There were several lengths of bladed weapons at the time. I think this is a wakizashi, or a short sword. The katana was the longer of the 2 swords worn on the samurai's sash. I forget the name but there is a japanese sword longer than a katana. A tanto is much shorter than a wakizashi and is like a dagger. This is a finished blade but the sword is not finished
A finished katana with the handle fully wrapped. I once went to Seki to see a demonstration of a forging of a sword. You might find one of my old posts for that. After the sword, the scabbared is custom made to the sword. 2 pieces of wood are hollowed out to the shape of the finished blade. Then mashed rice is used as the glue to keep the 2 sides together.
There was a nice display of armor. This helmet is adorned with a fish. This fish is a thematic point that is used throughout the archetectural styling of the building Along the roofline, you will see this fish at both ends.
There are several full suits of armore like this that was once used to fully kit out a warrior. From head to toe, this offered protection from blades, arrows, and whatever else may be hurled at them.
Alot of these features may look familiar. The styling cues from antique japanese armament are also found on the robots in the Gundam world of anime. It may be just me but the treatment of the shourlder armor compares favorably to models of Gundam. There is definitely a resemblance to some parts of the ancient head wear to the gear on the heads of Gundam.
Facemasks can have multiple purposes. Of course protection is a big factor. Another could be the style or fashionability. Seeing a face like this could psych out your enemy on the battlefield.
There was a section on firearms. A matchlock rifle like this was a game changer over the conventional bow and arrow. Fired bullets could easily punch through more armor than the normal arrow head.
There is no other way to describe this than a literal hand cannon. This was the size of a pistol but the barrel looks like it could have come off a cannon. The opening in the muzzle is quite large and the walls quite thick. It needed all that thickness in order to fire a projectile that big
This was the longest rifle in the museum. Due to its length, I wonder if it was the sniper rifle of the day
The top floor of the castle is set aside for an observation deck as it is the highest part of the building and made it easy to survey the kingdom from here. Off in the distance, you can see the large buildings found at the train station.
