SAMURAI: My New Book on Japanese Armour
A 220-page A4 study of Japanese samurai armour, kabuto, mengu and jingasa, bringing together original photography, historical commentary and specialist observations drawn from many years of handling, studying and restoring armour.
Signed hardback £59
Softcover £45
Digital EPUB £16.99
Looking closely at Japanese armour
I have never been particularly interested in presenting armour simply as decorative exotica. The objects become much more interesting when they are examined closely: how they were made, how they were used, what has happened to them over time and what their construction can tell us about the people who commissioned and wore them.
SAMURAI was produced with that approach in mind. The book looks at construction, use, condition, form, material, repair and connoisseurship, bringing together the practical things that become apparent through years of handling armour with the historical framework needed to understand them properly.
Kabuto, mengu and jingasa are considered not merely as pieces of military equipment, but as objects that can reveal status, school, region, taste and period. The intention is to help the reader look beyond the immediate visual impression and begin recognising the details that distinguish one object from another.
Photography, drawings and close study
The book is deliberately image-led, but the photographs are there to do more than decorate the page. They were selected and produced to show form, surface, lacing, lacquer, ironwork and the small constructional details that are easily missed when an armour is viewed only as a complete display.
Detailed line drawings and terminology pages are used where a photograph alone cannot explain a feature clearly. This is particularly useful with helmets, where understanding the relationship between the bowl, fittings and neck guard makes the object far easier to read.
Throughout the book, individual examples are used as working references. The aim is not to present a catalogue of attractive objects, but to give the reader enough visual and written information to compare pieces and form their own observations.
A specialist reference that remains readable
The book is written for collectors, historians, martial artists, museums and readers with a serious interest in Japanese arms and armour. It is intended to be useful to someone encountering the subject for the first time without stripping away the detail that more experienced readers expect.
That balance matters. Japanese armour has a specialised vocabulary and a long history of regional and school traditions, but it does not need to be made unnecessarily obscure. Where technical terminology is useful, it is explained through the object being discussed so that the reader learns it in context.
Available now
SAMURAI is available in three editions. The signed hardback is £59, the softcover is £45, and the digital EPUB edition is £16.99. The printed editions are substantial A4 books of approximately 220 pages, while the EPUB provides the same specialist material in a downloadable format for compatible devices.
All editions can be viewed through the Publications page on this website, with secure payment and order processing completed through the David Thatcher Shopify store.
