Since the beginning of time, Man has used his intelligence to invent and develop weapons for hunting and for defence. At our primitive origins, when human beings had to hunt to feed themselves and survive — or else be hunted themselves — we made use of “protective clothing” constructed from pelts, hides or wood.
As years passed, armour kept developing to protect man from the lethal weapons which were being used in combat. It is obvious that armour evolved according to requirements of the time, in the East just as in the West.
With the development of ironwork and the forge, metal plates came to be added. This provided a greater
degree of protection but at the same time required of the bearer a higher level of training and physical conditioning, due to the considerable weight (around 35 kilogrammes) which also seriously restricted movement. Japanese armour – Yoroi -
progressively gained in importance, not only as an element of protection but also as a symbol of power and wealth.
Any attempt to discuss the history, development, styles, manufacture, use, etc. of Japanese armour would certainly fill numerous volumes dedicated solely to this subject. The purpose of this brief section is rather to de-monstrate concisely the basic parts of the Yoroi, thus giving a better un-derstanding of many of the techniques studied in the old martial arts.
In the different schools that make up the
Bujinkan Dojo, we can find many techniques and strategies which were developed during the periods in which warriors wore armour. It is very important to know the basic parts which compose Japanese armour. Here is a list in order of dressing, as described in the standard reference work Tanki Yoryaku: Fundoshi (loincloth), Shitagi (shirt), Kobakama (baggy trousers), Kyahan (greaves), Waraji (straw sandals), Haidate (cuisses), Yugake (gauntlets), Kote (vambraces), Wakibiki (armpit guards), Do (body armour), Obi (belt), Sodc (pauldrons), Daishd (long sword and short sword), Nodowa (gorget), Hachimaki (headband), Hoate (visor) and Kabuto
In the beginning, during the 
Born on the 10th of March in 1887, with the name Hisatsugu Takamatsu. He was the man who dedicated the last 15 years of his life to preparing his stu-dent, Masaaki Hatsumi, thus passing on to him the legacy of the nine ryuha. He started his own study of the warrior arts in a peculiar way. As a boy, his classmates used to bully him at school, repeatedly knocking him down and tying him up with a rope. He was then known as the “cry baby”. For this reason he did not meet up to his father’s expectations, who wanted his son to join the army. Toshitsugu Takamatsu Takamatsu’s grandfather, Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda, ran a dojo where he mainly taught Shinden Fudo Ryu Dakentaijutsu. Takamatsu’s father therefore asked Toda Sensei about the possibility of accepting the young Takamatsu for training. Toda Sensei accepted, saying that once in the dojo, martial arts would make his grandson stronger in body and in character, so Jutaro (his name then) started to attend the training sessions every day after school. He felt like he was going to the slaughterhouse, as during his first year of training his grandfather refused to teach him anything, and he was only constantly thrown to the floor by the senior students until his elbows and knees started to bleed. Nobody ever comforted him when this happened, but due to his youth he used to recover quickly the day after, forgetting the hard training the day before, and he always returned to the dojo day after day to receive his new lessons. After one year of continuous beatings he started to learn some techniques. He first started studying Shinden Fudo Ryu Dakentaijutsu, reaching the master grade level when he was 13 years old. Later he learnt Koto Ryu Koppojutsu and then Togakure Ryu Ninpo Taijutsu, although the latter at first with little enthusiasm (at the beginning his training consisted of repeatedly running up a 6 centimetre wide board). Takamatsu was also nicknamed Kotengu and Kikaku in that period, in refe-rence to his stubbornness and his way of fighting, since he never let any other student in the dojo knock him down. He later entered the dojo of Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa to start his studies in Takagi Ydshin Ryujutaijutsu, obtaining Menkyo Kaiden in this style at the age of 16. Two years before he graduated in these styles, he had an incident with a fighter from the Musashi Ryu, during which confrontation he suffered a broken ear drum. This injury meant that his application to join the army was denied. When he was 16 years old he started to study Kukishinden Ryu Happobikenjutsu under the guidance of Takakage Matsutaro Ishitani, who was also Soke of Hontai Takagi Ydshin Ryu, Gikan Ryu and Muso Shinden Ryu. Apart from mastering the other skills related to Ninjutsu, Ishitani taught all of these to Takamatsu who mastered them all and received the secret documents of these traditions just before the death of Ishitani, who died in Takamatsu’s lap. When he was 18 years old, he used to carry 1500 litres of water each day from the Maru mountain in Akashi to his father’s match factory, which was over 1 km away, carrying the buckets upon his shoulders. He used to make 5 trips daily, carrying about 200 litres in each of them, thus strengthening his legs and waist. A short time afterwards Takamatsu left for China, where he would test his skills for many years working for the various warlords from the Mongolian and Manchurian region. He was later nicknamed Moho no Tor a, “Wild Mongolian Tiger”, and in that period he learnt over 18 Chinese and Korean martial styles. Returning from one of his trips to China, when he was 21 years old, Takamatsu went to see a local doctor because he was suffering from a serious lung disorder and from Beriberi (a disease common in tropical regions). Declared past recovery by the doctor, he abandoned his grandmother’s home where he then lived, and took refuge on Mata Mountain, near Kobe. His legs were in such a bad shape due to the Beriberi that he had to crawl the last part of the trip to the mountain. He stayed there for about a year eating only raw rice, talking to the animals and living in a small refuge which he built himself, the size of about 4 square metres (2 tatami), where he recovered from his bad health. His tenacity and a meeting with a monk called Tamaoki – who would rid him of the intestinal tapeworms – let him go back to his daily training, using all of nature’s elements at his disposal. He soon regained his stamina and started striking trees and rocks with his bare hands and feet. With the passing of time, his finger and toenails came to resemble those of an animal, 5 mm thick, needing gardening tools to help cut them. After these experiences, he soon returned to China where he increased his skills and reputation, becoming president of the Sino-Japanese Martial Arts Association, under the auspices of Choshiryu, a renowned fighter from the Shaolin Temple and the bodyguard of a famous politician who was murdered in 1928. Later, due to the political unrest of that period, Takamatsu returned to Japan. During the years that he stayed in China he taught martial arts; at one point he had over 1000 students. He also had to face up to many challenges, the normal and advisable way of maintaining the school’s reputation in that period, which implied that over a dozen adversaries lost their lives in such challenges. He never lost a fight. When he returned to Japan in 1919, he was ordained as a priest and put in charge of a Tendai Temple at Mount Hid in Kyoto. He had a an important reli-gious record and used to pray for the people who had died during his encounters; although he did once declare that he was not a religious person.