are these helmets practical or mostly for decoration purposes?
Samurai Helmets
31–40 of 91 posts
Re: Samurai Helmets
#32There's an interesting helmet with a large statue of Fudo Myo-o, the "immovable radiant king" of Shingon Buddhism. I don't recall seeing another helmet with a full statue. Are there more examples?
There's this one at Les Invalides in Paris (site not mine):
https://frompariswithlove-becky.blogspot.com/2015/03/les-inv...
Cmd/ctrl+f, "dragon". It's not quite half way down. Picture's not great. IIRC it was right inside the entrance we came in, though I don't know how much help that is as there are probably a few, even if you narrow it down to entrances open to the public.
There's a closer, somewhat sharper shot of just the top on this page:
https://thetreesaroundnunhead.blogspot.com/2011/08/paris-3-t...
Searching on page for "dragon" brings one straight to it, again.
It's a European helmet, not a Japanese one, though.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#33Is the fantastic impracticality of these helmets due to the handicap principal ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle )?
Nope, it's due to the fact these come from the period after the samurai had changed from soldiers to aristocratic bureaucrats. It's doubtful any of these saw a single battle.
They may have seen battle but if so as commanders from the rear where visibility to the troops was paramount. If they had seen actual close combat those elaborate decorations probably would not have survived. Also, there were many plainer helmets at the exhibition. I think a samurai expecting real combat would have chosen one of those.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#34Is the fantastic impracticality of these helmets due to the handicap principal ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle )?
Some of these are almost certainly just ceremonial pieces, but the ones that aren't would have served a distinctive signpost for troops under a samurai's command, the same way that flags strapped to armor and horses were common in premodern warfare through the world. Fighting without radios or even so much as binoculars is extremely confusing, and if you're leading a bunch of peasant militia who get a bare minimum of training, you want it extremely obvious who's giving the orders and where to try and group up if people get separated in battle.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's likely an artifact of the samurai fighting style which is quite different from conventional continental fighting as experienced by regular troops.
Can you briefly describe the style of fighting that makes this sort of headgear practical?
[deleted]
Re: Samurai Helmets
#36If anyone lives in London and would like to investigate how the ancient sword arts of japan tie into meditation, I highly recommend http://battodo-fudokan.co.uk/
From the websight "Nakamura Ryu Battodo is a distillation of traditional Japanese swordsmanship ..." In other words, it is not a traditional sword system but a modern one.
In my experience, Aikido includes many practical bits of Japanese swordsmanship. Practitioners (especially Iwama style) typically use wooden knives, swords and staffs in practice. Because that helps with proper form. Given that most Aikido moves are based on weapon moves.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#37Is the fantastic impracticality of these helmets due to the handicap principal ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle )?
Some of these are almost certainly just ceremonial pieces, but the ones that aren't would have served a distinctive signpost for troops under a samurai's command, the same way that flags strapped to armor and horses were common in premodern warfare through the world. Fighting without radios or even so much as binoculars is extremely confusing, and if you're leading a bunch of peasant militia who get a bare minimum of…
Yes. Important and high-level people often wore large and conspicuous helmets to show that they were still on the field. Others could look to see that the lord was still not overrun or had not taken flight, or perhaps he had taken a different position. Also it could be useful to signal his authority if he had to directly rally troops from horseback.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#38Is the fantastic impracticality of these helmets due to the handicap principal ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle )?
Some of these are almost certainly just ceremonial pieces, but the ones that aren't would have served a distinctive signpost for troops under a samurai's command, the same way that flags strapped to armor and horses were common in premodern warfare through the world. Fighting without radios or even so much as binoculars is extremely confusing, and if you're leading a bunch of peasant militia who get a bare minimum of…
...and the face masks?
Re: Samurai Helmets
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh - I practiced Kendo with Raoul Knutsen for a few years, there wasn't much meditative about the school he followed!
I have a lot of respect for martial arts disciplines that put martial arts first and keep spiritual aspects of the practice ( if they have one ) off the marketing material.
This is interesting. I've been doing Krav Maga for some time and a few years ago did a week of it in Isreal, sampling all its aspects and applications - military, close protection, civilian, police /crowd control and... it's spiritual side. For a martial art so young I was surprised it even has a spiritual side. It's also become the aspect I find most fascinating. And yet the instructors accompanying us seemed embarrassed by it and the single instructor world wide teaching it from a kibbutz outside Haifa.
It certainly wasn't why I chose to practice Krav Maga.
Re: Samurai Helmets
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of these are almost certainly just ceremonial pieces, but the ones that aren't would have served a distinctive signpost for troops under a samurai's command, the same way that flags strapped to armor and horses were common in premodern warfare through the world. Fighting without radios or even so much as binoculars is extremely confusing, and if you're leading a bunch of peasant militia who get a bare minimum of…
...and the face masks?
These would be useful for both terrorizing your enemies and also ensuring that you don't take a blow to the face.