Jupon

From Karate, Kungfu, Wrestling, Mixed Fighting Information Source

The Jupon is the heraldic over garment of the knight. It is always worn above the armour. Most of the time it showed the heraldic blason of its wearer, or the blason or colours of the town, lord, group or party to which one depended on.

The jupon actually performs two tasks. First is to cover most of the body and therefore the armour. This prevents the weather to have too much influence on the combatant. It hinders the sun to heat up the armour too much, and it also greatly wards off the rain to reach the armour beneath, thus preventing rust. Second, and actually more important, does the jupon show the colours or blason of the wearer. It can be easily said that it worked as some kind of "reversed camouflage". The purpose was to attract attention, to clearly show who you were, and to impress the adversary.