YoritomoArt - COMMISSIONS OPEN (2/5)

A sassanid noble, clad in mail and lamellar armor, and wearing a spangenhelm with a face covering mail aventail. Has a sword on his hip, and it's holding a jewlered standard with the emblem of the Sassanid empire. Behind him stands a palace with a great font, which water reflects the palace

A commission for @lobster38227 on the other site

A sassanid noble, clad in full armor in front of a Persian palace

No, I'm not fun at parties

As a final recommendation, Sakakibara Kōzan's works are in english. He was a samurai historian from the late Edo period, and made a history of samurai armor. I haven't read it fully, and the thing is technically outdated, but still is a must read if you are really interested

He also dates the Mogami Do as late 15th century, which is wrong. Sasama and Bottomley have quite early dates for the development of Mogami Do, but not that early (and still they date it too early for my taste)+

Absolon is very diffusionist in some of his ideas and makes baseless arguments about how the Tosei cuirasses were inspired by European armor, and how the tatami gusoku of the Edo period was probably inspired by plate and mail south east asian armor (it's literally a baseless claim.+

I can also recommend with some precautions Trevor Absolon's books on Samurai armor (I have the first volume, I can send it to you via email if you want). It's a very extensive guide on the development of samurai armor.
It's painfully outdated on a some stuff tho, and has some... weird ideas+

Samurai armour: history and development – compendium From the late Heian to the early Edo periods (1000-1600) Japanese armour stands as a testament to the interactions between functionality, artistry, and cultural identity. Spanning centuries of evol…

The best learning tool I can recommend to you are the articles written by Gunsen History (on twitter and on reddit), and his papers. He has a compendium about samurai armor which will serve you really well here.
gunsenmilitaryhistory.wordpress.com/2025/01/25/s...

I could go on on cuirass constructions and the transition from lamellar to plate but it'll take too much time.
My aim with this stuff is to eventually make a samurai armor timeline, as a visual aid in learning this stuff.+

Returning to the Genpei era armor, the O Yoroi, is a highly asymmetrical design, very heavy, that didn't sit on the hips, and was abandoned progressively for lighter, more fitted armors after the 13th century.
The limb armor, in contrast, got heavier and more comprehensively covering.+

And it's kinda hard to make a simple explanation here on bsky.
The dates are also something to talk about. 18th and 19th century Japan is peace times, all the armors made during that time weren't supposed to see battle, and many were callbacks to older styles of armor+

Alright a lot of things to unpack here.
The gear is absolutely different, even if morphologically a lot of pieces are similar. How the cuirasses sit on the body, the construction of both cuirasses an helmets, limb armor or lack there off.
It's a lot of differences over many centuries of evolution+

How a Samurai Shall be Armed, Genpei Wars

A samurai from the Genpei Wars. He's wearing an O Yoroi armor, a kote in the left arm and early suneate. He's carrying a Tachi, a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The ewaga leather is a black and white cross hatched pattern with red flowers in between. The odoshi is blue and red. He's wearing an orange hitare underneath the armor.

Samurai from the Genpei Wars, during the Late Heian Era

A samurai from the Genpei Wars. He's wearing an O Yoroi armor, a kote in the left arm and early suneate. He's carrying a Tachi, a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The ewaga leather is a black and white cross hatched pattern with red flowers in between. The odoshi is blue and red. He's wearing an orange hitare underneath the armor.

Samurai from the Genpei Wars, during the Late Heian Era

🌸💐🌼

Samurai from Eastern Japan. His armor consists on Tsubo suneate, iyo haidate, Yukinoshita Do with kobire, a heavy and enclosed kote, guruwa, menpo mask and Suji Bachi kabuto. He's carrying an Omi Yari and has a Katana and Wakizashi. The suit is lacquered black

A samurai from Western Japan. His armor consist on shino suneate, kusari haidate, nuinobe do, bishamon kote, a menpo mask and a momonari kabuto. He's holdin a katakama yari and a tachi hangs from his belt. The armor is lacquered red, but the bowl of the helmet, the sode and a circle over the nuinobe do are gilded.

Eastern and Western Samurai armor ca. 1580.
Eastern armors were heavier and built for a heavy cavalry role. Western armors, on the other hand, were built as suits for highly mobile infantry

#artists #art #history

How a Samurai shall be armed-Western Japan ca. 1580

How a Samurai shall be armed-Eastern Japan ca. 1580

Samurai from Eastern Japan. His armor consists on Tsubo suneate, iyo haidate, Yukinoshita Do with kobire, a heavy and enclosed kote, guruwa, menpo mask and Suji Bachi kabuto. He's carrying an Omi Yari and has a Katana and Wakizashi. The suit is lacquered black

Samurai from Eastern Japan ca. 1580

#artists #art #japan

A samurai from Western Japan. His armor consist on shino suneate, kusari haidate, nuinobe do, bishamon kote, a menpo mask and a momonari kabuto. He's holdin a katakama yari and a tachi hangs from his belt. The armor is lacquered red, but the bowl of the helmet, the sode and a circle over the nuinobe do are gilded.

Samurai from Western Japan ca. 1580

#artists #art #japan

It's a struggle fr. Nowadays the best resource out there in english is GunsenHistory

This is not to throw shade at anyone, nor saying that you are dumb for having fall into the pits of pop history BS. I myself regarded Iron Mountain Armory as the pinnacle of samurai armor repro. in the past.
The "real deal" tend to work and look better than that.

Some tips for armor drarwing references, Samurai armor edition!
As Mull said, learn the basics of how armour works and looks before bending the rules to create fantasy stuff.
There's a lot of misinformation around, in regards of Japanese armor, and people aren't usually aware.

Velma holding a stylus pen, crawling on the ground looking for something and saying "My video essays! I can't draw without my video essays!". On the ground are two youtube thumbnails of video essays "Line goes up -the problem with NFTs" by Dan Olson and "ROBLOX_OOF.MP3" by hbomberguy

They're a requirement

Close up of Duncan the Tall, in full armor mounted on his horse, holding a red lance. He has a bollock dagger and a sword on his belt. His armor consists on a mail shirt, a breastplate under an orange sleeveless jupon with a sewn patch with his sigil, rondels for the shoulders, a hardened leather vambrace with iron splints, and early 15th century italian gauntlets. His legs are protected by metal cuisses. His helmet is a venetian great bascinet.

Close up of Duncan the Tall, in full armor mounted on his horse, holding a red lance. He has a bollock dagger and a sword on his belt. His armor consists on a mail shirt, a breastplate under an orange sleeveless jupon with a sewn patch with his sigil, rondels for the shoulders, a hardened leather vambrace with iron splints, and early 15th century italian gauntlets. His legs are protected by metal cuisses. He's not wearing a helmet, but his neck is covered by a mail standard

Ser Duncan the Tall, a knight of the Seven Kingdoms

#art #artists

Thanks!

Close up of Duncan the Tall, in full armor mounted on his horse, holding a red lance. He has a bollock dagger and a sword on his belt. His armor consists on a mail shirt, a breastplate under an orange sleeveless jupon with a sewn patch with his sigil, rondels for the shoulders, a hardened leather vambrace with iron splints, and early 15th century italian gauntlets. His legs are protected by metal cuisses. His helmet is a venetian great bascinet.

Close up of Duncan the Tall, in full armor mounted on his horse, holding a red lance. He has a bollock dagger and a sword on his belt. His armor consists on a mail shirt, a breastplate under an orange sleeveless jupon with a sewn patch with his sigil, rondels for the shoulders, a hardened leather vambrace with iron splints, and early 15th century italian gauntlets. His legs are protected by metal cuisses. He's not wearing a helmet, but his neck is covered by a mail standard

Ser Duncan the Tall, a knight of the Seven Kingdoms

#art #artists

Trust me, I know it can feel good to gather everyone around the stupidity to collectively point and go "look how dumb these people are", but that only keeps them relevant.

Note their behavior, block/blacklist them and inform others you trust, then let them fade into irrelevance.

Reminder that your platforms/audiences are your stage. when you see a clear grift or rage bait, showing them off to MORE people just helps the grift. Attention is what they want. When you give them your stage, it's free advertising.

Your stage and time are precious. Don't give them to a grifter.