What Makes Samurai Armour So Special?

About this episode

This episode explores the history and significance of a suit of samurai armor with insights from a British Museum curator.

In the 16th century world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows , we meet the samurai as they had to be: soldiers in a world on fire. But today, we’re looking at the samurai as they wanted to be seen. In this special episode, Matt Lewis joins Dr Rosina Buckland, Curator of the Japanese Collections at the British Museum, to examine a 500-year-old puzzle: this suit of samurai armour. It has been passed down through generations as a single suit: in reality, it’s a 'Greatest Hits' of samurai history - while the helmet dates back to the era of Oda Nobunaga and the battles we see in the game, other parts of this suit were forged centuries later. Through this suit, we'll find out what it really meant to be a samurai, and how the warriors of the past wrote the story we’re still playing today. Echoes of History is a Ubisoft podcast, brought to you by History Hit. Watch this interview on the Assassin's Creed YouTube channel and listen to our series about the real samurai and shinobi (ninja) of Sengoku Japan. Hosted by: Matt Lewis Edited by: Blu Posner, Robin McConnell Produced by: Robin McConnell, Peta Stamper Senior Producer: Anne-Marie Luff Production Manager: Beth Donaldson Executive…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Lewis

Guest: Dr Rosina Buckland

Topics covered

• samurai
• armor
• history
• Assassin's Creed
• Japanese culture
• military history

Keywords

• samurai
• armor
• history
• Assassin's Creed
• Japanese Collections
• Oda Nobunaga
• Sengoku Japan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: British Museum, Ubisoft, History Hit

Books & works: Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Assassin's Creed

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