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.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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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.
Also Firearms were around in Japan since the 1500s.
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.
Bows and spears get the work done, swords are mostly for show.
Swords were mainly for the generals and other higher up officers, since they require way more metal and thus were way more expensive.
So yes, mostly for show because those higher ups rarely went into battle themselves.
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.
You have just been disavowed by the university of Tokyo for revising revisionism. You can't just go around attempting to dispel over 400 years of self aggrandizing, it's just rude.
A glitch in my memory.
I know.
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.
I've been interested in those. Sending an arrow is one moment. Swords are like a game or a dance.
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.
I meant as an art, as a hobby, as a sport, as a component of status.
That said, the brain stimulation from playing can help you with that too.
Pride in katana was during the Edo period when the samurai were relegated to being government officials and they used swords for duelling.
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."
They didn't. Samurai were primarily mounted cavalry. They used bows and spears that required both hands. That modded should've made them armoured horse archers.
I was under the impression that long arms were the main weapon of choice, at least for the infantryman, which is usually the bulk of armies.
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.
Bro you gonna summon a army of otakus with your facts
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.
commit sudoku
For those of us with ADHD, can we do with seppuku?
Yep, sadly you're right. Video games really brainwashed us
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Maybe but the fake as fuck katana my stepdad got from Japan looks cool as shit, you can't beat that.
Fair, valid, and based.
Intimidation is a valid tactic as well.
I didn't watch it all the way through, but having seen the video it's criticising I must link this here
Damn... I wish I had that talent to speak for minutes on end without actually saying anything; awkward silences would be a thing of the past!
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I always thought it would suck to be the guy that practiced his entire life. Gets sick on his first campaign and is just lucid enough to see their side lose the fight and the enemy come to execute them.
Only just a little ironic that the Israeli Flag anon writes a short fiction of an arrogant upper class getting their comeuppance.
The user can manually set the flag to whatever they want... Most people use the jolly Roger pirate flag if they're gonna bother setting the flag though.
So you're saying it's even more ironic?
I'm just saying it's 4chan, nothing is ever as it seems.
"Never attribute to Malice what is adequately explained by stupidity."
~Robert J. Hanlon
Katanas are not actually that sharp. I mean, it’ll kill you just fine, but it’s almost more like a big machete than a sword.
Yeah there is so much disinformation about katanas from basement kids in the 90s/00s.
They are really impressive cause shit steel ended making a pretty good sword but most of the trick is the curve and the sawing action it makes you do if you swing correctly to cut through stuff like a chefs knife. But you do want it sharp, and free of burs so that it doesn't get stuck part way in.
But you'd be up against a big stick with metal bolts in it that would win the fight mostly anyways.
Nah, they are sharp, but flimsy.
They were designed to cut-off unprotected limbs. Since iron was very scarce in feudal Japan. So metal armours weren't really a thing for the majority.
Put them up against an European sword, where they did have more pure iron ore and they will break.
I'm gonna take a pass on step 1, thanks.
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