randomwisdom.com

Yesterday, in my elementary school, the 6th grade teacher had borrowed four suits of Japanese armor and brought them into the school. I'm not exactly sure where she borrowed them from, but they came with four sets of swords (not sharpened, of course).

In the hallway, we removed the suits from their boxes and then the students got to try them on. Over the course of helping 30 or so students in and out of the stuff, I got a good idea of how it works. And then, when all the students were finished, I got to try it on second to last (just before the teacher, thus the title). I'm sure I looked ridiculous, a foreigner in full samurai gear. But it was still pretty cool.

First you put on the shin pieces, left and right. An apron-like separated segment goes on next to cover your thighs. Next is the arm pieces, which resemble sleeves with armor sewn on. All three of these use strips of lacquered steel plates linked together with threads, so that these parts of the armor are very form-fitting and flexible. Next came the breastplate, hinged on the left side, tied together on the right, and with a linked plate "skirt" attached on the bottom. Two shoulder pieces made of connected plates hung off the sides of this. The final piece was the helmet-- it has a neckpiece with interlocking plates on the back, like an armadillo. If you look up, the plates fold together so you can move your head, but if you look straight forward the plates fall down to cover your neck. A cloth belt ties around the waist and holds the swords. The entire getup seems like it should be heavy and unwieldy, but while it was on me I could hardly tell I was wearing it. Mostly this is due to the fact that there are very few solid pieces in the whole suit; the breastplate's two hinged pieces are by far the largest single pieces of metal, and everything else uses strips of curved plate connected much like venetian blinds or sewn directly onto fabric, and small pieces of mail sewn on to fill in the gaps. It's complex, yet elegant in its design. I guess several hundred years of wars will tend to refine your armor to a work of engineering perfection.

Here's a good site with photos that shows the different pieces and how they fit together. The suits we used didn't have a face mask or neck armor.
http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/katchu.ch02.html

And sorry, but I am not going to publish photos of me dressed up like