Yesterday started off with a Japanese Bento breakfast box – salad rolls, pkt of corn soup and a pot of yoghurt.
We walked to The Samurai Museum which is only a few blocks from our hotel.
The museum is a private collection of Samurai armour and weapons and it was really interesting to hear the history. The items are 200-800 years and all but a few are original, not reproductions.
Samurai helmets usually have some type of family symbol and a ‘good luck’ symbol. The armour was designed for protection but also to make the soldiers look bigger than they actually are. Armour was passed down through families. Wealthy, upper class samurai had boots from animal skins and the big shoulder protectors.
The not so wealthy samurai wore their sandals under their shin-pads. Moustaches were added to make the men look more masculine as Japanese tend not to have a lot of facial hair.
The weapons were really interesting. Different types of swords for different purposes, depending on if you were stabbing, slicing, standing, riding. The handles of the swords have the name of the sword maker engraved on them.
This is the end of the sword that is not shown fully at the top of the picture above. The sword is for stabbing, with a length that goes a long way in and then it is twisted so that the L shaped piece disarms the person, knocking their weapon away as they are being stabbed.
Small swords for wealthy women to hide in their kimonos.
The face is protected by a metal face mask and neckplate. The helmets have a cord on each side which is threaded through the side of the mask, then tied under the chin to hold the mask and helmet on.
This helmet was from a firefighter. The butterfly decoration on top is a family symbol and the long fabric neck protection was soaked with water to protect from the fire.
We were able to pick this helmet up and they are very heavy.
These are stirrups. Made of metal so that the rider and stand and fight while on horseback.
The weapon displayed in this picture was used like a mini- cannon, to blast through castle walls.
It is the most expensive item there – cost – the owner just says its worth enough to buy a house in Tokyo.
These last three pictures are reproductions of the armour of three very famous samurai. You can certainly see the influence samurai armour had on Star Wars.
