The Evolution Of Japanese Armor

[estcrh]

This article from Myarmoury is interesting and informative, it is worth taking a look at, while not completely accurate is still is a good basic guide.

[Brian]

Very nice article, lots to learn and read there.
But posting it as an external link to a giant pic is going to make it either unavailable in the future, and certainly hard to follow since you can't copy and paste anything.

Can you see if you can get it as text or at least convert to a pdf? Hard to access it as is now.

[estcrh]

Very nice article, lots to learn and read there.

But posting it as an external link to a giant pic is going to make it either unavailable in the future, and certainly hard to follow since you can't copy and paste anything.

Can you see if you can get it as text or at least convert to a pdf? Hard to access it as is now.

Here is a link to the original article, this should help. 

 

https://myarmoury.com/feature_jpn_armour.php

[Brian]

Thanks. I'll try and clean it up a bit on the weekend, but here is a more accessible pdf. I hope the source would not mind sharing it, if so I will remove it on request.

 

Brian

The Evolution of Japanese Armour.pdf

[IanB]

Absolutely riddled with errors I'm afraid.

Ian Bottomley

[estcrh]

Absolutely riddled with errors I'm afraid.

Ian Bottomley

 

Of course, an amateurs attempt to do what a much more knowledgable person probably should have done but did not (as far as I know), in the absence of a better one it is a good basic reference and as someones knowledge of the subject grows they can learn to differientiate the facts from the errors. This was written in 2007 and there is now much more information available for the next person who may attempt to do a similar write up, or they can take this one and correct the mistakes, now that would be interesting and helpful.

 

Maybe some of the more knowledgable people here would point out the "errors", that would be helpful as well.

[DaveT]

Brian,

Errors become legend I'm afraid. Dangerous stuff. Like when I hear someone say Ta-suba, or Kart-Tanna or they think a wakizashi is a tanto.

 

Ian and myself are putting together a free publication that will act as an introduction to armour. As you can imagine it is rather time consuming. This forum and the samurai armour fourm is packed with useful katchu information and some very knowledgeable people. A newbie only needs to ask a question here.

 

I'm cuttrently learning about nihonto, so for me this is the first place that I come too to research. I would be disheartened to discover that the content was incorrect here. We have a katchu forum, and we direct all of our members here for Nihonto.

 

Ian Bottomley is held in very high esteem by the katchu community due to his knowledge and proven track record as a author/historian and curator. The PDF attached to this thread is incorrect, it really adds little value. I'm sure that no one has the time to edit and correct all the mistakes of someone elses outdated work. When the new publication is completed I will send you the pdf links to that both forums have it up.

[estcrh]

I did say ...."while not completely accurate"..... A few examples of inaccuracys could be pointed out in the same amount of time it takes to criticize, that would actually help teach people something.

[estcrh]

 

 We have a katchu forum, and we direct all of our members here for Nihonto.

 

Not entirely   http://nihon-no-katchu.proboards.com/board/37/nihonto

[DaveT]

It's nearly completely inaccurate. 80/20

Apologies, but I don't have the free time at the moment to correct them all.

[estcrh]

It's nearly completely inaccurate. 80/20

 

Apologies, but I don't have the free time at the moment to correct them all.

A good scholarly difference of opinion. I think your way off but I could be wrong, maybe some of our other more knowledgable forum member will have a few minutes of time to point out one or two of the more glaring mistakes....I am not expecting anyone to do the whole thing.

[Brian]

There is enough basic info there for me to get something out of it. Anyone reading it will be well advised that there are mistakes. But until something better comes along, I am happy to read some of the basics without having to go elsewhere. Dedicated armour enthusiasts will already be on those forums. Guys with a casual interest will skim the article, and ask questions if they need to.

There is still a LOT of valid info there, even the diagrams are useful and interesting.

[estcrh]

There is enough basic info there for me to get something out of it. Anyone reading it will be well advised that there are mistakes. But until something better comes along, I am happy to read some of the basics without having to go elsewhere. Dedicated armour enthusiasts will already be on those forums. Guys with a casual interest will skim the article, and ask questions if they need to.

There is still a LOT of valid info there, even the diagrams are useful and interesting.

I think both Ian and Daves comments are helpful, in the forum were this was originally posted there are no warnings so anyone reading it will not take care to scrutinize what they are reading, but as it is now anyone who reads this thread will know that this article contains some very good information and some (or a lot) of inaccuracies.

 

This actually points how how little verifiable material there is for the average reader who is trying to make sense of the whole Japanese armor world without having to spend years doing so. I am looking forward to Dave and Ians joint publication which I am sure will be a great resource.