Spike’s Daily Activity #SpikeDinosAdventures

Welcome to Spike Dino’s daily post for children learning from home.

Armour - Japanese and Knights Armour.

Spike found several set of armour in the Museum’s

collection. He noticed they are all quite different. He has

chosen the Japanese Samurai armour to find out more

about.

Samurai armour looks very ornate. It is constructed from

iron (tetsu) or leather (nerigawa) scales that are joined

together with rivets and macramé cords (odoshi) made

from silk or leather and with chain armour (kusari). This

armour has a face mask that even has features on it. Spike

found the Japanese helmet in the handling collection to

have a closer look at. There is a lot of detail on the helmet

called kabuto, including nostrils and a moustache. It was

often made from up to 100 piece of metal riveted together.

The whole armour was made to be flexible and allow the

person wearing it to move easily in battle. The first Japanese

armour is thought to date back to the 4th century.

There is so much more to learn about Samurai Armour that

Spike couldn’t fit it all in here. What he couldn’t find out at

the Museum he looked for on the internet.

Fun fact; Darth Vaders helmet design in Star Wars was

influenced by samurai helmets!

Spike thinks that meeting a Samurai

soldier would be terrifying—this is

exactly why they were made this way.

Activity; Spike has found a template of

a Samurai soldier for you to colour, cut

out and stick together. Have fun.

Share your pictures tag-

ging @MaidstoneMuseum

and SpikeDinosAdventures

on social media or by

emailing museumeduca-

tion@maidstone.gov.uk

and we’ll post to Instagram