How comes Samurai Armor so aesthetic?

Korean armor

They are ugly as fuck

...

because they couldn't make large steel plates

They just ripped off Lucas.

So fucking gay

Yes they could, the helmets were steel pate and many of the breastplates were too

Looks gay but lighter and more functional than samurai armor.

Thread is about looks not usefulness. You want practicality go fap to your overused bdu's or other boring and unimaginative uniforms from the Revolutionary Era.

I meant samurai armor achieved aesthetic looks at the cost of usefulness.

don't be silly, if it didnt work or wasnt practical they wouldnt wear it.
A lot of money, time and effort goes into making armour, and it's meant to protect the wearer's life. Just because other peoples made superior armour does not mean their armour was impractical or useless.

this design looks very different from the one in the OP, I assume this one is more recent given the gunpowder weapon. Can you elaborate on why they look so different? Did they use imported steel to make those? Did forging techniques improve by the time they used this kind of armour?

>horse archer

Learn the differences between Asian empires

...

>fucking Santa Claus armor

>I assume this one is more recent given the gunpowder weapon.

Wrong. The guy with an arquebus is re-enacting Sengoku era engagement.
The guy who owns the collection from the OP dates it as Edo period.

The OP stuff is newer, but made during peace-time. It's the same as European armour. The fancy shit that survived until today is the stuff that god made by some supreme craftsman during peacetime and was only ever used as a decorations/festival piece.

neato
thank you. Did they design them in a more traditionalist style? They look less protective than the steel stuff in the gunpowder image.

It's for tribal warlords only they control millions of people and have huge industry.

Of course it's aesthetic af.

Zippo Japo

Looks like a bit inaccurate reproduction.

The sash seems a bit weak, the linings and the scales are too big.

Pretty much this, in the edo period people wanted recreations of early types of armor, but they were made for show, and weren't super accurate.

Though even early suits of armor contained a good deal of steel, but it was in small plate rather than large ones. Over time they went for simpler, but better fitting designs as time went on

>QINGZ
>Not max aesthetic

"Armour"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandine

This underwear really existed!?

...

Are you sure that's not just one of those Faux Brigandines?

Looks sophisticated. Maybe functional. But not menacing. Doesn't have that Asian barbarian feels.

Samurais were immensely wealthy. Way richer than European knights and face was very important to them so they had the means and the reason to buy very ornate armor.

Horrible generalization see me after class.

Now he looks like a proper horse rider. You can't operate quickly enough in some 40 lbs armors.

The armors are actually not so heavy, right? They look made of wood and rope except the helmet.

It's pretty heavy, but just about the same as European Plate harness. The steel segments look wooden because of the lacquer.

holy shit what are you smoking

even peace-time samurai can be compared to the monetary retardation of really late medieval French knights
They weighed a bit less than full plate, but were worn in a more stupid/uneven way, so it would've felt about the same. Also the rope could get wet, weighing it down further.

Because Qing armours basically are direct copies of Ming.
greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2016/08/ming-qing-japanese-armour-comparison.html

>Looks like a bit inaccurate reproduction.
Not inaccurate,just never used on the field of battle.

Regular versions are made from lamellar or leather/metal forms of brigandine.

No the reason it is inaccurate is because it is largely tailored. A good suit should fit onto the wearer perfectly, the ones in the pictures are modern reproduction. And as far as I'm aware all those types of armour or steel Brigandine.

What's the yellow uniform from?

Why are their sleeves all so baggy?

They also stay in relation with our nomadic Turks.
Imagine yourself living in a tent, you will dress in half a tent. Baggy sleeves make for a better climate.

>A good suit should fit onto the wearer perfectly, the ones in the pictures are modern reproduction.
Not necessarily,Korean scale armor was largely ceremonial and/or meant for high ranking individuals.

You can see this in late Qing Imperial guard armors as well,they weren't always meant to be custom fit.

I found Korean leather brigandine on this blog.
kyb0417.blogspot.com/2012/01/korean-leather-armour-artifacts.html

>Why are their sleeves all so baggy?
Comfort? Korean brigandine always ended at the elbows unlike Ming/Qing brigandine which can be sleeveless,cap sleeved or full length.

Late Qing Imperial guard for reference.

Qing brigandine often have jazerant/brigandine sleeves.

Is it the similar type of armour to the ones mongols used during invasion of Japan?

Looks comfy af.

Did mongols come over to Japan with their horses?

Pretty much all asian empires used horse archery if they had horses and bows.

Korean armors are generally made in one piece and elbow length sleeves. Though there are a couple two piece examples.

Qing armors are always made in two pieces with a upper body "waistcoat" and a lower body faulds. Qing armors always have spaulders while the arm is either sewn with the main body or there is a separate forearm metal armguard.
greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2016/08/ming-qing-japanese-armour-comparison.html

The Mongol armors(Might be Korean or Chinese) from the scroll are made as a single piece not the two piece style. As far as I'm aware only the Ming had something similar. Image attached is from the military manual Bing Lu c1606

From left to right:
1. Sleeved brigandine
2. Sleeveless brigandine
3. Sleeveless brigandine/lamellar
4. Sleeveless lamellar/brigandine
5. Sleeveless lamellar

>FUCKING MANCHU

Get out pig dog.

Ming armors were sleeveless for ease of movement as well as potential usage of segmented metal armguards.
greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2016/06/bi-fu.html

Sauce pls

>being so much an anti-weeb that you think those rhinestoned santa suits are more practical than samurai armor.

A E S T H E T I C

>The fancy shit that survived until today is the stuff that god made by some supreme craftsman during peacetime and was only ever used as a decorations/festival piece.
Not quite.
They were certainly created by craftsman at the peak of their art, but they weren't necessarily created during or for peace-time use. The pieces in question were the armor owned by the highest levels of aristocracy who could afford to treat that level of decoration as disposable and were in fact socially expected to. They were fully functional artifacts of war and were only intended to avoid combat in the sense that the high-born occupant was expected to avoid combat.

One thing that few people take into account is that apparently practical polished armor was every bit as much of a decorative conceit as engraved armor gilded with gold. In the days before motorized buffing wheels and modern polishing compounds, shining an entire suit of armor to a mirror polish was a highly labor intensive process that cost more than the actual suit itself, to say nothing of the maintenance required to keep it polished.

Lacquer is literally made out of trees, that's why this kind of armors all look more or less woody

fake propaganda garbage for gook wankery

They laqaured pretty much everything, even steel plates so its hard to tell. laqured leather was popular in early armor, but steel was also used and certain parts had to be made of steel to provide adequate protection.

No, they could not. Their helmets were put together from smaller plates and so was their armour. When a samurai wore a single large breastplate it was usually European made or made from imported steel (nanban-tetsu).

OP stuff is newer in terms of age (i.e. it is reproduction armour) but not in terms of style. The yellow one is an older style from the middle ages, the other two are from the early modern period (same as ).

Comfy but a bit ugly

I mean its true that they generally didn't make single piece steel breast plates but they certainly did make multi piece breast plates out of large plates.

The Japanese always had a knack for designing very aesthetic, cool looking, menacing armor. It still reflects in todays eastern video game characters. It's a cultural thing I suppose.

>out of large plates
It depends on how we define large.

The point is that up to the point where they had access to European steel, they made breastplates in the same fashion as Europe did up to the 14th century - by putting them together from smaller plates rather than forging them from a single piece.

Ethnic Uyghur in a ceremonial costume.

Yes that's pretty much true, though from what I understand importing European steel only began near the beginning of the Edo period.

I don't doubt in the sengoku period they would have bought all the processed steel they could, and they certainly did buy completed sets of European armor, But I dont know how big a factor it was in weapon and armor production at the height of the fighting

Colorful

Most troops that participated in the invasion of Japan were unmotivated Korean & Chinese troops anyway.

that kind of armor was expensive. passed down generations.It also was a status symbol.

Roman face masks would be of beautiful faces. The romans saw them selves as gods on the battle field.

Japanese face masks were of demons.

Wat? Since when was Uyghur "ceremonial costume" Qing Dynasty brigandine armor?

Since the late Qing dynasty didn't use armor anymore in favor of uniforms, both local and westernized.

Wait I misunderstood your question.

Qing Bannermen had people from many ethnicities m8. Probably some distinguished Uyghur soldier that found himself in an elite bodyguard unit.

The reason maybe due to Japan's keeping to its animist tradition as opposed to other regions which became monotheisized or secularized.
The Japanese are what I imagine the indigenous Americans may have been like had they been able to reach a greater degree weapons technology parity with the old word. As a matter of fact some film portrayals of ancient South East Asian kingdoms such as Ong Bak 3 show similarities with ancient Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations but that could also be just due to the limits and abilities of film industries atm.

What kind of animist people regard themselves as eggplant fairy in the battle field?

I love seafood samurai.

Shell samurai

Daily clothing/fashion influence armor design just as much as "practicality" is. Just look how baggy traditional Korean clothing can be. Korean armor is designed to worn/fit over Korean man's clothing, not his naked body.

Similarly, look at how sleek and lean 15-16 century plate armors are. By 17th century, three quarter armor suddenly turn fat. Fashion changed and men started to wear baggy pants, so armor design followed suit.

Probably some Papuans or Zulus have similarly mythical concepts.

Did they dismount for archery? Certainly would explain the big ass bows those dont look very convinient for horseback

being some illiterate ashigaru in the misty woods and getting charged by a large group of samurai looking like pic related would be pretty fucking spooky tbqh

them masks

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yabusame

Iirc, aside from the Takeda clan, the Japanese did not employ cavalry in conventional charges, they were essentially mounted infantry and would dismount to fight.

Japanese horses were smaller.

Not the guy you replied to. But how small were Japanese horses in reality?

The Chinese brought Bactrian steeds by the thousands and Koreans also employed Khitans to breed a War Horses.

So it should be a possibility for the Japanese to import them as well.

I've seen Japanese paintings and they seem to have similiar sized mounts.

Isn't the target too near?
youtube.com/watch?v=pf3QRc_OShE

They did, but not all the time.

Japanese horses are not significantly smaller than Mongol or Chinese horse. What's limiting the effectiveness of samurai cavalry are:

> mostly mountain terrain
> less horse. A Mongol warrior may had several (usually five or more) spare mounts, less so for Japanese.
> A samurai was a feudal minor noble and warrior elite. When he got summon to war by his lord, he had very little idea on what equipment his fellow samurai might bring. Which means the entire army was ad hoc and he wouldn’t have the faintest of clue on how to fought together with another horsemen as a unit.
> Chinese/Korean/Mongol cavalry were grunts that trained and fought together with other mounted grunts all the time, thus they were much more organized and makes effective cavalry.

No. The "Mongols" were mostly Korean and Chinese Vassals that had to fight. Even if they were Mongols, I wouldn't have mattered. You can't simply transport giant stallions caged on a wooden ship without training it first. It's likely only officers had them.

Horse Archery is extremely hard. The Japanese targets may be the shortest because of their large, hard hitting arrows. Continental archers often shoot a bit further, but the distance is mostly the same.

Japanese bow is asymmetrical so it is easier to use on horseback, but that’s only one of its advantages.

Other good things about the bow is that you can shoot while crouching or even sitting, behind the protection of shield/forts.

Just is

Well you can do that with any bow can't you?

Yes, but for a normal longbow you need to tilt the bow. It is harder to pull the bow to full draw that way. The bow might also gets in the way of others.

Modern yabusame use modern and much larger breeds. Samurai horses were much smaller in the past. It’s more of a large pony.

I was going to say this horse looks big but they are a bit on the virgin side. Nuffin like a good Chad stallion.

From the 5th century to the 8th century, iron armor was common in Japan.
At that time in Japan, iron was made from Ironsand, complicated techniques developed to control its carbon concentration.
But when inexpensive iron are imported from China, like to make steel by mixing it Become.
The samurai liked lightweight armor, but this is also a combination of iron chips with hemp.