

2 one hundred monme ( 百匁 ) size bullets; such projectiles were usually fired by those weapons and bypassed the armor as if it was nothing.





So when talking about ranged weaponry, only heavy caliber muskets ( and to some minor extent also arquebuses) posed a real threat for the warriors wearing that kind of configuration.





Percussive Weapons







Two warriors fighting with two kanabō, taken from the 絵本武蔵の鐙

Within the hand to hand combat, the situation is very different .

I've made a lot of articles which talks about different types of percussive weapons used throughout the feudal period in Japan, and how they were supposed to be good against armor.

In case you have missed them, I'm going to talk about the kanasaibō (金砕棒) (also known as kanab ō ) mace, the masakari (鉞) axe and the tsuruhashi (鶴觜) warpick which despite being quite rare, were the major percussive weapons used on the battlefield.

Just like with the majority of the percussive weapons of the medieval era we haven't any martial arts manual on how to use them and I have to use some interpretation in this case so please be aware that what I'm going to write it might not be entirely correct.



Despite the lack of martial knowledge, it is quite easy to immagine how such weapons were intended to be used: to strike with full force against the enemy in order to inflict blunt trauma through the armor .

However, maces and percussive weapons in general are not magical implements that could easily bypass armor as if it was nothing.

If we start considering a staff like kanab ō, slightly tapered and long, with quite a lot of heft and a point of balance toward the tip, it is logical to assume that by using it like a sword or a quarterstaff there will be a lot of force transmitted to the target.







A section of the famous " 十二類巻物の書誌情報 " scroll in which a long staff like kanab ō is used.





However, a lot of said energy will be absorbed by the armor which will likely dent and deform. The result is that the armor will be more or less damaged (according to where the hit has landed), but the wearer might not have been hurt that much; although it is better than nothing, blunt trauma is not as effective as a stab or as cut, unless bones are broken which is not very common when someone is protected by rigid armor.

Bending the steel plates that compose the armor is not easy in a fight and there are some zones that will negate much of the force because of the thickness, various layers and space in between the armor and the wearer.

One of these zone is the chest, which is protected by the d ō ( 胴 ). In the configuration studied here, the d ō is made with a sigle rigid well forged sheet of steel that encase the wearer; it doesn't directly touch the wearer with the exception of the shoulders and the hips where it rest, it is doomed thus increasing the chance of deflecting and behind it there are layers of arming garments that further increase the protection. A hit in this area might leave a dent, but it won't hurt the wearer.



Another zone like this is the head; the kabuto has a bowl which is among the thickest part of the armor, it is doomed and the head inside it is suspended so before touching the steel a lot of force would be deaden. Moreover, there is a layer of padding underneath.

However, the head is at the same time the target that reacts the most against blunt trauma, and a crack in the skull could lead to death or instantly disable the enemy.



So in this scenario, the most reasonable way to use a kanab ō is to hit the limbs and the head especially at the temples area where the helmet is also closer to the head; the former are the targets that are covered with the thinnest armor, the latter is the most important target in a fight.

Hitting the limbs especially in the joints of the elbows, which are covered either by mail or a section of lames, could potentially break the arm or disable it for a while. The same apply for the hands, a precise hit with a kanabō is likely to break the bones in that area.

The arm itself has a lot of give when it is hit, so a lot of force is dissipated, but it would likely still be effective. Another target are the lower legs; a strong hit might bypass the suneate or even knock out of balance the warrior.



However, the most important aspect of this weapon is the length of the shaft, which could be used as a wrestling implement to subdue the enemy and locking him to the ground.

Once on the ground, a dagger could finish the job. In fact, this is the most realistic scenario in which two armored warriors could end.

Other versions of the kanab ō like the shortest ones cannot rely on this feature and so are quite demanding in a battlefield scenario, especially given the poor defensive capabilities and the reach of a shorter mace; this is also why the two handed longer version were more common (despite still being rare).



A different scenario is on horseback; despite the many artistic representations of later periods with warriors on horseback holding the two handed mace, we lack 16th century references of this kind of usage.

On a charging horse, a direct hit with the kanab ō is a lot more devastating than on foot and hitting the head could be deadly.





An ukiyo-e depicting a kanabō being used on horseback.





All things considered, despite being a very effective weapon to destroy the armor itself by dents, the kanab ō is not the best weapon to disabilitate the wearer behind it.

It is quite slow and it has limited area in which could deal severe damage in few hits, and require a good amount of space to be used. It can still be effectively used with bojutsu techinque but it won't be as nimble as it should, and except on horseback, its damages against heavy and thick armor are limited. This why it wasn't as commonly used in the 16th century as other, much more suited weapons.





Now let's analyze the masakari axe; much of what I've previously said it's still valid and even more, because despite the axe having and edge which could focus its force in a smaller area, it is usually less heavy than a kanab ō. Some Japanese axes have a back head that could be used more or less like a mace but the aforementioned analysis is the same.

The blade, like the spiked kanab ō, could potentially "bite" into the armor, but it won't cut through it and won't hit as hard as the two handed mace.

Some axes have a top spike which could be extremely useful, but their usage is more similar to spears and other polearms so I will talk about them later; for now, let's focus on the "average" two handed Japanese masakari.





A classic depiction of the masakari axe, from " 春日権現験記. 第８軸 ".



