Why didnt japanese soldiers carry shields?

[Nightmare798]

This one has always been bugging me. Considering that most of their armies composed of lightly armored ashigaru, It would make sense to give them shields to prolong their survivability. Ofc upper class troops like samurai and above would probably see it as cowardice due to the teaching of bushido, but ashigaru were not limited by such things.

So anyone has any leads?

[Christo]

http://is.gd/W6hvNN

It's because of their weapons that were used, and the fighting style combined.

handheld shields also clash with the ideology, and function of those japanese armies.

[Nightmare798]

http://is.gd/W6hvNN

It's because of their weapons that were used, and the fighting style combined.

handheld shields also clash with the ideology, and function of those japanese armies.

But imagine the losses from a single volley of arrows! Didnt they care about that?

[Christo]

Seems like it

[Xant]

They had shields, just not hand-held ones.

[Tore]

shields bring shame to famiry

[Ikarus]

sry for necro but I had to add this

they used tate ("shield"), which were more like 2h shields which could be placed and moved

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