I was going to add something about that. Japanese had very little in that day and age of anything. Just finished five hours teaching/practice. Three tomorrow then two full days Saturday and Sunday. Teaching to cut with a sword with avoidance techniques with the body that put one well within range to attack. Two WMA instructors are attending the seminar. They dont use shields for what they do either. I can assure anyone interested that a shield would be of no use whatsoever for what we do, Koryu/Kobudo (classical budo). Swordsmiths tell me in warring times they churned out tons of roughly made weapons, very rough sharpened surface. Rough edges bite into whatever you are cutting. They used Ashigaru (conscript foot soldiers). Mercenaries that used swords, spears and naginata. 15th century arquebus, 16th century they already used guns.
I know that heavy Western sword users, Gallowglass, Lansknecht etc used 2 handed weapons - great swords, pole arms (Haulberk, Bardiche, PIke, Lochaber, Langue ,De Boef Voulge, Partisan, Glaive, Bill etc.), etc. and other than some Scots and Irish axe men who wore shields strapped to their back, they had no way of using a shield. Funny enough they didn't use shields because they had enough to hump with 2 handed weapons, maybe the Japanese felt just the same.
Why hide behind an armor? Japanese had pavises that they quite effectively hid behind to protect against arrows and later bullets. That's another myth. Like many other people they started battle with a series of duels. But after a while the fighting transferred to standard group fighting. I'd agree, an armour is less cumbersome than a shield, at least a medium sized one, and especially when you have a panoply of two handed weapons. Fashion do get on in the ancient warfaring world. We are humans, prone to emotions and subjective choices, but when it comes to survival, especially if you have nothing to gain from it, it seems not that much. But the thing is there is simply no reason for a post heian japanese footsoldier to carry a shield in the first place. The only reason he might have picked one was when he had to revert to his one handed short sword of knife when all his other weapons failed (and that means its the last thing you do before running or dying). Then you probably had the choice to take your dead neighbour's helmet as a small shield, or your own like they do in Yagyu Shingan ryu, but that always struck me as strange.
In 300 they were Scots just listen to the acsents!!!! In fact Leonidus came from Glasgow. They trained at the makotokai!!! PLEASE get your fact right. koyo
Ah, so that means you got something to do with this terrible quality music clip on youtub [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4HpvxFg-DM&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4HpvxFg-DM&feature=related[/ame]
Who are you calling an ahso you tube By the way the guy that posted that is a "sound engineer" Honestly ,and a guitar teacher. Not a vintage rocker like his teacher.
Ahhh, the total failure of the spartans (sorry Scots) to make a sensible strategic withdrawal now makes perfect sense. Were they all armed with broken pint glasses? paul - from a respectfully safe distance away.....
