[Osium]

If I gave the impression that the Yumi was inferior in any way shape or form to a european or middle eastern bow that was not my intention.

I also did not mean "akward" in the way most people think. Not ever firing one, but knowing a little bit about physics it is hard to believe that drawing this bow back did not put unequal pressures on the wrist.

The Yumi is probably the most versatile bow of the era, allowing the user to fire in many different stances and positions. Firing a long bow while crouched was certainly not an option, but was very possible with a Yumi.

Any discussion on armor would probably be futile. The fact is the armor the japanese used changed so dramatically, from iron, laminated scale, to bamboo and then back heavy iron/steel european style clam breast plates. The later functional japanese armor was bullet proof for the era (breast piece was), as matchlock arqubusiers were being used during the period by some armies.

I suppose this means, depending on the era, you could have them lightly armored, medium armored or moderate to heavily armored ;p