Height has always been the first impression of a person, and in ancient history books, people will be introduced with height. For example, the record of Zhuge Liang is "eight feet long and has a very great appearance", with a height of one meter and eight eight, which exceeds many fierce generals at that time. In fact, combined with Zhuge Liang's ancestral hometown of Langya, Shandong, we will not be surprised.
In the province with the highest average height in contemporary China, Shandong, the average height of men is 175.44 cm, while in 2015, the average height of adult men in the country was only 167.1, but in our impression of Japan, the average male height was 170. This can't help but make people question, in fact, the Japanese people have only suddenly become taller in modern times, and the reason is that Western-style eating habits have made them consume a lot of nutrients. In ancient times, the height of the Japanese was simply unbearable, as can be seen from the following old photos.
Ancient Japan had its own culture and traditions, and there were many famous generals in their history. For example, genyoshi Kei in the Heian period, Oda Nobunaga in the Azuchi Momoyama period, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and so on. However, the height of these famous players is beyond our imagination. For example, Japan's most famous warrior Genyō, one of the three tragic heroes, defeated Benkei, who had 999 tai knives in the "sword hunting", becoming the first in the world at that time.
However, when Japanese archaeologists found the former armor of the Oyama Gion Shrine, they deduced that his height did not exceed 150 centimeters, which surprised the Japanese. The former hero turned out to be a small dwarf of one meter and five meters, in fact, as early as the Japanese book "The Tale of Pingjia", the Genyoshi Sutra was called "pale toothed dwarf", although there was an element of smear, but his short stature was indeed true.
Another fierce Japanese general, One of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Sengoku period, Honda Tadatsu, was known as the first warrior of the Sengoku period, and was known as "Japanese Zhang Fei". Such a god of war who has experienced 57 battles in his life and has not tasted defeat, his real height is a great disappointment. Also according to his armor estimates, as well as the historical records that he was only one meter and four meters, which is only the height of a primary school student for people today. However, what is surprising is that his weapon "Dragonfly Cut" is 6 meters long, and the 140-meter dwarf holds a six-meter long gun, which makes people cry and laugh.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate and a Sengoku Sanjō of the Sengoku clan along with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In Japanese legend, he became the "Toshoku Shinjun" after his death. However, what the Japanese never expected was that their gods were only 156 before they died, but at that time, they were also considered "superior". According to historical records, the average increase in Japan during the Sengoku period was around 145, so it seems that Tokugawa Ieyasu is indeed quite outstanding.
In addition to the shogunate period, In modern times, Japanese soldiers are also known for their shortness, such as the soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance in the photo, which can be clearly seen that Japanese soldiers are much shorter. The reason is related to their eating habits, the Japanese did not love meat in ancient times, the only meat is fish. At the same time, in ancient Japan, there was a shortage of food, and the commoners were hungry, and even the daimyo lords ate only salted dried fish and white rice.
In this way, it is inevitable that there will be malnutrition, and it is reasonable to be generally low in height. It was not until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when Western eating habits were introduced, and a large amount of meat such as pork and beef was consumed, coupled with protein supplementation from eggs and milk, that the japanese population began to slowly increase.