Tate
Large standing shield of feudal Japan
The tate is the large wooden shield of Japan, set up on the ground and used as cover from behind, a fixed defensive piece with a philosophy of use fundamentally different from the Western shield held and moved in the hand. About 120 to 150 cm tall, it was large enough to hide a man's whole body. It was used chiefly in siege and defensive warfare as cover from which archers, hidden behind the tate, shot their arrows, and set up several in a row it formed an instant wall. A prop was set behind it to stand it at a slant, and a coat of arms was often painted on the face to mark the camp. Samurai culture had the distinctive tradition of the individual not carrying a shield in the hand, born of a way of fighting that valued two-handed weapons such as the katana and yari, the protection of the armor itself, and the great shoulder guards (the o-sode). So in Japan the shield took on the character of a defensive installation for building a position, not personal gear.
Origin
The tate is a shield used in Japan from ancient times, its use shifting over the ages from a hand-held personal shield to a fixed wall set on the ground. In the Japan of the Yayoi and Kofun periods hand shields were used, but as samurai combat centered on mounted archery and two-handed weapons took hold, the custom of the individual carrying a shield gradually faded. Instead the tate, a large wooden board set up to stop arrows, developed and became fixed as cover in siege and field warfare. In the great battles of the Sengoku period, archers and later arquebus (teppo) gunners lined up behind the tate, and it became a key tactical tool for raising an instant line of defense in the field.
Features
- A large wooden shield about 120 to 150 cm tall
- Set up on the ground and fixed with a prop
- Used chiefly as cover for archers
- Several set in a row to form an instant wall
- A coat of arms painted on the face to mark the camp
- A reflection of the samurai culture of not using a personal shield
Stories
The tate was used as a fixed wall to stop the arrows of archers in siege and defensive warfare. The large wooden board was set on the ground and fixed at a slant with a prop behind it, and an archer hid behind it, leaning out only for the moment of shooting. Set up in a close row, it made an instant line of defense like a field palisade, screening the troops from the enemy's arrows and charge. In the Sengoku period gunners too reloaded and fired from behind the tate, guarding themselves during the slow loading time. It was carried as baggage at ordinary times and set up when a camp was pitched.
Weakness
The weakness of the tate is the very fact of being fixed. Being a structure set up on the ground, it could cover only one direction from one spot, so it became useless if the enemy went around the flank or rear, and it could not be used at all in mobile combat that shifts position. Large and heavy, it was cumbersome to carry on the march, and setting it up and taking it down at each camp took labor. Made of wood, it caught fire easily from a fire arrow, and if an enemy who closed in pushed it over or climbed over it, the line of defense collapsed. It was, after all, a tool of positional warfare, of taking a place and holding it.
Cultural Significance
The tate is a piece that plainly shows the samurai culture of 'not holding a shield in the hand'. Unlike the Western knight, who fought with a shield in one hand, the samurai valued using the bow, sword, and spear with two hands and did not carry a personal shield, its defensive role shared among the armor, the great shoulder guards (the o-sode), and the standing tate. Strikingly, the West too had the pavise, a large fixed shield behind which crossbowmen hid, showing that two distant cultures arrived at the same answer of a 'shield set on the ground'. The coat of arms painted on a tate became a marker of the camp on the battlefield, forming one face of a Japanese heraldic culture.
In Popular Culture
The tate appears often as the wall of a camp in period dramas, films, and games about the Sengoku period and samurai battles. The sight of large wooden shields painted with a coat of arms set up in a row is drawn as a symbolic scene of a Japanese field camp, and the scene of archers and gunners shooting from behind them is familiar. In fiction, however, there are cases that miss the accuracy by giving even the samurai a Western-style hand shield, departing from the real samurai culture that did not use a personal shield. In games it is often realized as a deployable cover or a camp defense installation.
Trivia
- Samurai culture had the distinctive tradition of the individual not carrying a hand shield, its defensive role shared among the armor, the great shoulder guards (the o-sode), and the standing tate.
- A large shield set up so that a shooter hides behind it, like the tate, existed in the West too as the pavise, so two distant cultures reached the same solution.
- In the Sengoku period not only archers but also arquebus (teppo) gunners shot from behind the tate, guarding themselves during the slow loading time.