The Samurai Group At Mejiro-dai Festival In Hachioji City Prepared Armors On Their Own

In my previous post on July 17th I have introduced some photos of people wearing Samurai armors. Actually their armors are all handmade. Each person in the Samurai group made their own armor. Due to limitations on maerial availability and usability, various types of material were used to make armor such as plastic, aluminum and steel plates for the body of armor, and leather, cloth, strings and old kimono for the accessories. 

For example, this person's armor is made of steel. He said that it took about a year to complete it and as you can see in the photos he used lots of small steel plates and small steel rings to assemble his armor. Since he wanted to have a very real one he tried to make it in the same way Samurai armors were made in old times. The chain mail for the arms are made of small steel rings and he connected them one by one. Apparently the total weight of this armor is 30 kg (about 66 lb).

Of course most people in the group chose lighter types of material to be able to walk and move easily. However it sounds interesting to be able to experience the real heaviness of a Samurai armor. He can feel how tough the real Samurai soldiers were in old times. That would be cool.

The people are members of a NPO group at Hachioji Castle Ruins, which is one of the major historical site of the Warring States period in Tokyo. They have Samurai performances at events and hold workshops for "how to make Samurai armors".