Pretty sure the samurai were so much into the idea of beating their neighbors that they immediately jumped onto guns almost immediately after the first few got shipped from Europe.
They did, people who opposed firearms were usually of the “nutcase extremist” kind. Nothing like “the mainstream of the traditional society” or something.
Also the funny part about Japanese traditions is that they don’t see Christianity as alien. It was quite popular, albeit prosecuted, in the “authentic” past.
I thought that all that pride in their Katanas was invented and revisionistic after gunpowder came to Japan and they actually took way more pride in their skills with a bow.
If you bragged about your skills with a Katana in feudal Japan, you kind of admitted that your archery skills are shit.
It’s rather that trained skills in general (with a bow, a sword, a musical instrument) were important.
Can’t help thinking that with my particular set of disorders growing up in such a society (not as a peasant, God forbid) could be advantageous.
And shooting an arrow from a composite bow is much more of a “moment of art” thing than waving a big knife around, so.
Just to nit-pick, the Japanese never really figured out how to produce composite bows, the Yumi was just laminated bamboo. It was one of the reasons they couldn’t successfully invade Korea until they were given western tech.
It’s kinda ironic nowadays, but prior to the meiji restoration Japan was considered a cultural and technological backwater.
The mountainous island with no metal? The one that shut itself off for three centuries? Technologically limited? Perish the thought.
And shooting an arrow from a composite bow is much more of a “moment of art” thing than waving a big knife around, so.
I think you’re underestimating martial arts with swords.
It’s rather that trained skills in general (with a bow, a sword, a musical instrument) were important.
Finally, I can defeat the enemy with my elite Shamisen skillz.
Samurai fucking loved guns practically as soon as they were introduced in the 16th century to Japan, and before that they would have been more proud of archery and horsemanship than swordsmanship anyway.
I wouldn’t go that far. The whole Way of the Sword and all that really kicked off when Miyamoto Musashi was around and that was the 16th century. He was a famed dualist with a sword and wrote The Book of the Five Rings, which is all about swordplay and techniques/styles/skills.
Did they use shields? I’ve wondered since playing a mod for warband that turns the game into Feudal Period Japan, but it’s also hard as fuck to not die because archers abound but the modder didn’t include shields because “samurai didn’t have shields.”
Paradigm shift is a bitch
The katana and related swords were the best they could manage given the technology and raw materials available at the time in Japan… but on the whole, they were pretty mid.
That’s okay. They’ll most likely commit sudoku when they learn that samurai weren’t the noble and honorable warriors they were made to believe.
Maybe but the fake as fuck katana my stepdad got from Japan looks cool as shit, you can’t beat that.
I didn’t watch it all the way through, but having seen the video it’s criticising I must link this here
I don’t really watch him (other than the anime boob armor videos), so I wouldn’t know. Do you want me to take your word for it, or do you intend to explain?
I didn’t store a local copy of the specifics; it didn’t seem worth occupying space with, but there’s plenty of stuff around. I wasn’t sure if you’d want a video, so here’s text (apologies about the site but.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadiversity/comments/rc4vj0/general_wtf_shad_vent_discussion/
I think (having no actual direct knowledge of kendo or any sword martial art, so take with a grain of salt) that the reputation of the katana came more from the skill of the samurai using them than from the blade itself.
It’s a light, curved blade, so using it effectively would involve slicing with it, rather than chopping, which is more suitable for heavy blades combined with heavy force. A slice would involve both sliding the edge along the target cut and moving it forward at the same time. It would make sense to me that a slicing motion would generally lead to cleaner and more complete cuts than chopping. It would also hold its sharpness better, since the edge is being interacted with a parallel motion rather than a perpendicular one. The same is true for the full blade.
It’s difficult to do that kind of slicing motion combined with a full swing, but perhaps the mediocre iron they had access to is the reason why they went to the effort of developing that technique. Those who were better at cutting things wouldn’t break their swords as often, so they put effort into honing that technique and eventually got to the point where katanas would survive long enough to be antiques or family heirlooms.
But that’s just my guess, based on observing samurai characters in various media being impressed with the quality of cuts they observe. Like, “based on this cut, I know that it was done by a skilled swordsman”. That says there’s some kind of technique involved, rather than just swinging the sharp side at it.