I Love Japanese Culture
Why Didn't the Japanese Use Shields?
This is a question some history buffs with a keen interest in ancient and medeival Japanese history have about Japanese warfare. So, why didn't they use shields? Well, they actually did. In fact, the Japanese used quite a few different variations of shields throughout history.
Pre-samurai Japanese warriors used shields. Here's a statue depicting an ancient tribal Japanese warrior with a shield:
Fast-forward several centuries later after the advent of firearms, some samurai horseman carried pistols as well as a small metal shield to deflect shots from other samurai. Depicted in the frame on the right:
And then the most common shield used in Japanese warfare, was a very large shield called a "tate" or "tedate". Here's a depiction of this shield:
These shields were the Japanese equivalent of the Italian pavise used in medieval Europe, in that they were large, rectangular shields big enough to provide cover from enemy missiles while also capable of being mobile while on the battlefield. Here's a portrayal of these shields being used in battle:
It may not have been a handheld shield (though there is evidence to show that they were occasionally used as such), but it was still a shield. But why didn't the Japanese - specifically the samurai - use handheld shields throughout their history? Well, there's quite a few answers to that...
The main one lies with the standard weaponry used by the samurai. In the earliest foundations of the samurai, they were first and foremost horse archers. They were used to conduct raids while riding on horseback and attacking with their bows and arrows, which of course, demands the use of both hands by the wielder. When the samurai were more widespread and became the domineering military force in Japan, their primary weapon for melee combat was a spear, which again, typically requires the use of both hands. Basically, medieval Japanese weapons were always used with two hands, even their swords were designed to be wielded with both hands. This didn't leave much room to use for handheld shields.
Then there was the armor. A full suit of samurai armor usually came with a piece of shoulder protection called a "sode". These were made from iron and leather plates and functioned much like a mini-shield for both shoulders:
Even though samurai didn't carry shields in battle, their armor was designed to compensate for the lack of a shield, which clearly worked well enough for the samurai to never implement the use of handheld shields throughout their history.
So there you have it! The Japanese did actually use shields. Maybe not always in the usual sense as other cultures and civilizations around the world did, but they were still used.
Thank you for reading!
