Dō-maru or "body wrap", was a type of chest armour (dou or dō) worn by the samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 class of feudal Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Dō-maru first started to appear in the 11th century as an armour for lesser samurai and retainers.Like the O-yoroi

O-yoroi

The Ō-Yoroi is a prominent example of early Japanese armor worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The term ō-yoroi means "great armor."-History:...

style it became more common in the Genpei War

Genpei War

The was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late-Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192....

 at the end of the 12th century.

Description

There were quite a number of similar styles and types of Japanese armor; the dō-maru is particularly defined by the fact that a dō-maru opens on the right side as opposed to the haramaki style which opened in the back and the ō-yoroi which is completely open on the right side and requires a separate plate (waidate) to cover the right side. The ō-yoroi was a heavy box like armour meant for use on horse back, it was also expensive to make. The dō-maru like the haramaki had more shirt plates (kusazuri) than an ō-yoroi and was lighter, closer fitting and less expensive to make. The dō-maru was easier to fight with on foot and eventually even higher status samurai adopted the dō-maru over the ō-yoroi.

Dō-maru were constructed from small scales of leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

or metal laced into plates with cord and lacquered. Then each plate was laced together to form the armor. Due to the weight of iron, armour makers limited its use to the most vital parts of the armor and used leather for the remainder.

External links

• Warrior in Do-Maru Armor an illustrated explanation of Do-Maru armor components
• Nihon Katchû Seisakuben