Changes in Armor
Since there was an increasing number of arquebuses present in armies, the need for protection from bullets were present. The point of wearing armor is to protect yourself from damage. Since the arquebus bullets traveled at a high speed, there was a big chance that the bullet would penetrate through the armor and kill the person in it. This was a challenge for armor makers all over Japan. The result was okegawa-do. This style of armor resembled European armor. It had horizontal plates riveted to each other instead of being laced like old armors. It was hoped that it would stop bullets as well as arrows. �So confident were the makers of its efficiency that they proudly supplied examples which had been tested by having arquebus balls fired at them�(Turnbull, Samurai Armies 1550-1615, p.23)
The biggest customer of this type of armor was probably Date Masamune when he appointed an armourer to make this style of armor for his entire army. Soon all the other armors were made bullet proof. Thus the armor of the 16th century Japan �reached its peak in the aim of providing the samurai with a suit of armor that would allow him to move about as freely as possible while providing him with the maximum protection against arrow, blade, and ball�(Turnbull, Samurai Armies p.24).
PART 7
Conclusion
The development of samurai warfare was sped up with the arrival of the arquebus. Had it not been for the shipwrecked Portuguese traders, Japanese would never had known about a really powerful weapon called the arquebus. Since that event, Japan�s military set of guidelines grew more like the Europeans and eventually mirrored their style of warfare. In some cases the Europeans were ahead of the Japanese in the military art, but in other the Japanese were far ahead of the Europeans. The greatest achievement of samurai warfare was the introduction and use of volley fire, which would not reach Europe until the late 1580�s when Maurice of Nassau would invent continuous fire of arquebuses (Khan, �Weapons and Tactics). Impressed by the performance of the arquebus, Uesugi Kenshin once said, �Hereafter guns will be the most important. Therefore decrease the number of spears and have the most capable men carry guns�(Turnbull, Samurai Warfare, p.74).
Works Cited
Bradford, Brian. �Samurai Warfare�. Samurai Info <http://www.brookhurtshobbies.com/killer%20katanas/sampaper.htm>(5/18/02)
Edwards, Mike. �The Adventures of Marco Polo�. National Geographic Vol.199 No.5 (5/2001): p.2
Khan, Za. �Chapter 4�. Weapons and Tactics <http://www.defencejournal.com/2001/mar/weapons.htm> (5/19/02)
---. �The Fifth Japan-U.S. Grassroots Summit�. Exchanges Vol.1 No.1 (Spring 1994)
Oman, C. A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. ---: Greenhill Books: 1999
Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai Armies 1550-1615. Oxford: Osprey Publishing:1979
Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai Warfare. London: Arms and Armour Press: 1996