Re: [HIST] Japanese Culture shock

On Mon, 24 Jun 2002 17:58:12 -0700 (PDT), John Leary
<john_t_leary@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>My money is on the knight in armor!   The Japanese
>are using the equal of the saber/simitar, and history
>has shown the outcome of that fight.

Talking knights versus samurai is a little silly, since both developed
armour
and arms based on entirely different criteria. The samurai's katana was
a
beautifully made weapon* but it was intended to cut through lamellar
armour
and padded armour. It could cut and thrust well. It would have problems
with
plate.

On the other hand, the samurai had other weapons at his disposal. For
most of
the period up to the 15th century, samurai actually played _down_ their
ability with the sword and played _up_ their ability with the bow. In
this
period, against a European knight, you'd have a fight between a well
armoured,
competent swordsman who was a better archer!

In later periods, obviously plate armour would have an edge, but plate
armour
is heavier than samurai lamellar armour. Would the samurai fight as per
normal, or would he adapt and use a long dagger to slip in between the
edges
of those plates, perhaps abandoning his katana for a naginata first?
This
would give him a pole weapon that could, in theory, aid in dropping the
knight
to the ground with sweeping attacks at the knights legs.

It's an interesting thought experiment, but if Europeans had fought
against
samurai, both sides would have evolved their fighting techniques.

*Actually, samurai swords went through several periods of quality
change.
Swords from the end of the Heien period to the Mongol invasion were well
made,
but the Mongol's padded armour showed a weakness: they had a tendency to
get
stuck in the armour and were easily snapped. After the Mongol invasions,
sword
quality improved, but after the Onin war it started to slip again. There
were
still those quite capable of making excellent weapons, but the quality
dropped
heading into the "Age of the Country at War" due to the introduction of
what
can best be described as "cheap knock offs". So many weapons were being
produced in such a short period of time that quality suffered.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

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