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Edit: Forgot to mention that it also signified that you were someone important.
oh japan ... you continue to amaze me
But yeah if you're going into a full scale battle as a mounted samurai youre not using it lol just scouting or so, so you can get away basically while being shot at.
It was an evolution of the long cloaks earlier samurai had worn to trap arrows.
In the Nanbokucho period the cloak, worn regularly as you'd expect, like a cape, was popular as part of the battle dress for arrow defense.
Part of the reason for this was that armor changed from the Oyoroi style. This earlier armor had large "shield boards" off the shoulders, and these were loosely hanging.
As the samurai rode at speed, these boards moved backwards and floated in the air current somewhat, effectively forming a barrier, around the upper back and flanks, against arrows shot at the samurai as he rode away.
Riding away was not something that only scouts did: it usually happened in any encounter between two mounted samurai, as they passed each other in a form of "joust," but with bows instead of lances.
In the Nanbokucho wars, combat between samurai shifted from predominantly horse mounted to foot combat, and the primary weapon shifted from the bow to pole weapons, such as war clubs and spears, and heavier swords that were designed to be used two handed. In this mode of fighting, the old style armor was too heavy, and the large shoulder boards also inhibited good arm movement for using the two handed swords and pole arms.
Armor became lighter as a result, and the shoulder pieces became smaller and followed the contour of the shoulders. But there were still plenty of bows to be found on the battlefield, and so the cloak was found to be a simple, efficient and cost effective protection: it helped trap arrows from the rear quarter, but it didn't add the weight of the old harness, nor get in the way of the free arm movement needed for the melee combat.
Over time, the cloak evolved into the horo and was popular with some samurai as an extra layer of defence.
By the Sengoku period, it was not popular any longer, because of several reasons.
A big one was that combat modes had shifted yet again: samurai now fought in mixed formations with ashigaru, similar to the "battle," the primary tactical unit that formed hosts in the European Medieval era.
Fighting in such a way, there was less individual duels and combat instead ocurred between denser groups closing with each other, where massive and indiscriminate arrow shot was not as likely to happen, because of the risk of "friendly fire."
In this form of fight, combat was also more linear, and the chances of enemies being in your rear with bows was less. The opposing groups would become intermingled of course; but if enemy were in your midst, i.e. to your side and rear as well as to your front, it was because they were part of the melee, and the chances of them being stuck into that melee with a bow were next to zero.
Another big reason entangling arrows wasn't such a concern for the Sengoku samurai was that armor had improved. In the same way that European full harness evolved to become more or less impervious to arrows, samurai harness had become very refined too. Fully metal lames had replaced the earlier composite leather-metal, or even all leather, lames, and mail was now common and used to cover the gaps in between the different armor pieces. Also, the "tub" cuirass became more and more common. The tub cuirass was formed of solid pieces of metal or lames faced with a smooth exterior, but because of improved metallurgy and build technique, it didn't have the weight of the oyoroi, while being much stronger, and it was often shaped, to better deflect things like arrows.
One more factor, hinging on the mixed formations and linear fighting trend, was that with battles now involving such large numbers of samurai fighting in big, confusing groups, it was harder to identify who or where individual samurai were. The armor developments played a part in this too: faceguards had become common and obscured the identity of the man.
Identifying yourself was important, because you wanted your lord to see your exploits and for your comrades to be able to attest how many heads you had taken and such, and also just simply so a friend didn't mistake you for an enemy. In the same way that Europeans solved the identification issue that arose with more extensive armor by using tabards and/or heraldic designs on shields, the samurai adopted the sashimono flag, like you see in the game, but they also used elaborate, personalized "mascot" things that were sort of like a creche. These things were often attached to the back of the harness, and a cloak or horo would not work very well with that.
While the horo did still show up in the Sengoku, it didn't symbolize social status, or importance or rank within the military heirarchy, as Shogun 2 makes out; nor was it necessarily for scouts, since any number of troop might be sent on a scout.
In the Sengoku the horo was usually associated with dispatch riders/messengers.
But to be fair, European peoples had used the same principle, i.e. clothing to stop arrows or blows.
When the Greek cities started encountering large amounts of enemy archers during the Persian invasions, for example, many hoplites hung their cloaks across their shields, and later attached a cloth or leather "drape" to the bottom of the shield, to ensnare arrows before they could hit the legs or feet.
The hats of Europeans got increasingly bigger to deflect or cushion sword blows in the absence of armor from the 1600s onwards, to the point where they were totally ridiculous looking, like the shako.
Around the mid 1600s, an increasingly popular cavalry helmet was the "iron hat," which was made completely of metal, but shaped exactly like a broad brimmed hat. Many of these helmets were even covered with a felt or other exterior, so they looked exactly like a normal hat for the period. This way, a cavalier could be protected from a slash, but still look cool when he rode into town, which was extremely important lol.
And Europeans were just weird sometimes even if defense had nothing to do with it.
For example, the codpiece.
What's more weird?
A) A balloon thing on the back that you only wear in battle to trap arrows.
Or,
B) A codpiece with a rooster's head jutting out that you only wear outside of battle, for no purpose except to say, "yeah, I showed up late to the banquet...what? What?"
:D :D :D
My ♥♥♥♥ is bigger than your ♥♥♥♥ ... so what? so what? Aye, that's right, noble privilege ...
Whereas the Horo looks like you strapped a balloon on the back of your head for buoyancy ...
Just my opinion.
Though I admit ... the european one is dumber ...
Still not as ♥♥♥♥♥♥ as the Egyptians using poop as make up ...