see your work in this video please contact me so that I can give you proper credit!
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Social Media:
Facebook: / theshogunateyoutube
Twitter: / shogunatethe
Support the channel on Patreon! www.patreon.com/theshogunatey...
#Samurai #History #Japan
If your opponent is scared you can intimidate him. If your opponent is angry you can bait him into exposing himself. If your opponent is calm you had better be at your best because he is.
- Sun Zu
Agreed, this is what I was taught and what I teach. It's VITAL for a world getting crazier on the day to day streets.
@@comradekenobi6908copy and pasted from another comment on another video about this subject.
copy and pasted from around 221-475BC@@ontyam
Unless your opponent is a Berserker making him angry may only make him stronger, in that case, play a lute for him.
part of me has always held the idea that a part of the Devil Shibata nickname for Katsuie was probably inspired by a demonic looking mask he probably wore, also the full face mask that looked like Bishomonten, I could seriously see Uesugi Kenshin wearing that during ceremonies or something since he considered himself an Avatar of Bishomonten.
Uesugi Kenshin, a Graceful leader who remains a legend to this day even to foreigners. All should learn about him.
Interesting that it's often overlooked that the Samurai were headhunters. They habitually took the heads and helmets of their enemies and displayed them to intimidate their opponents.
Most non European cultures followed that practice especially in the indigenous groups in Amazon Indonesia and Polynesian cultures
It was a grave disrespect not to oil your hair before combat by samurai. The reason was to provide a good trophy to the victor
@@teahugibson610many European cultures did before contact with Roman civilizations. Celts, Germans, Slavs, Iberians, and most of all Scythians. The indo-European forefathers almost certainly did as well
Having spent some time high medieval European helmets and modern fencing masks, I have to say that the menpo doesn't look too bad. I also suspect that there may have been some form of internal padding to improve fit and reduce sweating, since metal on skin tends to chafe over long periods.
That’s part of why they shaved the top of their heads
fun fact: alot of Noh and Menpo have a small hole in the chin, to drain sweat that may accumulate. it also doesnt have much padding unless its a more expensive menpo. more traditional masks have a smaller piece of fabric near the cheeks, sometimes not at all, but they are very "roomy" for a mask, so its more likely sweat will make you chafe rather than the actual metal itself :) albiet, it did chafe over longer, more exertive periods
I really did enjoy this video. I learned a couple of new things. Thank you for sharing it with us & keep up the good work 👍🏻
As unusual you describe and explain. I learn things I did not know, and frankly had not thought about.
Yees, there is just so much hidden context
Excellent work and editing. Fantastic thank you.
The tengubo look beautiful❤️Outstanding works of art💯
Always awesome. I think this month is the highest number of videos
The menpo in my opinion the most badass looking mask
Nice vid!
I see you included an image of amakusa shirō. Have you tackled the shimabara rebellion already?
I recommend reading a book called “christ’s samurais”, it is just fantastic.
I will eventually talk about the Shimabara Rebellion!
@@TheShogunate You should read christs samurai
Always thought that Kosaka Masanobu was a badass because of his mask when I played Nobunaga's Ambition games when I was a kid. Can't wait for Nobunaga's Ambition Shinsei English version. =)
This video has been very informative indeed! I'm working on a face mask as part of a suit of cosplay samurai armor, and this is important stuff for me to learn about. Your hard work is greatly appreciated :)
Darth Vader: *Heavy Breathing*
Btw Darth Vader design was inspired by Samurai Kabuto❤
I was just searching for traditional samurai face masks as inspiration for a character's design and this came right in time!
Excellent video.
Facial haired ones looks ridiculous and awesome at the same time. My favorite is demon looking ones, they could spread fear at the battlefield. I always imagine red devils of Takeda wear them and after Takeda's downfall Naomasa Ii and his soldiers wear them.
thank you for the content 🙏
If you gotta wear it to keep from getting an arrow or a spear to the face then you might as well make it look cool.
great videos broski
Masks worn close to the face would do little to stop blunt force when compared to a full faced helmet.
I myself own a set of modern made samurai armor. The nose piece on my menpo comes off too easily. I've heard menpo had a hole on the chin for sweat drainage, but mine lacks such a feature.
The fearsome look is great psychological warfare.
Prolly it was more effective against stray arrows.
@@deadby15 That's fair. History is littered with leaders whose faces were struck by stray arrows.
Against a straight on strike, yes a mask that is flush against your face does very little BUT it does still dissipate the power over a larger area. So a glancing blow that could shatter your cheek bone could be reduced into just hurting like a mofo over your face.
@@MaaZeus That's certainly fair.
Blunt damage is the bane of most If not all armors
❤ Awesome as always thanks
Thank you! Now we know all the pros and Khans!!!
I love going down these rabbit holes. Great hangover cure. Proceed sir.😂
Great video
Great info👍🌅🇸🇪
It can be tedious to wear face masks in these times so I got one designed to look like Menpo. Now, I can glare menacingly at strangers while clutching the hilt of my non-existent katana while walking to work.
What's Menpo?
Edit: comment early, now I know.
Please,a vídeo about mercenary samurai in southeast asian,there is a book about ito called The lost samurai by Stephen turnbull.
Definitely a fascinating subject
@@TheShogunate thanks
I think you are referring to a samurai who served the Thai kingdom during the fifteenth century and who became a prestigious general, even founded a Japanese neighborhood and defeated incursions by the Spanish Tercios
Awesome
Brilliant content man!! Love it.
The appeal of making a form and function armor always attracts artist.
Love from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳❤️❤️
Can you do a video on the different types/shapes of Jingasa?
I've search a long time for it online but can't seem to find anything, which is sad
if you know anything about this topic can you tell me where to find the information?
Thx
I definitely could, but I should also mention that Sengoku Studies and I think even Japan at War have mad videos regarding the Jingasa
@@TheShogunate thanks but I've already watched those two videos before,
The reason I asked you is because you have a knowledge of sources about Japanese history online
Also I just want to know if you have any websites or articles that I could use to study deeper about Jingasa?
@@comradekenobi6908 Regarding the Jingasa, it can be quite difficult simply because it appears there are not many sources available in English that look like they are 100% trustworthy. However if you google the actual kanji for the term 笠 (Kasa - hat) you can find a lot of great articles written in Japanese. For this I recommend using google chrome so you can auto-translate the sites. Of course the translations may not be the best but you can generally get a solid idea of what is being discussed.
@@TheShogunate Arigato gozaimazu!!
I do agree that even if full mask might have possibly been used in battle they would have also been something which was quite rare.
I'll check out those channels but I love Linfamy sama most, as well as your work for Ukraine doctors. Great video
Hean period? It might be better to add a date or link to a video of that period for people who have no idea what that is.
I completely understand. Normally I do add the dates (as I did with the Sengoku period in this video). But there was already a lot of other wording on screen at the time when I mentioned the Heian period so I chose not to add it as well.
How did they even make those!?
How effective was the armor, in general to weapons of the time
Very
Menpo was the shit!
Had l been samurai, l would probably have ditched practicality for coolness.
And died, but died looking cool.
That's what life's about, live to die cool 😎
Unrelated question to the videos topic but what did samurai or ashigaru do when they found the dead bodies of people who committed seppeku? Was there quick looting and stripping of the bodies real quick , did they just wrap them up and bury them there or defile them?
none of these manage to be as deeply unsettling as the roman cavalry masks for some reason.
In my head it’s because the face is showing emotion on menpo. The Roman masks have a face devoid of any emotion. The idea of someone attacking you in battle with a completely straight face just feels inhuman.
It strikes me how similar the happuri face mask is to the face gaurd on a hoplite helmet. There is historical evidence of hoplite mercenaries in China before this period so the similarity in name also strikes me as being curious.
I always think of Takeda Shingen
You can see that the small eye holes on the pieces that you say are ceremonial wouldn't be practical as they would limit perrifieral vision. This is the case with modern boxing headgear that has cheek protectors, it really limits your perrifieral vision.
The wider eyeholes of the more practical designs would limit perrifieral vision much less but are also less protective. It seems like many of the helmets shown have a brim that covers these exposed eye holes, I guess to protect against thrusts and arrows?
The large nose and mouth holes would help prevent carbon dioxide building up inside the mask (a problem with fullface European helmets) , but again leave parts of the face exposed. The elongated noses actually come down in front of the mouth hole, meaning that air can come in and out, but the gap is more protected
After all, also Dart Vader had problem breathing under the mask.
The happy old man ones are more scary than the demon ones in a way
I can’t be the only one who thinks that the “old man” mask at 7:30 looks like the face of the River Spirit from Spirited Away.
I'm more of a vagabond that wins without a mask but I'm certain they were very important. Most informative 🙏 let's see what your friends channels have now 🤙 go Ukraine!
Can you do a review of the 2017 Chinese movie called God of War that depicts Japan’s expansion into China during the Ming dynasty? :)
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Long live the Samurai
theyre all dead tho
@@foolish_ahmya don't care
@@foolish_ahmya you can learn to live The Way of the Samurai or live by the Bushido code, so Samurai mentality is what I'm more saying long live to
@@ferrodriguez7387 I love the sentiment! and I agree we can learn a lot today about how to conduct ourselves like that of the samurai. However I do think it is important to point out that we should really not use the term Bushido. Our modern Idea of it is mostly false to what it actually was. I made a video on this subject: "The Bushido Myth" ruclips.net/video/O5PJX1hdOPc/видео.html&ab_channel=TheShogunate
i wonder if these masks influenced Noh masks or vice versa
The evolution of Noh theatre ran a bit parallel to the evolution of face armor so it definitely could have!
Are kabuki style face masks worn by the samurai as well, or was that just some modern movie flare 🤔
Kabuki is a theatre mask
Anyone else think of kensei when looking at the thumbnail?
Mempo, worn with full yoroi/O-yoroi. Kamakura-jidai is when the masks started getting really fancy.
The most terrifying kabuto/mempo combo I've ever seen was a stylized usagi (rabbit) with sharp, spiked teeth, wild eyes, and large vertical ears.
Horrifying.
In a battle point of view.... was these mask practical to wear during fighting?
If you're a high ranking noble and don't want your face to be disfigured during fighting, yes
@@comradekenobi6908 Fair enough I guess
This is all part of the current debate ongoing to this day.
@@TheShogunate hello
Sorry to copy pasted this, but incase you missed my response to your comment from earlier;
_thanks but I've already watched those two videos before,_
_The reason I asked you is because you have a knowledge of sources about Japanese history online_
_Also I just want to know if you have any websites or articles that I could use to study deeper about Jingasa?_
@@TheShogunate I think the Half mask Hanbo that protect the chin was used alot as it looks much more practical as it protect your cheek and also chin. Also in chambara movies where the bandits would wear looted armor. The face guard Happuri (the same one that Toshiro Mifune wore in 7 Samurai at the near end battle) was used alot by ashigaru vanguard, thus we see alot of bandits in movies wear them as they might be deserters or brigands
Muito bom 🇧🇷👍🏻👍🏻
If only regular face masks had mustaches. I might have worn one more in the COVID days
これは槍や弓矢から守るものではなく、印地打ちから顔を守る為にあります。
印地打ちはsling shotを意味します。
これらの面頬は鉄に樹脂が塗られたもので、現代の野球用ヘルメットのように衝撃に強い。
この時代の樹脂は、漆を意味します。
2:05 Happuri
2:42 Hanbo
2:48 Hoate
3:03 Menpo
3:22 Somen
6:46 _"誰か「いしとせき」申さなかったか?"_
It makes you think they must have used these as inspiration for the design of the green goblin mask in the first Spider-Man movie.
Oni 🤯
Psychological warfare
So THAT'S what the mask is!
Darth V!
The demonic masks seem similar to the Jade Emperor’s heavenly palace guards’ faces in Chinese and Vietnamese culture.
Sheeeeeeeeeesh
Legio I Germanica is better
@@comradekenobi6908 Shut, we killed 80 000 celts in one day.
@@tonk8395 we killed 8 Morbillion Germans daily
@@comradekenobi6908 L+ bozo+ rip+ didn't ask+ this is a reenacment group.
@@tonk8395 wanna fight it out to see who's the best? Just like the old times
Onibaba had the greatest mask story ever, albeit on a different way.
I imagine the protruding chin and wrinkles on the face improve protection by redirecting blows to the side
The mask at 08:50 looks like Nixon
I expected them to be one inspired
If shinobi were samurai, did they also wear masks?
👍🏿🤠👍🏿
there are accounts from crusaders having their faces cut off in battle, im willing to bet even the most impractical looking masks were used at one time in combat.
If anyone wondered what inspired Darth Vader's helm and mask...
1:58 canonically sukuna could have worn menpo
Im sorry if any warrior back in the day ever meet a samurai outside of its realm say the Zulu warrior or the Vikings they would honest think that it was a demon.
this type of gene is white/purity version appear in three or something...pretty much scary..
Make this the top comment
Custom assassin wear,way before John Wick. Shogun Gucci
Fun Fact #1 : they were modelled after the constipated look of a man who had eaten too much sticky rice
Fun Fact #2 : the above fact isn't a fact
Seriously doubt they wore these into any kind of prolonged battle or war. They were probably for solders show of force to intemidate or when burning down villages. Sometimes a lord or high rank may need to escape unrecognized. They look amazing however and multiple pieces had to be tied on with heavy braided rope of sorts.
They wore them in battles. Along with full crests on the helm.
If he has a mustache that means he is a master barber good with a razor and the last guy thar messed with him is know monk now
first comment
Bruh momento
@@tonk8395 Thank you roman
The Japanese have a saying:
Everyone has three faces. One they show to the world. One they show to their family and friends. And one they dont show to anyone.
Or something like that🤷
Always remember there is one Shogun, me. I always called it 面具 or mengu, but I agree, the artistic, styilstic look and practical vs "realism, just a human face" carved in less evolved societies like the west has always been my favorite part about them.
I also disagree with people always thinking practicality determines whether something was used. You'd be surprised how ostentanious chinese and japanese are in terms of flexing on their enemies their own wealth and the superstitious belief of "talisman" culture and nature these totems bring them. The west lacks and forsakes art for enginuity and lost touch with the spirit of humanity, and other powerful beings you can summon when one is more artistic.
thanx for the 10 min ad break bye
I personally think Tengu are literally just poor descriptions of pre-historical foreigners. The reason being that if you watch the one on confused Japanese historians trying to describe Europeans, they come up with similar descriptions and illustrations. They were probably visited by Romans or Egyptians or something. Some people that have large distinct noses. Fast forward a couple thousand years and boom, confused descriptions made literal. They didn't even think Europeans were humans. Keep that in mind. And they taught the Japanese how guns work. If they had been isolated for a few thousand years more, imagine.
We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking.
alright Mishima, calm down
Gee. Thanks…
But not everyone could be a samurai...
Masterful comment
Plato it's just armor
I always believed the mask was for protection but also to represent a oni (the japanease methos of a demon) hence why samurai at some point was refereed to as demons because of how elite they was considered that there capability was not human.
If I pull that mask off, would you die?
Fabuleux !!! Sorry Fabulous, I am french !!!
I like to believe that this people used them to sort of detach themselves from the battles and war as a sort of coping technique. Idk much about the history but putting a mask on to become another "you" seems ritualistic and healing in a way
Really no meaning but the way of the warriors the nights before the battle same as native American traditions you build your spirits up and enjoy life before the battle knowing that people may not come back that's why the horse riders would charge in like the saying face your fear head on and not prolong it so to say as well as dress in your best combat fatigues and prepare for death not suicidal just not wanting to lay wounded for days but to just face your fear head on and hope for the best. But different times and Era but interesting video
Protection against spiritual forces , I felt sometimes drained then I toke my magical rope on and mask buum! Like I banish someone n I felt better.. 👹👻
why do those masks have African features, that's what i've always wondered.
Calling it Armor seems inaccurate, they wouldnt offer any protection, any hit to the mask would transfer the energy of the hit into the persons face, only armor like function i could see them serving would be to protect from crap kicked up by horses in a charge
Helmets used today for modern warfare have the same practicality, most wear them purely for protection from shrapnel
Ever since visiting the samurai exhibition at the Denver Art Museum and learning about them, my favorite has been the long phallic nosed menpo like the one you pictured at 8:50 that the Japanese started make after encountering white people to poke fun of their big noses!
Imagine seeing that for the 1st time back then, you’d shit yourself