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.
I didn’t watch it all the way through, but having seen the video it’s criticising I must link this here
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 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.
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.
What does it teach you of some people, especially managers? So concentrated in working hard and excelling at what they do (often being rude to others) that they don’t see the technological advances that will make them fail in the end.