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The Japanese Samurai WarriorDiscover the amazing world of Japanese Movies...The Samurai Sword and Other WeaponryThe samurai used various weapons, but the katana is the weapon that is synonymous with samurai. Bushido taught that a samurai's soul is their katana and sometimes a samurai is pictured as entirely dependent on the katana for fighting. This contrasted with the crossbows of Europe or the swords of knights which were, principally, tools for combat. However the use of swords did not become common in battle until the Kamakura period (1185-1333), where the Tachi and Uchigatana (the direct predecesor to the katana) became prevalent. The Katana itself did not become the primary weapon until the Edo period. After a male child of the bushi was born, he would receive his first sword in a ceremony called mamori-gatana. The sword, however, was merely a charm sword covered with brocade to which was attached a purse or wallet, worn by children under five. Upon reaching the age of thirteen, in a ceremony called Genbuku, a male child was given his first real swords and armour, an adult name, and became a samurai. A katana and a wakizashi together are called a daisho (lit. "big and small"). The wakizashi itself was a samurai's "honour blade" and purportedly never left the samurai's side. He would sleep with it under his pillow and it would be taken with him when he entered a house and had to leave his main weapons outside. The Tanto was a small dagger sometimes worn with the Wakizashi in a daisho.
The tanto or the wakizashi was used to commit seppuku (ritualized suicide). In the 15th century, the yari (spear) also became a popular weapon, displacing along with the naginata from the battlefield as personal bravery became less of a factor and battles became more organized around massed, inexpensive foot troops. A charge, mounted or dismounted, was more effective when using a spear than a katana and it offered better than even odds against a samurai using a katana. In the Battle of Shizugatake where Shibata Katsuie was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then known as Hashiba Hideyoshi, the Seven Spearmen of Shizugatake played a crucial role in the victory. The latter half of the 16th Century saw the introduction of the arquebus in Japan through Portuguese trade, enabling warlords to raise effective armies from masses of peasants. The new weapons were highly controversial. Their ease of use and deadly effectiveness was perceived by many as a dishonorable affront to Bushido tradition. Oda Nobunaga made deadly use of the arquebus at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, leading to the end of the Takeda clan. After their initial introduction by the Portuguese and the Dutch, the matchlock arquebus, or teppo, were produced on a large scale by Japanese gunsmiths. By the end of the 16th Century, there were more firearms in Japan than in any European nation, with largely superior craftsmanship. Teppo, employed en masse largely by ashigaru peasant foot troops were in many ways the antithesis of samurai valor. With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and an end to civil war, production of the guns declined sharply with prohibitions to ownership. By the Tokugawa Shogunate most spear-based weapons had been phased out partly because they were suboptimal for the close-quarter combat common in the Edo period, this combined with the aforementioned restrictions on fire-arms resulted in the Daisho being the only weapons typically carried by samurai. Some other weapons used by samurai were jo, bo, grenade, Chinese trebuchets (more as an anti-personnel weapon than a siege engine) and cannon (infrequently and at great expense). This article is licensed under the GNU
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