The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (37 page)

21. We carry our powder flask on a shoulder belt; they carry theirs around the neck like a reliquary
.

The Japanese carried gun powder in a horn called a “mouth-drug-holder” (
kuchigusuri-ire
), or in a pouch (literally “torso-rampant”). Both dangled from the neck but were secured to the chest to keep them from bouncing around.

22. Our bows are medium in size and made of wood; theirs are very large and made of bamboo
.

Frois is apparently contrasting the equally destructive English long bow (developed in Wales in the twelfth-century but then embraced by armies throughout Europe because of its armor-piercing abilities) and the still longer Japanese compound bow (
shinge-to-shumi
), which was used by Japanese nobles or samurai. European long bows were up to seven feet long and were ideally made of Spanish yew, which naturally has the qualities of a composite (hard core and springy outer layers). Because it took years to learn to effectively use a long bow, it was largely replaced during the fifteenth century by the less demanding and more powerful crossbow, which, by the time Frois wrote, had been displaced by the harquebus.
²⁵

The Japanese
shinge-to-shumi
was a true compound bow with a wood core (generally of oak) that was sandwiched between bamboo laminates that were secured with glue and rattan bindings. The entire bow also was lacquered for water-proofing.
²⁶

The way Japanese archers held their bows is as interesting as the bows themselves. Unlike European and all other archers we know of who grip their bows in the middle, the Japanese gripped theirs one third of the way up from the bottom of the bow, which apparently made it easier to shoot from horseback.
²⁷
The former cultural importance of this bow is suggested by the bow dance that is still done today by the Sumo grand champion.

23. Our arrows are of wood; theirs are made of bamboo, just as their bows are
.

The bamboo fighting arrows used by the Japanese generally were a meter long and thrice fletched with bird feathers.
²⁸
Although the Japanese used various types of arrow heads, including some for piercing armor, apparently they never copied Ainu arrows, which incorporated poison in the hollow of the bamboo shaft adjoining the tip.

24. Among us, archers remain clothed when they shoot their arrows; in Japan an archer removes half his kimono in order to leave one arm bare
.

The left arm is removed from the kimono, exposing the left shoulder and some of the chest. With practice, a Japanese archer could “disrobe” in a split second. As
“nudity” is still a significant Western pre-occupation, many Westerners who visit Japan today would no doubt still find it strange to see people lined up at a
kyudo
gallery, all with one arm/shoulder exposed (except for the arm guard).

25. Among us, no one utters a sound when shooting a bow; the Japanese have to let out a big cry when they release an arrow
.

“Our” side needs no explanation; “theirs” is remarkable. This sudden loud cry also characterizes Japanese sword fighting (see
#51
below) and the modern martial arts of judo and karate. The standard explanation is that this is done to disrupt an opponent's concentration.
²⁹
The Japanese refer to the shout or sharp cry as
kiai
, literally “spirit-meet.” To put
kiai
into something (
kiai-o irete
) is “to do something with spirit.”

26. Among us, we use shields, [
including
] gilt roundels
³⁰
and oval leather shields; the Japanese use flat wooden shields that resemble doors
.

Europeans for centuries used shields of varying sizes, including a small “buckler” when battling with swords. They might also be used by elites in a pre-arranged duel or in fencing classes, but they were too big and cumbersome to be part of elite “dress.”
³¹

The Japanese did in fact have small shields, but these were not ordinarily used by samurai, who, as mentioned, used both hands when wielding their long sword, or
katana
. The door-like shields that caught the attention of Europeans like Frois were deployed at the outset of battles to receive volleys of arrows from opposing archers. With the adoption of firearms, these “wall-shields,” as they are known in Japanese, were replaced by bundles of bamboo, which more effectively deflected musket balls.
³²
A variant of the wall-shield survives in the five- or six-foot long narrow shields used today by riot police in Japan as well as in Korea and China.

27. Our armor is very heavy; Japanese armor is very light
.

The chain mail and more expensive plate armor worn by European soldiers was notoriously heavy; often soldiers and armored horses died in battle after falling and not being able to right themselves. Japanese armor was made from composite materials and was relatively light and flexible as compared with European armor.

28. Our suits of armor are all made of steel; theirs are made of plates of horn or leather laced together with braided silk
.

Japanese
lamina
, or plates (to use Frois' technically correct term), overlapped like shingles or the scales of a fish. Europe had something similar to this called a coat of mail (as opposed to chain mail). Japan, however, is said to have produced more varieties of mail than the rest of the world combined. In this regard, Frois' sole mention of horn and leather is misleading. The Japanese used a variety of
other materials, including iron, steel, hide, paper, brass, and shark skin, which usually were coated with thick lacquer.
³³

29. The tuft of feathers on our helmets are a very beautiful brown or white;
³⁴
the Japanese use the longest tail feathers from roosters
.

Based on distichs
#30
and
#31
below, which speak of round helmets with visors, Frois appears to be referring here to the
armet
, a closed helmet with a two-piece visor that was popular in sixteenth-century Europe. (Most of us are perhaps more familiar with the
morion
worn by Spanish conquistadors, an open helmet with a crest that ran front to back, which was sometimes decorated with feathers.) The
armet
had a small, funnel-shaped cone in the back of the helmet that held a plume of feathers.

Japanese roosters have perhaps the longest tails in the world. The Japanese, along with the Chinese and Malay, identified the cock with a martial spirit, although the Japanese were not much into cock fighting as compared with their Asian neighbors. It should be noted that besides rooster feathers, the Japanese adorned their head gear with diamond-shaped swords, stag horns, crescent moon horns (sometimes together with the stag horns), and even a strange sail-like adornment that resembled a snow shovel. Shortly after Frois wrote this, Tokugawa Ieyasu wore a helmet into battle designed after the cap of the deity of wealth, Daikokuten. The battle of Sekigahara took place in the year of the mouse/rat, a creature that is closely related to that deity.

30. Ours helmets have visors; Japanese helmets cover half the face with the visage of a devil
.

Japanese foot soldiers wore a simple conical helmet (
jingasa
) made of leather or metal. Samurai wore more elaborate helmets with a face mask of lacquered iron that incorporated removable mouth and nose pieces that were intended to strike fear and awe in an opponent.
³⁵
This was accomplished through grimacing mouths, wide eyes, flaring nostrils, and occasionally a moustache and even teeth. Ironically, this diabolical visor was partly created by the Europeans, for it was devised to protect the lower half of the face from bullets.

31. Our helmets are round; theirs have plates
³⁶
over the ears and neck
.

The folded-back “ears” on Japanese helmets often stick out like enormous bat ears. Besides contributing to a diabolical visage, they apparently helped protect the head and shoulders from the descending sword blows of opposing samurai. Neck guards of plate, which functioned much like the neck piece or
gorget
on European armor, protected Japanese soldiers from lateral blows and decapitation. (Note that one measure of victory in battle was the number of heads collected that belonged to opposing samurai.) As an aside, Frois probably was ignorant of the
fact that many Japanese kept “dirty pictures” in their helmets.
³⁷
Apparently there was a superstition going back to ancient China that pictures of men and women in coitus were a charm of sorts.

32. Among us, one must first don thick clothing before putting on armor; before the Japanese put on their armor, they disrobe entirely, remaining as naked as the day they were born
.

The weather in Japan being what it is (hot and humid in summer), it makes sense that the Japanese undressed before donning their relatively lightweight armor. It is doubtful, however, that they were “as naked as the day they were born,” i.e. that they did not wear loincloths.

33. Among us, one does not look like he is going into battle unless he is fully armed; in Japan, one only needs to don an armored collar to say that he is armed
.

The Japanese concern with neck protection makes sense when one considers that war in Japan was focused on taking heads; the Japanese even had arrows with tips designed to decapitate. As noted above, the heads of samurai were collected at the end of a battle and ritually prepared for inspection by the victorious general. The Japanese word
kubi
, or “neck,” refers to a decapitated rather than an attached head, or
atama
. When Americans lose their job, they get “fired”; the Japanese get “necked” (
kubi ni naru
).

34. Among us, fifes, drums, and royal trumpets are played during battle; the Japanese have nothing more than some raucous horns that sound awful
.

The Japanese horn that Frois refers to is in fact a large conch-like shell (actually a large whelk) with a metal mouthpiece, which is used by mountain priests as well as the military. Okada writes that the Japanese also used drums, bells, and gongs.
³⁸
Perhaps these were not played in parades, as in the West, so Frois never heard them.

35. Among us, each unit brandishes a square field banner, and these are carried by hand; among the Japanese, each soldier carries his own banner on a long bamboo pole fastened to his back
.

European armies went into battle with men whose sole job was to carry the flags that identified individual units (e.g. infantry, cavalry), commanders (e.g. the Duke of Albuquerque), or the army as a whole (e.g. the red-white-red striped flag of the Hapsburgs).

Six-panel folding screens with paintings of famous Japanese battles evidence no shortage of flags, or rather, vertical banners (
nobori
), colorful banners, and standards, which distinguished individuals as well as field units.
³⁹

36. Among us there are sergeants, squad leaders, decurions and centurions; the Japanese pay absolutely no attention to such things
.

The Japanese seem to have had a far larger military class than Europe. Moreover, each samurai brought along peasants to serve him. There were in addition large contingents of archers, lancers and, later, rifle-carrying infantrymen (
ashigaru
). There also were “special forces” called ninja.
⁴⁰
In point of fact, Japanese armies were diverse and enormous. For instance, during the brief “war of succession” from 1598–1600, over 150,000 troops fought in one battle on one day.
⁴¹
Contrary to what Frois seems to imply (that Japanese armies lacked a chain of command), the armies were organized into different elements (cavalry, foot soldiers, supply, etc.), appropriately bearing heraldry and banners that enabled generals and their aides to direct military engagements. Significantly, the vanguard of a Japanese army often consisted of followers of a daimyo who had recently capitulated.
⁴²

Still, for all its size and complexity, the vocabulary for a complex chain of command is not evident in Japanese, perhaps because most armies were conscripted. Thus, in the nineteenth century when the Japanese modernized their military they borrowed the West's terminology for different ranks.

The question is less why so few terms in Japanese and why so many in the West? Perhaps the institutional requirements (payroll, morale, privileges) of a full-time professional army required a chain of command as complex as that found in the West (Frois gave only a few examples). Interestingly, the long economic development of the Tokugawa era gave rise to a multiplicity of “ranks” within Japanese corporations, something that proves vexing when translating the ubiquitous Japanese business card (
meishi
) into English.

37. Among us, one fights on horseback; the Japanese dismount when they fight
.

We discuss this “riding gap” in the next chapter on horses. Suffice it to say that the Japanese were not the Mongols; fighting by sword, on foot, and one on one was considered the “manly” way to fight in Japan. Note that Europeans felt much the same way until the late Middle Ages, when Muslim invaders demonstrated the advantages of “light cavalry.”
⁴³

38. Our kings and captains provide soldiers with a salary; in Japan everyone must pay for his own food, drink, and clothing during the course of a war
.

The Hapsburg rulers of Spain created a professional army that was the best in Europe, owing to the training, salaries (including a veteran's stipend) and opportunities for advancement that were afforded recruits and officers. In Japan, where conscription was more the rule, armies came and went and campaigns tended to be short. The Jesuits came to believe that lack of proper payment was one cause of the disloyalty “endemic” to Japan (see
#42
below). They also recognized that the “self-responsibility” method of conscription was a clever way for Japanese lords, who often were relatively poor in terms of wealth and rent, to quickly assemble
and field extraordinarily large forces. (In 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu commanded a force of 200,000 men for his Osaka “summer campaign.”) While the master-vassal relationship was exploited to the hilt, this is not to say that war had no reward. As with knights in Europe, the samurai on the winning side often received grants of land and titles with corresponding privileges. There was also a sort of patriotism, for the Japanese have been equally fierce fighters for the honor of their local “countries” (even today in Japan “returning to [one's] country” means going to one's hometown), whose existence often was threatened during war.