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Last Saturday, during the Golden Week break, I went to the Uesugi festival in Yonezawa. They hold a parade in Yonezawa every year with a parade and reenactment of a famous 1561 battle between the Takeda and Uesugi clans, the fourth battle of Kawanakayama. (Here's a wiki article with a really cool painting of it.)

Heather had told me about this festival a few days beforehand, and she convinced me to go along with her to see it. As it was also the first day of the Golden Week holidays, I was worried that the expressways would be crowded. So we wound up leaving at 6am, and got there 2 hours before the parade even started. We used the time to walk around and take photos of temples, but of course you've seen those before. At 10am the parade started, and then we had to wait around in the hot sun until the actual battle started around 3pm. But let's take a look at some authentic costumes, shall we?

Click on any cropped photo to view the full image.

The large matchlock gun these soldiers carry is called an "arquebus". In Japan, it came into use as a sort of field artillery in the 1500s before its use was banned during the Tokugawa era.

The face mask, or men, is quite a rare sight, as is the huge headpiece on the helmet.

Smoke and noisemaking arrows were often fitted to signal troops. Smoke from fire arrows could also provide concealment for troop movements.

The arquebus was a heavy and loud matchlock weapon, sounding more like a cannon than a modern firearm. As guns of that era lacked rifling the arquebus was very inaccurate, but if it hit at close range the shot would often pierce armor. Guns were never wielded by samurai; instead they were given to common foot soldiers who were then trained in their use.