袰

Type ほろ, then choose 袰 from the Japanese IME candidates.

JIS X 0213 lists 袰 at its second level. If your Japanese IME offers no candidate, use the system character map. For ordinary Japanese prose, 母衣 is the clearer spelling; retain 袰 in historical spellings and names.

What does 袰 mean?

袰 names a Japanese warrior’s arrow-screening cloth.

The earliest recorded form is 保侶, in a record dated 870; later spellings include 母衣 and 母廬. In late-Heian warfare, the cloth trailed behind a mounted warrior to screen arrows. By mid-Edo, it had become a ceremonial riding display.

A 2018 account from Japan’s National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics records Tohoku and Kyushu names read ほろ or いや, and some Kyushu names read やん.