Something I don't see often is guns with that sort of Chinese armor.



The leg armor interests me, as I haven't seen much anything like that on Chinese before, but on plenty of Japanese armor.

Also, I cannot read, so what does it say?

Hmm. I do believe the construction of the thighplates is more like the body armor of Qin tomb soldiers than Japanese samurai I've seen.

I'm curious. Where did you find this?

I believe it says something about these being Ming troops. And a character with a fire radical that may mean guns...but don't take my word on it.

The traditional English translation of it should be cannon, if I remember right, but it could mean guns. I can guess at the words to the very left, since they are Chinese-like. It reads "Ming soldier with short cannon(and I guess short cannon means a gun).

The leg armor do remind me of some Tang era leg armors.

Scanned them while I had an internship at the smithsonian, they were from a nice book of hokusai's doodles. He drew chinese armor every once in a while, usually for dieties though.

I just wonder from what source did he learn how Chinese armor looks though. Did he actually see a suit? based off of previous artwork?

And yeah, those thigh guards, it's just odd that this is the only time I've seen them. And I often thought "it seems that japanese armor has two layers to protect thighs (one short that hangs around crotch, longer one underneath over thighs), while Chinese use one long layer" at least int he artwork I've seen.

Those thigh guards could be the exposed plates of a Brigandine... riveted, unlike Japanese thigh guards which were often strung with cord. Though other methods of construction were also used.

Exposed Brigandine plates is a feature I've seen in Qing armour. It was possibly a characteristic of Ming armour also.

Thanks a lot for such interesting picture. I think it is a late Japanese fantasy for Ming - Late Jin (1616-1636) wars.

短炮明兵步韃將以雙宂
I will try to interpret the insscription (of course, only Chinese part) as:
"Ming warrior [armed with] short gun [attacks] foot Tatar generals and sweeps both of them out".

One could notice that Tatars are not in the armour and clothes of Manchu type as well as the horse is painted in traditional Japanese manner. Then in XVII pistols were not widely spread in China (they were not widely spread even in the end of Qing!).

So, I think it is a crazy mix of old paintings and Hokusai's imagination to illuminate a scene from wars of the beginning of XVII century. But it is in my own humble opinion.

Best regards,

Alexey.

According to the prof. Gorelik, the exposed brigandine plates on brigandine armour of Qing period are the result of complete decaying of fabric.

The thigh protector of brigandine type with rows of exposed plates are alled "Mongolian skirt" by prof. Bobrov. We could see such "Mongolian skirts" on pictures of Qing warriors from the second half of XVII century till the end of XVIII century.

Best regards,

ALexey.