Recently saw a picture of a cavalry costume, at first sight I only felt exaggerated and cumbersome and even a little funny, with a curiosity to find out, collected relevant information to know that this cape that looks like a snail shell is a unique cape of the Japanese Sengoku period. What is the origin and function of a cape with such a peculiar shape?
This peculiar cape originated from Japan's Sengoku period, and was originally a cloth-like cape worn by Japanese warriors in the Sengoku period. Legend has it that in ancient Japan, there were many samurai and knights who liked to wear a long white cloth strip behind them, just like boys when they were children, they draped cloth such as bath towels behind them and dressed up as heroes. In the course of continuous practice, some people have discovered that when the samurai is running, under the influence of the wind, the cloak expands backwards and to both sides, so that the bulging cloak can block arrows and flowing stones under certain circumstances.
Everything has the potential to be continuously improved and continuously developed. As a result, this long strip of cloak was improved by the ancient Japanese samurai. Since under the encouragement of the wind, a round cape like a large bun can be used to resist arrows and flowstones, why not make the cape round directly? Say do it, so the ancient Japanese samurai directly added a bracket to the cape, and the knights who can wear the mother's clothes are usually knights with high status, and they are also called the mother's clothes, which shows that the ancient Japanese were very particular about genres and status.
In my opinion, this is similar to the bracket in the hem of the large skirt worn by the British nobles in the Middle Ages. After adding the bracket, it can also resist attacks from the back and sides without running, although I don't know how effective this equipment is, but at least it still has the function of a shield, that is, I don't know if it will affect the activities of the knight.
Some Scholars and Historians in Japan call this cloak a mother's garment. As the name suggests, it is like the womb of the mother when she conceives life, with super protective ability. A knight or samurai in a mother's robe is like a baby in a mother's womb, well protected. This is indeed a good association, and it is generally in line with the original intention of this strange cape.
This kind of equipment, which we think is slightly chicken today, was indeed a symbol of honor in Japan during the Warring States period, and it was not something that ordinary knights could equip. Usually only knights who convey messages and orders around the daimyo can wear snail-shell-like cloaks. Knights who were able to possess this kind of equipment still had some social status in Japan at that time, and even some people would pass it on as an heirloom from generation to generation.
But now we can only see its strangeness in the history museum. Guns and gunpowder slammed onto the stage of history, the era of cold weapons pulled down the curtain, and with the end of the era of cold weapons, this strange cloak also entered the history museum. After all, this cloak is useless in facing the shells, except to make itself better detected and blocked by the enemy.
In modern times, some Western military scholars have viewed differently from the previous Japanese scholars' views on the interpretation of the cloak and its military uses. Some modern Western scholars believe that this shell only makes the Japanese cavalry look much bigger. When Western military scholars first saw this teenage mutant turtle-like equipment, they couldn't help but be funny, and after some research, they came to the fact that the protective role of this cloak in resisting the flow of arrows was better than nothing, but it could make the ancient Japanese cavalry that looked relatively short look huge, and there was some bluff meaning, after all, the ancient Japanese cavalry was the shortest in the world.
What's more interesting is that unlike I used to think it was like a snail, Western military scholars even compared it with the pufferfish that bulged up, and I have to say that this biomimic is also very powerful. A specific reference was also found for the pufferfish to compare, believing that the ancient Japanese liked to eat puffer fish, and after finding that the puffer fish was frightened during the process of eating and cleaning day after day, it would instinctively become larger to intimidate factors or enemies that were unfavorable to themselves.
Therefore, Western military scholars believe that the ancient Japanese not only loved to eat pufferfish, but also applied the characteristics of puffer fish killing and becoming larger into defensive equipment. It seems that the smaller Japanese knights also put a lot of effort into making up for this defect, and spent some effort trying to make themselves look bigger.
Historical objects will have their own reasons for coming into being at that time, and some of them will inevitably be biased in looking at ancient things with the eyes of our modern people and our existing experience. Whether it is used to resist the flow of arrows or just to increase the visual effect, it is the business of the knights of ancient Japan, if it is not a professional research, we will laugh it off.