use of a greater number of plates and scales; that is all. It is true that in quite old times Japanese armour was still imperfect. Cloth and the hides of animals seem to have been the materials then employed. But metal armour had already established itself in general use by the eighth century of our era. The weapons, too, then known were the same as a millennium later, with the exception of fire-arms, which began to creep in during the sixteenth century in the wake of intercourse with the early Portuguese adventurers.[1] Those who are interested in the subject, either theoretically or as purchasers of suits of armour brought to them by curio-vendors, will find a full description in the second part of Conder's History of Japanese Costume, printed in Vol. IX. Part III. of the "Asiatic Transactions." They can there read to their hearts content about corselets, taces, greaves, mamelières, brassarts, and many other deep matters not known to the vulgar.
Army. For many centuries—say from A.D. 1200 to 1867 "soldier" and "gentleman" (samurai) were convertible terms. The Mikado and his Court, in their sacred retreat at Kyōto, were, it is true, removed by custom from all participation in martial deeds. At the other end of the scale, the peasantry were likewise excluded. But for the intermediate class the gentry to fight was not only a duty but a pleasure, in a state of society where the security of feudal possessions depended on the strong arm of the baron himself and of his trusty lieges. This was the order of things down to A.D. 1600. Thenceforward, though peace reigned for two and a half centuries under the vigorous administration of the Tokugawa Shōguns, all the military forms of an elder day were kept up. They were suddenly shivered into atoms at the beginning of the present Emperor's reign (A.D. 1868), when military advisers were called in from France, the continental system of universal conscription was introduced, and uniforms of modern cut replaced the picturesque
- ↑ Compare Article entitled Europeanisation.
