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But I’m confused if samurai armor weights has much or even more than full plate armor then how is it that samurai armor covers less of the body is the metal thicker on samurai armor or what is it?
When people attempt to judge the past based on modern conception, I call it, "ad tunc per nunc fallacy"... Basically, it is illogical to judge past actions using modern morality, when at that time there was no moral issue against the activity. Similarly, "Nunc Anno Fallacy" is my term that I've coined for "appeal to modernity".
Your from Italy my dad's family is from Northern Italy the town is called cortina theyspoke italic Swiss. I just started watching your show and it's nice to listen to someone that's knowledgeable about history 🇸🇪 🇮🇹
@@JensNyborg Musashi also had no problem with actually cheating, ahem using psycholigical tactics. Same goes for his opponents who didn't mind attacking many on one if needed.
The "guns are dishonorable" myth is pretty funny when you consider the Samurai were at one time some of the best firearms-equipped warriors on the planet during the Sengoku Period.
I honestly love Oda Nobunaga's portrayal in Drifters. If you would suggest to him that guns are dishonourable he would only laugh at you. (If you're lucky, he might feel in the mood for a demonstration.)
They went from being the best archers in Japan to the best riflemen. Their forte was ranged combat yet somehow in popular media, they became all about the 'Samurai Sword'.
@@EatWave That should tell you that their idea of honor involves killing their enemies from as far away as possible with impunity. Thank the Edo period for the veneration of the sword: it was the only weapon the samurai could carry around publicly for over 200 years.
Fantastic video. Pop culture over the years has continuously damaged people's idea of the Samurai, so much so that corrections need to continually be made to right the wrongs. I have yet to make a full formal myth-busting video like this but I am extremely glad to see that you have!!!
It's from the mistaken impression that the Samurai are the Japanese equivalent of European knights and their (near-nonexistent) code of honor. They're closer to gang members or the Mafia if you think about it- they live by codes and they serve to make their bosses rich but they're not above backstabbing their own just to get ahead.
"Samurai armor had to be sturdy yet flexible enough to allow free movement in the battlefield" Unlike all the non-samurai armor which was meant to be brittle and prohibit movement on the battlefield
I think Metatron missed the fact that Samurai armor as far as footwear and leg armor was concerned was reasonably light. For all that armor, you're only wearing a pair of straw sandals and woven protective plates hanging from the waist unlike Europeans who had dedicated leg and foot armor. It's kinda like ancient Roman armor now that I think about it.
@@MarvinT0606 and that made it LESS light. Why? Because while the samurai armor was as light at the below the knees for the same weight, western armor had average protection. Meaning that on a weight to protection ratio, the samurai had heavier armor. Seems ridiculous how lightly their legs were armored considering their main discipline was mounted but I guess mounted archers didn't feel they would ever do sustained mounted combat.
@@enriquecabrera2137 it's also possible this was an acceptable trade-off for some measure of comfort especially in long battles. While being top-heavy, Samurai armor placed less weight and less strain on the wearer's legs than European armor. This means in prolonged combat you could recover stamina and mobility faster. Heavier leg armor can hobble a tired warrior and prevents him from having the option of ditching his armor for a quick getaway.
3:00 I *felt* that bit about weight distribution with body armor. Back when I was in the Navy I would often stand armed guard duty, which would require me to wear a bulletproof vest. Even a simple breastplate made out of modern Kevlar will absolutely KILL your shoulders if you don't strap it on correctly to make your torso and hips carry the weight.
in the expeditionary units we wear them for 14-18 hours at a time. after a few weeks if you put the cummerbund too low (the lower you put it the tighter you can get the armor) you end up with indigestion. hopping down far enough if you didn't tighten up your armor you can really hurt your back. people just don't understand how important it is to wear the armor correctly. those that have had to wear it know it isn't all about weight.
I remember my basic combat instructors telling us the waist strap on our ruck pack was useless, that we should never use it and weren't allowed to use it around him. I didn't use it until I hit the fleet, and I realized I had spent 3 months in crippling back and shoulder pain for no reason.
@@travispaskiewicz2663 depending on how you pack your pack he could be right. a rucksack is a bit different than a plate carrier with level 4 plates. that being said, it was his job to make sure you did pack your pack correctly. if you haven't built up your back over years or decades of hard labor then not using the stuff the help transfer load from your back to your hips is pretty important for even light stuff, since that wears you down over time.
@@travispaskiewicz2663 That's just crazy. I used to go on hiking camps and using the waist band on my backpack was essential given the weight of it. (Still probably less than yours I'd imagine)
the 'dishonorable gun' myth is the one that bothers me the most, because it takes away one of the most interesting things of the samurai and the japanese in general : In terms of gunpowder tactics, this is one of the areas they actually WERE better than many of their european contemporaries. This idea that they somehow looked down on guns does a huge disservice to people like Oda Nabunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were some of the cleverest generals of their day.
I imagine that movie really ingrained that idea. I think there where ultra conservative, Japanese samurai that used a gun along with a kantana. Lead by like one of three great nobles I think
@@sasshiro tbh i only know about the misconception because of channels like Metatron etc, my first exposure to samurai is from videogames like Samurai Warriors, Kessen 3, and Sengoku Basara and in those games it's very common for samurai to be using guns, so the notion of samurai using guns has always come off to me as something obvious and i was kinda surprised the first time i heard of the misconception
I found this channel one day when I was researching about Japanese armors for accurate depictions of samurais during the Mongol invasions. Thanks for these amazing videos, Metatron, and for raising my standards when it comes to historical accuracy and research in general.
The katana being such a major symbol of samurai reminds me of how cruciform swords (arming swords and longswords) were such a major symbol of knights. While not all cruciform swords were only used by knights, it was sometimes used to identify someone as a knight. And the fact that both types of swords were back up weapons and they were the most convenient weapons to carry outside of the battlefield is amazing to me.
It just means that both cultures figured out that a long pointy stick is better on the battlefield but that a shorter sharp metal pointy stick is just about the best thing you can conveniently carry around. But they did come up with totally different designs for them.
According to Luke 22: 36, Jesus, on the night before he was arrested, told his disciples to buy swords if they didn't have any. And two of them did have swords already. And these were civilians, not soldiers.
I've often posited that this idea that Samurai wouldn't retreat is actually born out of the fanatical way Imperial Japan fought at the end of WW2 and the way they acted. Almost like Japan invented this idea of it being dishonorable to retreat for the samurai, so that their soldiers, who they were claiming had a kind of continuity with those same samurai, would act accordingly. This "no retreat, no surrender" attitude was noticed by their western foes and years later both Japan, in their depictions in anime and whatnot, and "the west", believe it to be true.
There were of course famous last stands and fights to the death. Guess why they got famous and were pretty much mystified. They were rare and exceptional. Usually the losing force at some point broke formation and fled. Some people got killed and/or captured, some escaped. Usually the leaders were killed in some way and the levy went back to the fields. You're right about Imperial Japan trying to use those myths and traditions to make their soldiers more fanatical. I'm not sure the rank-and-file really bought into it that much but as long as your leadership is on board down low enough that matters little.
Yeah almost all of the personality traits associated with the Samurai are the result of Bureaucrats in the Edo Period hyping themselves up by talking about how badass their ancestors were and how they are the heirs to their legacy and then writers in the Meiji period looking at that and being like "Yes, but what if we fused that with Nationalism to convince our people they are superior to all others in the world."
@@MarvinT0606 The Edo and Meiji are to Japan what the Victorians are to Europe, 99% of misconceptions, myths and flat out lies about the medieval age can be traced right to their door step.
@@kaltaron1284 In all cultures and times an army could find itself surrounded and outnumbered. Then they have to choose between going down fighting and surrender. For Samurai that usually meant supuku. Occasionally a last stand did have a purpose. Thermopolae and the Alamo were defended to the last man's fall so that later a larger force could win. The Niños Heroes held Chapultapec Castle to their deaths to give the Mexican army a chance to retreat. I am sure that Metatron can give Japanese examples. Normally a general later considered good avoided getting trapped.
Lol yeah the problem is the West over-mysticizes everything Eastern. Doesn’t help that Japanese video game/anime and other related industry media has also encouraged this angle, or presents it in a way it’s badly localized as overly mystical. The “sword is one’s soul” was always metaphorical, not meant to be taken literally. 🙄
Lol yeah the problem is the West over-mysticizes everything Eastern. Doesn’t help that Japanese video game/anime and other related industry media has also encouraged this angle, or presents it in a way it’s badly localized as overly mystical. The “sword is one’s soul” was always metaphorical, not meant to be taken literally. 🙄
I never tire to share this anecdote. I remember a guy writing that the samurai didn't use shields because the Japanese are a short people, so to avoid arrows, they mostly ducked and dodged. In completely unrelated news, ancient Greeks were short and treated their exceptionally heavy and large shields like weebs think all sengoku saurai treated their katanas.
@@Vlad_Tepes_III Nope, all the city states had Hoplites. And there were plenty of warlike states. The Hoplon is a critical piece of kit for that style of fighting.
@@Vlad_Tepes_III People in the past generally were of shorter stature than nowadays. But it also depends on the ethnicity. Scandinavians probably weren't much shorter than nowadays(I don't know that so I can be wrong) but majority of asians isn't tall even now.
That is hilarious. I'm just imagining a really short guy joining a medieval army and the officer just says 'you're a short fella, so you won't need a shield. You can just duck and you'd be too low for an arrow to hit ya.'
I think it’s movies like the last Samurai that give people the impression that the Samurai never used guns. When in fact in the satsuma rebellion which that movie is based on the rebelling Samurai did use guns, it’s just that they were massively outnumbered and outgunned by the new Japanese army.
"Clunky" is so extremely subjective it's hard to take seriously. One could easily look at the big ass shoulder armor or elaborate helmet decorations on Samurai designs and come to the conclusion that Samurai Armor is the clunkier of the two. And of course both sets of armor tend to look far more form fitting when covered by surcoat/jinbaori.
I'd actually like to see you do a bit more about feudal Japan. I often get *massively* turned off by most people who talk about Japan because it's one of those few cultures that attract hyper-biased, supremacist cringe, for whatever reason; but you have to be one of the most grounded people I've seen talk about these subjects. You're simultaneously passionate about multiple eras and cultures, and that means you're not inclined to play these supremacist games where someone throws one culture under the bus to show the superiority of another Would you consider doing some deeper videos showing the general progression of weapons, armour, and perhaps tactics and strategy over the centuries. I'm very good with the European equivalents, but I don't really have a great timeline of what was going on in Japan
The nice thing about the Metatron is that he tends to tackle... well, quite a few of those hyper-biased ones: Romans, and to a certain extent the Greeks. There's quite a lot of history and varied cultures to appreciate without acting like one civilization that was good at certain things was automatically great at everything.
I really appreciate these sort of videos that separate myth and truth (or at least what we know of the truth). For me personally, I've found a new respect and admiration for both Samurai and Knights (as they are so often compared) as I learned more about them in a more historic context in contrast to the myths. So big thank you for doing these vids, I hope it reaches a lot of people, historically correct (or more correct) understandings are amazing in and of themselves. Maybe Katana did not cut through stone as some say and while that sucks, knowing how Samurai thrived to be professional and always seek the best methods and weapons to achieve their goals is just as cool for me. Not having godlike powers and still kicking ass? Cool as hell if you ask me.
It's always refreshing to see you talk about samurai history . Can we get a dedicated video about the bows that samurai used ? I think it's an important part of samurai arsenal that do not get enough recognition .
The Japanese Yumi was originally the primary weapon of the Samurai. It was a longbow offset to be usable while mounted. Despite modern claims based on light draw sports bows the war Yumi was almost as powerful as the English war bow. There is a lot of information available on TH-cam about modern archery included mounted.
@@markhorton3994 Usually that information is poor research where people compare a modern daikyu to a historical one. There's one example of an early Edo period bow based on a Sengoku model. It weighed in at about 89kg (or 198lbs.)
@@jonajo9757 I apologize for the nitpick and I mean no offence, but "weighed in" is inaccurate and misleading terminology, the phrasing "has a draw weight of" conveys the meaning better. Also, 198lbs? That's...a lot...
@@Vlad_Tepes_III I'm aware, and I just really don't think of it much because y'know. Anyways yeah, that's a lot of draw weight. Here's the video showing it. th-cam.com/video/rP8d81jzQJc/w-d-xo.html This video features reenactors using warbows draw about 110lbs. Somewhere at 5:18, that's when they measure the draw weight of the aforementioned bow.
ooooo you know I had to comment on this! The idea of samurai not using guns is my biggest pet peeve, that and their weapons being light. Hand cannons were imported from China very early on, even before European style firearms. Meaning gun powder has always been interesting to the samurai. They even had catapults that fired gun powder bombs.
Hand cannons were not imported early, that's false. The fire lance, which you are referring to was brought to Japan around the 14th century yet it never caught on.
@@gibsonflyingv2820 I have an entire video on my channel with pictures of a bronze hand cannon dated before that time. Unless you’re saying that Japan doesn’t know their history, cause it’s owned by a museum there
0:24 1.Medival Artist are Always high and you cant Tell me otherweise. 2. That could also be Interpreted to the Message: the horses get along and the human is a fool because they kill eachother.
I find curious that apparently, on melee combat, the samurai mostly used two handed pole-weapons, akin to late medieval knights. That explains the almost lack of light, one handed-weapons being actively used in the front lines (including shields). However, while late knights used those weapons because of how good armor eventually became (shields becoming mostly pointless, gaps protected), as far as I understand, even the latest samurai armor level of protection would be somewhere akin to 13th-14th century knight armor (as far as coverage, they had bullet proof armor it seems), when there were still shields and the prevalence of polearms would be overkill?
One difference though: medieval knights used the lance as an expendable weapon for the cavalry charge. They switched to their side-weapon (sword or mace) when it breaks. Samurai though used their spears as their main weapon and drew their swords only when necessary.
@@MarvinT0606 Switching to the side weapon when the lance breaks is the same as useing the sword only when necessary. Dont confuse lances for jousting, wich are made to break spectacular for a good show, with lances made for war.
@@wolf310ii knights expected it to break on impact. If it didn't break, they'd lose momentum and be vulnerable to attack from any nearby infantry. Knights needed the momentum from a charge to force a breakthrough in order to break an enemy force and/or create a gap for their infantry to exploit.
befor I start 1- samurai are not just soldiers but states men 2- samurai when in battle use all kinds of weapons but the bow is their most important ( not the sword ) 3- many samurai are administrators and never fight 4- the samurai are ultimately tools of their warlord and not independent actors 5- samurai are also poets , calligraphers and basically lawyers / judges 6- while bushido is important it is not the only text that governs their actions 7- they have a much longer historic context up to the late 19th century than most people think of not just 16-18 century 8- there wives and families are important to there story not just themselves
I’m so curious about paper and bamboo armor. I can imagine an entire phone book on your chest could do something but there’s no way they’d wear something that thick
The paper used in paper armor was very different from todays paper… it was more like a cloth made with wood fiber. My thoughts from an amature perspective is that it was more like a European gambeson… thought I’m sure both Metetron and Shadiversity will want to choke me out for that interpretation
I know Metatron is Italian, but sometimes his accent, and cadence of speaking, makes him sound like Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life. lmao Love your vids. :D
Thanks, Metatron. As usual, you are well spoken and well reasoned. I appreciate you clearing up myths about how ninja and samurai are or are not related. I did not know most of what you covered regarding how they could be related or one in the same. Now, it makes sense. Thanks again!
I knew all of these! I'm a crafter so I look into a bunch of things to figure out what I want to make. Like the paper armor of the ashigaru. I guess I didn't know about the breastplate, but I did know they have a hat that was hardened paper or sometimes leather.
Learning about Japan's first attempted invasion of Korea from extra credits, I find it odd how while the Japanese distribute massive amounts of guns to their troops they didn't mount cannons on their ships
Cannons like the ones used in European naval and field artillery required reinforcement to fire relatively accurately, and if on ships, prevent the ship from toppling over or cracking the deck. I believe they did not do so because the hull designs of Japanese ships were not made to account for that and would just break under constant firing of cannons.
While the Portuguese taught the Japanese how to make guns, they didn't throw in even the idea of making shipboard guns after all. besides, naval warfare is only common when you have to constantly fight other countries coming from across the ocean. few Japanese wars were ever fought at sea due to the fact that for most part of Japanese history, they fought only themselves. there simply wasn't much need to fight other ships throughout most of their history.
Samurai wearing Light Armor could stem from most depiction of Samurai having their clothes visible on their chest when wearing their armor, however there are literally different kind of armor with the heaviest one imo is the Nanban Armor. When looking at a Knight, they will be encased in at least Chainmail which is fully armored.
It likely just comes from typical idea that the East prefer lights armor,Nanban armor was not the heaviest the thing about that armor it was done for fashion reasons, plate armor was already develop in Japan before contact with the West. Knight's armor differed a lot.
15:31 This is also fueled by a perversion of the samurai code for the sake of propaganda by the Imperial Japanese army in WW2 where. Their recruits were ordered to either come back victorious or not to come back at all, which led to fanaticism. Which was so horrifying to the US soldiers who witnessed it that they just projected that onto all of Japanese history. Not helped by Japans portrayal of the Samurai in their own pop culture furthering this myth.
I feel that the mythos of swords in general (including Japanese swords, such as the Katana) are actually a result of both firearms and "peaceful" periods of the 15th-19th Centuries. With armor being less relevant due to either an increase in firearms or decrease in battlefields, duels became more common. What did nobles (of multiple cultures including Europe and Japan) have on hand? Swords! Thus, for upwards of 300 years, "honorable duels" used swords. Writers of those periods writing about personal defense wrote about sword dueling because if you were writing about warfare and combat, you'd be writing about massed formations of pikes and muskets or cannons for siege warfare. Since nobles were always dueling each other with swords, in fiction, these became the weapon of choice in general. The irony being the shear number of historical figures who were real or mythologized (may have existed but generations of story-telling exaggerated them and their feats) that never used swords. So many carried pole-arms, bows, lances, etc. The problem was that people saw the descendants of feudal knights or samurai dueling with swords and just assumed THAT had always been the weapon of choice. Movies, dime novels, manga, and anime haven't helped either. I was once asked by a friend who would win; a Knight in full armor with a long sword or a Samurai in full armor with a katana. My response? The one that didn't pass out first. They would probably bash each other with the swords pointlessly if stupid, or resort to grappling if they weren't.
As a person who is Japanese (half Japanese but living in Japan) I’m thankful that this person has explained most of the things that a lot of people get wrong with :) Yes and my ancestors are samurais let’s goooo
Hey there. I love seeing your passion for the subject. The samurai, like the paladin of old stories (ref. Chanson de Roland) fills a particular storytelling niche. A people will believe what they want to believe, sometimes losing the point of the story in the process. Thank you for the fun video & the very tasty looking snacks! :)
"I need a drink, DO WE HAVE SAKE?!" Oh Metatron, you clearly suffered while making this video. We need more videos like this, modern misconceptions of medieval times need to be shattered.
There's so much I love about this video. I love all the armor and history facts. I even love the sponsor but, I'd watch those reviews in a video on its own, no matter who's chanel it's made on.
I never believed any of those, but I'm old enough to remember when Websters dictionary still said that "samurai" was pronounced like "SAM-yoo-rye," and these seem to be ideas that spread after samurai became more prominent in mainstream western pop culture. A fun myth that I did hear back in the day was that karate was based on techniques developed to defeat samurai by punching or kicking through their bamboo armor. How's your blood pressure after reading that?
@@kaltaron1284 Yeah. The bamboo armour myth and the fact that it's apparently still a common enough belief to make it onto Metatron's list is frustrating.
Thanks for debunking a lot of samurai stuff that I found questionable. Most especially the part where samurai hated the use of firearms which I found so weird. Whether you’re samurai or not, if there are guys with all sorts of weapons coming at you, and all you have is a firearm, YOU USE IT. It’s common sense! Edit nearly 1 year later: The katana as a last-resort weapon reminds me of today's soldiers where pistols are mostly used as a sidearm or last-resort weapon for soldiers carrying standard rifles.
14:08 I love that Samurai were all MMA fighters. It makes sense as there wasn't a martial art specifically for their duties/job like Krav Maga is for body guards
The content is awesome, but my favorite part was getting to see you and your wife trying your treat’s!💕 She is so sweet & it’s always a treat to see her!
>honor meant bringing power to your lord that reminds me of Shad's video on the myths about European knights and chivalry and one of his many important points was that while the specifics of what constituted "chivalry" and "honour" varied depending on area and time, the one thing that was relatively constant was...the loyalty to your lord. When you think about it it is not really that surprising, as loyalty to your own is universally valued throughout the planet and through the millennia among all kinds of human societies, from ancient tribes through religions and cultures up to modern political parties, prison gangs and even popculture fandoms. It's just that very often the much more easily perceptible differences like language, cuisine and physical appearance obscure the fact that ultimately that which unites us outnumbers substantially that which divides us.
A lot of these, I was taught in very early childhood, but learned better in high school. I studied Japanese in high school, and I had a trip to japan which included some time living with a family descended from samurai. Those two facts contributed to a lot - though not all - of my corrections about these myths. A few, I'd learned the truth about before my age hit double digits though, I was lucky to have pretty good teachers even at a young age.
I remember reading James Clavel's "Shogun" as a teenager and just being totally in love with the book and its portrayal of the samurai. They seemed super brutal, and it was kinda awesome. I've always wondered how much of it was historically accurate. I thought it was based/inspired by a true story for some reason. It's been so long, I can't remember.
I hadn't actually heard of a few of these myths (namely the bamboo armour one) and I have to admit when you brought up the myth that the Samurai practiced Judo and Karate I was thinking to myself "yeah that sounds about right, they would probably learn some form of unarmed combat" not realising that those two disciplines where created much later. Also I have Sabaton's song "Shiroyama" to thank for my knowledge of the Samurai using guns, albeit due to a comment on the video for it. I'd also like to know where the myth of ninjas and samurai being opposed to each other comes from, anyone with any knowledge of the wartime periods of Japan (or who had played Total War Shogun) would know that that's complete BS.
They would have practiced some kinda JuJUTSU (precursor to what would become Judo) & then some kind of standing unarmed combat forms just in case. karate is DEFINITELY out of the question, as it's an Okinawan invention & for most part of Japanese history, Okinawa, or rather, Ryukyu, was a separate country altogether.
For some reason the modern reinterpretaitions of the Oda conflict with Iga and Koga are to blame for the samurai fighting ninja tropes and also the hidden ninja village tropes. Since the people of those areas defended themselves with what can only be described as guerilla tactics against the much larger force attacking them, loads of myths about invisible worriors using trickery to come out top, operating from villages impossible to find are created. Combine that with a newfound apreciation of the shinobi texts containing examples of techniques to conduct succsessful espionage and sneaking around. Mixing different myths grounded in reality together to create that perfect stealth worrior hybrid.
Thank you for talking about the idea of honor and how it's more honorable to win a battle with guns, or to retreat and fight another day, than it is to only use swords and never back down. The samurai were professional warriors, not idiots. Sidenote, for me personally, honor in battle means two things. You respect the art of waging war and you respect your opponent. To respect an opponent does not mean you intentionally nerf yourself to give them a fair shot, it's to acknowledge your foe as a fellow warrior and, if you both serve a different master, to maybe have no hard feelings over winning or loosing, since you're both honorably fighting for your lord and/or ideals.
This might be a bit of a nerd thing, but the Ninja Turtles I was brought up with had more of a Samurai like theme. They constantly referenced Bushido and their philosophy on honor. They were Ninjas because they fought where and when civilians wouldn't see them and so they were good at sneaking around, but they never attached anyone who didn't know they were there. I would say they were Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles.
That’s one way of interpreting it. Bushido is more like strict guidelines for warrior servants. Which is what samurai were. Servants, loyal their masters. Much like dogs. Bushido might be thought of as an ancient doggy training manual.
I'll be honest: I didn't know one thing: that there were SO many Samurai. Thanks to your channel and some others, I've known other myths to be wrong for quite some time now.
A number of years ago, i visited ,Grünes Gewölbe' Museum in Dresden / Germany. The dynasty of former saxon Kings/ Electors was known for wealth and collecting expensive things. The ,Grünes Gewölbe' is basicly former ,treasure chamber'. There was a ,Katana' produced arround 1700 by saxon court jewellry maker Johannes Dinglinger. He didn' t knew, from what material the handle / grip was made, so he made the handle from glass like material, we germans call ,Emaile'.
Interesting, never thought of the Katana quite that way. So it was kind of the equivalent of an officer's sidearm, like a M1911 (for a WW2 US officer) or a Type 14 Nambu (in the WW2 Japanese context) as far as symbolic badges of rank are concerned. In an actual combat context I suspect a better comparison would be (in the US/NATO context) a tanker's ( closest thing to Medieval Japanese heavy cavalry I can think of) submachine gun (for the US, an M3 "Grease Gun" up until the 90s, I think the Brits still used the Sterling for that) or carbine (i.e. the M1 or M2 carbine) and the wakizashi would be a pistol equivalent. The Eastern Bloc equivalent might be a Krinkov (AKS-74U) and a Makarov pistol.
@@kaltaron1284 Yeah, but by then they were believing their own propaganda (which is where at least some of the myths detailed come from). Also, some of those "mass produced" swords were actually family heirlooms outfitted to the military standard (fittings, sheath, etc). Your average G.I. or Marine wouldn't know the difference unless he took the handle off. It's readily apparent then.
This is nothing unique to the katana. I think it's safe to say it's the case for most swords throughout history. Most swords are sidearms, or can be worn conveniently as one. The only thing that perhaps stands out about the katana is that there were legal restrictions on who could use them, which created more of an association with the classes who could use them
Very good katana that could stand the test of battle were actually few & far between, as only shit wealthy lords could afford them. swords issued to the likes of ashigaru had ALWAYS been cheap shit that either bent or broke often when used for their intended purposes. if swords were indeed drawn in a battlefield en masse back then, chances were you'd find shit tons of them littered around, bent or broken, after the battle was over, & the surviving soldiers wouldn't even bother sheathing their blades, as they too, were more often than not, bent or broken.
One thing to remember about Karate, is that it is in origin an OKINAWAN MA. Okinawa is a Ryukyun island, and while related to the Japanese people, they were not under Japanese control. Modern Karate was developed by Okinawan immigrants to Japan after Japan took control, who Japanified the language used, and took some influence from Japanese MAs like those of the Aikido-Jujitsu family.
Honor is a funny word we don't understand clearly, honor for a servant of the lord would be the same as discipline that some people in the army constantly talk about, let me explain, when you have a role in society you have to commit to that, in the power structure of feudal societies one is above everyone, if they don't follow that rule they are not honorable (bandits, rebels, escaped prisoners), is all about being the best servant to your lord, and in exchange the lord protects you from other people, the lord gives you a title, if you are a good servant (follow all orders) you are honorable and you deserve a raise and your family gets a better role in society, if you don't respect the rules and don't follow the orders of your lord you are going to get killed and your family is going to die without any honor. Seppuku was a way to pay for the mistakes you made and avoid your family getting killed, or degraded to lower servants, if you think about it a little bit further Seppuku wasn't about you killing yourself to get more honor in the afterlife, it was about protecting your family (and the Shogun used this to control families so they don't try to gain power).
Had some fun pausing to write these when the cards were shown on screen since you asked. 1-Light armor Nah, they wore pretty strong armor that allowed them to survive arrows and stuff without requiring a shield, while also enabling 2h weapon usage, which they very much loved. Also wore some measure of bulletproof (resistant) armor when they were new but was phased out after some limited success cuz it just don't work good enough to justify it. Was eventually phased out as the country closed up and saw some peace, armor was obsolete during the Boshin war period so they didn't really bother producing more. 2-Guns Hahaha, they loved guns, Sengoku Jidai period had more guns in Japan than Europe combined, or so it has been said. They even developed their own forms of arquebus known as Tanegashima in the region of Tanegashima because they couldn't get enough from the Portugeuse. Leading to the famous Oda three line formation near the end of the Sengoku period. 3- Katana Nah spears and bows all the way, much like everywhere around the world. Swords were mostly sidearms. 4- Ninja Modern ninja depictions are something born from pop culture, actual shinobi were much more normal looking with no full black uniforms, rather dressing more like peasant and everyday folk instead. They also actually served samurai lords in many situations, ironically being more "honourable" and loyal than samurai were. 5- Martial arts Yeah, to some degree. Like every other warrior class in the world, being able to defend yourself in a disarmed/unarmed or grapple situation is something worth learning. 6- Few samurai They were a whole social class, with different tiers within them too, plenty of elites considering the large number of clans and their feudal wars. The difference between a low ranking samurai and a samurai lord could be much like a manager and a CEO, except that your CEO could often be the head of state for the region. 7- Retreat Not never, but quite a dislike for it I think, ultimately they've got a war to fight and win so it did happen, cases of routs and fights to the death happens. 8- Backstab They would, they love winning, backstabs win. Physical backstabbing aside, they'd also do the metaphorical betrayal backstabbing politics, samurai history is full of it. 9?- wood and bamboo armor Yes and no, samurai would typically have the best equipment available, because good equipment brings success. bamboo and wood were also used in the form of deployed shield screens. Bamboo was also used to fill the Horo, which was a back tied bag of sorts to protect the rear from arrows for some extra important people. Didn't know they used layered paper though, makes sense in the context of a economical or desperation thing; better than nothing I suppose.
Japanese armour and swords may not be the best, but they are one of the most beautiful in the world. Also, werent they more customed in mounted archery before the warring states period, and the o yoroi if im not mistaken is much more suitable for archery and skirmishin. better choice is still european full plate though, that or a nokia brick.
First, I was suprised that some people would believe in part of this things (e.g. samurai didn't use guns), but I also didn't knew everything (samurai could be shinobi is my favourite new info). Thanks for expanding my knowledge :)
😂🤣 this video cracked me up. I've learned enough over the years watching your channel and others to know all those claims were false. In relation to the honor stuff it never made sense to me as a kid, I used to think if they were honor this honor that did they hold back their warriors in battle to.ensure both sides have equal numbers? 🤣 Thank God I know they wouldn't have given a crap if they outnumbered their enemies.
I think there's another layer of abstraction to it, it's not that we necessarily perceive them to act like we do, but that modern people project _their idea_ of how people in the past would have acted, which often turns out not to be true
The prevalence of crossroads-killing is hugely overstated. It was illegal to randomly kill townspeople (obviously) and the only historical example I could find (the Yoshiwara spree killing) ended with the perpetrator, who was actually a rather high ranking samurai, being executed. That's not to say that it didn't happen, especially in the lawless sengoku era, but still specific clans had their own rules and I doubt they often included "kill anyone you want as long as they're not a samurai". Logically speaking, if you killed some random townsman or farmer and it turned out that he was a skilled worker for a higher ranking samurai in your clan (or even worse, your lord), how do you think it would turn out for you? Many samurai also weren't soldiers (especially in the edo period) and had equivalents to modern day jobs like police, firefighter, accountant, bodyguard etc. I can't imagine that they were inherently more psychopathic just because they were part of the samurai caste.
Despite it being a complete meme of a series that I like, the Samurai Warriors game series taught me the gun part. Even in the games Nobunaga had guns and a lot of them and his main tactic in the games was shoot to kill and don't stop shooting. Good on you, SW.
Ah, yes, the Katana, the sword that never breaks only shatters, the blade that slashes steel and spacetime continuum. The weapon of mass destruction where a single samurai could with single strike split stones and mountains. The weapon so powerful that it had to be outlawed otherwise Samurai would never be defeated by lowly standing army in western style with Gatling guns, canons and numerical advantage. Also you are wrong, Metatron, Samurai never retreated they just advanced in the opposite direction. They never worried about stabbing people in the back as the blade also cuts the front of the person so it's alright.
I hadn't thought about it before, but in many ways it seems like the katana fill the same role that a pistol would in later centuries. It serves as a badge of station (samurai carry katana, military officers carry pistols), as a reserve weapon if your primary weapon becomes unavailable (samurai use yari but may fall back to the katana if the yari becomes unavailable, modern soldiers use rifles but may fall back to a pistol if the rifle becomes unavailable), and as a practical weapon depending on the circumstances (You can use a katana in a more confined space, although a tanto or wakizashi might be even better, than a yari, just as it's easier to use a pistol in a more confined space than a rifle or a shotgun). Neat.
A good one would have been "Samurai don't use shields" with explanations like their weapons could cut through them easily or needed two hands. The big square sections on the shoulders of some armour were for catching arrows and could be detached and held when in battle.
1) Knew this one 2) Knew this one 3) Knew this one 4) Knew this one 5) Knew this one 6) Knew this one 7) Knew this one 8) Knew this one 9) Knew this one Also from what I have found with research, bushido was written after the samurai era. Apparently there was also a very disturbing practice of the master pillowing the boy students until they hit puberty, apparently this would create a bond between the teacher and student "nanshoku into wakashudo". Seppuku was not something they chose to do it was a horrible way to die and was usually forced on them.
Spent the better part of a hour talking to a friend about honor. His position was Samurai were all about honor & bushido. I tried explaining many different ways. Most of what he was referencing came about long after the major fighting had stopped. If he really wanted to respect the concepts he should actually look at what they had to say. Instead of sticking to his personal beliefs. Long story short he still believes what he believes. To paraphrase them "Well can't i make those ideas real by fulfilling them today?" I basically ended the conversation with, yeah man sure. Cause it was clear he didn't want to hear it. And i didn't need to keep wasting my time.
Great video! You are spot-on regarding the myths. I’m reading “Samurai Arms, Armour & the Tactics of Warfare, the Collected Scrolls of Natori-Ryu.” Tactical retreat is definitely part of the battle plan. The West’s impression of samurai honor code and battle philosophy is shallow at best.
I admit that in the past I did perceive some of these myths as true, but when you get into researching about the samurai you learn very quickly what is true and what is not. I love your videos Metatron Sensei.
I find it funny that the way most of us know about this stuff is we were the kids who bought the myths and loved them so much we deep dived and learned the truth.
Great video, one thing though. At 3:05 you say the armor hung completely on the shoulders, but if you watch "Let's ask Shogo" s video of getting dressed in that kind of armor you find out that the sash they used to affixed the katana to the waist was strapped thight after the armor had been lifted a bit, to make the weight rest on the waist.
A couple days ago I saw Werner Herzog interviewed on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert about his book, The Twilight World. It's the story of a Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippines jungle for 29 years, thinking WWII was still ongoing, while waiting for orders from his commanding officer. Maybe this guy was one of the ultimate Samurai, but instead of a sword he carried a rifle. You can check out the video on the Colbert TH-cam channel. And, I hope Werner does another one of his documentaries on this story, narrated by his soothing voice. And on the Japanese TV channel, NHK World Japan, I saw Pancan, the canned bread and how it was developed, and because of it's long shelf life recently sent to Ukraine.
I really like that you record your own footage demonstrating the armor in person. It's, you know, both different from the norm and informative. It also makes you look like a huge dork, so that's amusing. But seriously, I approve. Very surprised to hear how many samurai there were.
Many shinobi were hired mercenary scouts and messengers, in some cases operating well in the open, marching with the army, and expecting a certain amount of... for lack of a better word diplomatic immunity from combat. Nobunaga hired some clans in particular quite frequently because they were native to the mountainous terrain of the local area of the campaign he was on. He hired them for a few major reasons... to reinforce existing ties and loyalty, to secure safe passage through the area, and to better curry messages between his party and his enemey, which was an important part of war. Of course even if these hired guidesmen were operating under an assumption of safety from both armies, it probably wouldn't stop them from being put down if they were _discovered_ while spying on an enemy position. Often they were paid not simply in money, but also in goods, such as guns and armor, which they could then use in future hires, though, as mentioned with Nobunaga, some daimyou had secured enough loyalty with these local clans that they wouldn't easily contract with another lord, preferring only to work with one lord, or sometimes lords known to be allied to one... others however were only interested in working for anyone who would pay them. Often the samurai marching in a land were not native there and would have almost no experience with the terrain, geography, flora and fauna, and thus would be in a terrible situation if they weren't contracting shinobi. There is some documented evidence of this happening to a few lords' campaigns, though I can't recall who specifically. (Worth noting: I'm reciting all of this from memory, so some details may be misquoted as it comes from research into historical sources I did more than a year ago, and even then the sources may have been misrepresented within their scholarly context by persons with specific biases. I'm just leaving it here because, in my experience, this information is contrary to what many people assume ninja were like, and represents my findings when attempting to get closer to the truth. Please _do_ research for yourself if you're at all interested.)
Metatron I love the insight you give into the subjects you dive into. Much of what you have said I have "learned" in the past but could not recall sources from in order to "prove" in discussions. I love your presentations and the depths that you reach in your explanations.
Every time I hear some """"""Expert"""""""" say that knight armor was clunky and like a tin can I always say "You're talking mad guff for someone in crusading distance!!"
Ninja and history and history of modern culture. During the Asuka period (592-710), Shoutoku Taishi (574-627) hired Otomono Sabito, a descendant of Ominomikoto, as an intelligence officer and assassin. Shoutoku Taishi called him shinobi (meaning anyone who wants to get good information). Otomono was from the Iga region. The Hattori clan in the C7, Iga region wore black costumes at the Shinto ritual of Aekuni Shrine. They were called Kurondo (Black Party). In 1180, the Hattori clan participated in the Genpei War as a samurai. They were good at guerrilla warfare. C12, the Hattori clan became the lord of the Iga region in cooperation with the peasant samurai jizamurai and became independent from the shogunate. They became mercenaries in various parts of Japan. They later became known as the Iga-ryu. C14, literary work Taiheiki has a record of Sinobi. In 1578, the Tenshō Iga War began a war between the Nobunaga army and the Iga clan. In the 1600s, it was written as Xinobi in the dictionary compiled by the Jesuits. In C17, the popular culture novel Otogibouko, the creative Sinobi appeared. Creative Sinobi such as Sinobi's Goemon Jiraiya appeared in Kabuki, Joruri, Kyogen and they became popular. In 1911, the novel Sarutobi Sasuke was published. Since then, Sinobi has appeared in many novels. In 1916, the first ninja movie, Kougaumon, became popular. Around 1920, they were called ninsha. In 1958, the novel Kouga ninpocho was published. In this novel, many ninjya who use techniques like psychic powers appeared. This novel influenced manga and anime. In 1957, the novel Yagyu bugeicho became a movie. Since then, ninjya has appeared in many movies. In 1959, managa's Ninjya bugeichou, Sasuke was published. Since then, ninjya has appeared in many managas. In the 1960s, Onmitu Kenshi, a television series featuring ninjya, was broadcast. This TV series was broadcast in Australia and the Philippines, so ninjya became popular with young viewers. In 1967, the anime series Kamen no ninjya Akakage was broadcast. In 1967, ninjya appeared in movie 007.
With firearms it's the same with the knights. There are depictions of knights using firearms in later periods during sieges... also gunpowder in general was known in medieval europe, while most people think it was much later thing
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But I’m confused if samurai armor weights has much or even more than full plate armor then how is it that samurai armor covers less of the body is the metal thicker on samurai armor or what is it?
I love Japanese snacks!
When people attempt to judge the past based on modern conception, I call it, "ad tunc per nunc fallacy"... Basically, it is illogical to judge past actions using modern morality, when at that time there was no moral issue against the activity.
Similarly, "Nunc Anno Fallacy" is my term that I've coined for "appeal to modernity".
@@strengthisabsolutestrength8215
Yes.
Your from Italy my dad's family is from Northern Italy the town is called cortina theyspoke italic Swiss. I just started watching your show and it's nice to listen to someone that's knowledgeable about history 🇸🇪 🇮🇹
Modern myth spreaders: "Using guns was dishonourable!"
Oda Nobunaga: "Losing wars was dishonourable"
Not merely dishonourable, it was _cringe_
by that logic using both swords at once would have been dishonorable because you had a superior advantage. and yet... myiamoto musashi!
@@badrequest5596 Musashi trained. And thought about what he was doing.
That's clearly cheating!
@@badrequest5596 Using a sword like a Katana with both hands also has advantages so I don't think that comparison makes much sense.
@@JensNyborg Musashi also had no problem with actually cheating, ahem using psycholigical tactics. Same goes for his opponents who didn't mind attacking many on one if needed.
The "guns are dishonorable" myth is pretty funny when you consider the Samurai were at one time some of the best firearms-equipped warriors on the planet during the Sengoku Period.
I honestly love Oda Nobunaga's portrayal in Drifters. If you would suggest to him that guns are dishonourable he would only laugh at you. (If you're lucky, he might feel in the mood for a demonstration.)
...and muskets were the primary arm of the Japanese army that invaded Korea. Twice.
They went from being the best archers in Japan to the best riflemen. Their forte was ranged combat yet somehow in popular media, they became all about the 'Samurai Sword'.
@Drake Cassell Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the Samurai Warriors series.
It's on my list to try one day though.
What did they change?
@@EatWave That should tell you that their idea of honor involves killing their enemies from as far away as possible with impunity. Thank the Edo period for the veneration of the sword: it was the only weapon the samurai could carry around publicly for over 200 years.
Fantastic video. Pop culture over the years has continuously damaged people's idea of the Samurai, so much so that corrections need to continually be made to right the wrongs. I have yet to make a full formal myth-busting video like this but I am extremely glad to see that you have!!!
Hey there! Thank you for the comment, it’s great having you here! Keep up the great work you are doing
Ayo the Shogunate, my homie
Not only Samurai, pop culture is generally presenting very misguiding image of history overall.
I would view yours anytime! Can't get enough myth-busting.
It's from the mistaken impression that the Samurai are the Japanese equivalent of European knights and their (near-nonexistent) code of honor. They're closer to gang members or the Mafia if you think about it- they live by codes and they serve to make their bosses rich but they're not above backstabbing their own just to get ahead.
"Samurai armor had to be sturdy yet flexible enough to allow free movement in the battlefield"
Unlike all the non-samurai armor which was meant to be brittle and prohibit movement on the battlefield
Don't forget heavy!
Don't forget katana slicing armor, cause katana
...ah yes, BalancE in video games /!\
I think Metatron missed the fact that Samurai armor as far as footwear and leg armor was concerned was reasonably light. For all that armor, you're only wearing a pair of straw sandals and woven protective plates hanging from the waist unlike Europeans who had dedicated leg and foot armor. It's kinda like ancient Roman armor now that I think about it.
@@MarvinT0606 and that made it LESS light. Why? Because while the samurai armor was as light at the below the knees for the same weight, western armor had average protection. Meaning that on a weight to protection ratio, the samurai had heavier armor. Seems ridiculous how lightly their legs were armored considering their main discipline was mounted but I guess mounted archers didn't feel they would ever do sustained mounted combat.
@@enriquecabrera2137 it's also possible this was an acceptable trade-off for some measure of comfort especially in long battles. While being top-heavy, Samurai armor placed less weight and less strain on the wearer's legs than European armor. This means in prolonged combat you could recover stamina and mobility faster. Heavier leg armor can hobble a tired warrior and prevents him from having the option of ditching his armor for a quick getaway.
3:00 I *felt* that bit about weight distribution with body armor. Back when I was in the Navy I would often stand armed guard duty, which would require me to wear a bulletproof vest. Even a simple breastplate made out of modern Kevlar will absolutely KILL your shoulders if you don't strap it on correctly to make your torso and hips carry the weight.
Gotta love roving patrol...
Fair winds, shipmate..
~GM-G
in the expeditionary units we wear them for 14-18 hours at a time. after a few weeks if you put the cummerbund too low (the lower you put it the tighter you can get the armor) you end up with indigestion. hopping down far enough if you didn't tighten up your armor you can really hurt your back. people just don't understand how important it is to wear the armor correctly. those that have had to wear it know it isn't all about weight.
I remember my basic combat instructors telling us the waist strap on our ruck pack was useless, that we should never use it and weren't allowed to use it around him. I didn't use it until I hit the fleet, and I realized I had spent 3 months in crippling back and shoulder pain for no reason.
@@travispaskiewicz2663 depending on how you pack your pack he could be right. a rucksack is a bit different than a plate carrier with level 4 plates. that being said, it was his job to make sure you did pack your pack correctly. if you haven't built up your back over years or decades of hard labor then not using the stuff the help transfer load from your back to your hips is pretty important for even light stuff, since that wears you down over time.
@@travispaskiewicz2663 That's just crazy. I used to go on hiking camps and using the waist band on my backpack was essential given the weight of it. (Still probably less than yours I'd imagine)
the 'dishonorable gun' myth is the one that bothers me the most, because it takes away one of the most interesting things of the samurai and the japanese in general : In terms of gunpowder tactics, this is one of the areas they actually WERE better than many of their european contemporaries. This idea that they somehow looked down on guns does a huge disservice to people like Oda Nabunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were some of the cleverest generals of their day.
Yeah only stupid people believe that. In general once all out war breaks out all notions of honor basically go out the window.
I imagine that movie really ingrained that idea. I think there where ultra conservative, Japanese samurai that used a gun along with a kantana. Lead by like one of three great nobles I think
Nobunaga had more guns than any king in Europe.
😁
Also I noticed watching old Japanese movies depicting the sengoku period, all of the infantry use guns. You don’t even see archers in those movies. 🤣
Is it Oda or Ōda Nobunaga?
Pop culture "samurai" fans : "SaMuRaI DoN't UsE GuNs CoZ HoNoR!!!111"
Oda Nobunaga : Haha 3k guns go brrr
Bruh, that part in Last Samurai made me rage quit the movie for a sec.
@@sasshiro tbh i only know about the misconception because of channels like Metatron etc, my first exposure to samurai is from videogames like Samurai Warriors, Kessen 3, and Sengoku Basara and in those games it's very common for samurai to be using guns, so the notion of samurai using guns has always come off to me as something obvious and i was kinda surprised the first time i heard of the misconception
I found this channel one day when I was researching about Japanese armors for accurate depictions of samurais during the Mongol invasions.
Thanks for these amazing videos, Metatron, and for raising my standards when it comes to historical accuracy and research in general.
My very pleasure!
The katana being such a major symbol of samurai reminds me of how cruciform swords (arming swords and longswords) were such a major symbol of knights. While not all cruciform swords were only used by knights, it was sometimes used to identify someone as a knight. And the fact that both types of swords were back up weapons and they were the most convenient weapons to carry outside of the battlefield is amazing to me.
It just means that both cultures figured out that a long pointy stick is better on the battlefield but that a shorter sharp metal pointy stick is just about the best thing you can conveniently carry around. But they did come up with totally different designs for them.
According to Luke 22: 36, Jesus, on the night before he was arrested, told his disciples to buy swords if they didn't have any. And two of them did have swords already. And these were civilians, not soldiers.
that's not how that fragment should be interpreted though @@TheFirstManticore
I've often posited that this idea that Samurai wouldn't retreat is actually born out of the fanatical way Imperial Japan fought at the end of WW2 and the way they acted. Almost like Japan invented this idea of it being dishonorable to retreat for the samurai, so that their soldiers, who they were claiming had a kind of continuity with those same samurai, would act accordingly. This "no retreat, no surrender" attitude was noticed by their western foes and years later both Japan, in their depictions in anime and whatnot, and "the west", believe it to be true.
Chalk it up to historical distortion during the Edo and Meiji periods and the Chinese Whisper effect
There were of course famous last stands and fights to the death. Guess why they got famous and were pretty much mystified. They were rare and exceptional.
Usually the losing force at some point broke formation and fled. Some people got killed and/or captured, some escaped. Usually the leaders were killed in some way and the levy went back to the fields.
You're right about Imperial Japan trying to use those myths and traditions to make their soldiers more fanatical. I'm not sure the rank-and-file really bought into it that much but as long as your leadership is on board down low enough that matters little.
Yeah almost all of the personality traits associated with the Samurai are the result of Bureaucrats in the Edo Period hyping themselves up by talking about how badass their ancestors were and how they are the heirs to their legacy and then writers in the Meiji period looking at that and being like "Yes, but what if we fused that with Nationalism to convince our people they are superior to all others in the world."
@@MarvinT0606 The Edo and Meiji are to Japan what the Victorians are to Europe, 99% of misconceptions, myths and flat out lies about the medieval age can be traced right to their door step.
@@kaltaron1284 In all cultures and times an army could find itself surrounded and outnumbered. Then they have to choose between going down fighting and surrender. For Samurai that usually meant supuku.
Occasionally a last stand did have a purpose. Thermopolae and the Alamo were defended to the last man's fall so that later a larger force could win. The Niños Heroes held Chapultapec Castle to their deaths to give the Mexican army a chance to retreat. I am sure that Metatron can give Japanese examples.
Normally a general later considered good avoided getting trapped.
Wait so a part of a samurais soul isn't infused into their blade? I have been bamboozled.
Me too bro XD
Yes and I also hate to tell you this...but the katana can't cut through a fighter jet fuselage either sorry bud 🤣😭
Lol yeah the problem is the West over-mysticizes everything Eastern. Doesn’t help that Japanese video game/anime and other related industry media has also encouraged this angle, or presents it in a way it’s badly localized as overly mystical. The “sword is one’s soul” was always metaphorical, not meant to be taken literally. 🙄
Lol yeah the problem is the West over-mysticizes everything Eastern. Doesn’t help that Japanese video game/anime and other related industry media has also encouraged this angle, or presents it in a way it’s badly localized as overly mystical. The “sword is one’s soul” was always metaphorical, not meant to be taken literally. 🙄
i'm still getting over there were no turtles with swords.
I never tire to share this anecdote. I remember a guy writing that the samurai didn't use shields because the Japanese are a short people, so to avoid arrows, they mostly ducked and dodged.
In completely unrelated news, ancient Greeks were short and treated their exceptionally heavy and large shields like weebs think all sengoku saurai treated their katanas.
The ancient Greeks were short? Also, the shield obsession was exclusive to Sparta, iirc.
@@Vlad_Tepes_III Nope, all the city states had Hoplites. And there were plenty of warlike states. The Hoplon is a critical piece of kit for that style of fighting.
So they treated their shields as counterweights to swing their swords more energetically? Much like in modern films?
@@Vlad_Tepes_III People in the past generally were of shorter stature than nowadays. But it also depends on the ethnicity. Scandinavians probably weren't much shorter than nowadays(I don't know that so I can be wrong) but majority of asians isn't tall even now.
That is hilarious. I'm just imagining a really short guy joining a medieval army and the officer just says 'you're a short fella, so you won't need a shield. You can just duck and you'd be too low for an arrow to hit ya.'
I think it’s movies like the last Samurai that give people the impression that the Samurai never used guns. When in fact in the satsuma rebellion which that movie is based on the rebelling Samurai did use guns, it’s just that they were massively outnumbered and outgunned by the new Japanese army.
Didn't they also run out of ammo?
@@huntclanhunt9697 Yes they did. And that was when they did their charge, because it was all they could do at that point.
Well then people are dumb because it was obvious that the movie wasn't supposed to be historically accurate
I love that movie but it definitely contributed a lot to this stupid myth.
@@mitonaarea5856 Yes but when people only see historically inaccurate things, they inevitably base their ideas on them.
"Clunky" is so extremely subjective it's hard to take seriously. One could easily look at the big ass shoulder armor or elaborate helmet decorations on Samurai designs and come to the conclusion that Samurai Armor is the clunkier of the two. And of course both sets of armor tend to look far more form fitting when covered by surcoat/jinbaori.
And what does it even mean? 'Heavy' or making 'clunk-clunk' noises when you move? ;)
I'd actually like to see you do a bit more about feudal Japan. I often get *massively* turned off by most people who talk about Japan because it's one of those few cultures that attract hyper-biased, supremacist cringe, for whatever reason; but you have to be one of the most grounded people I've seen talk about these subjects. You're simultaneously passionate about multiple eras and cultures, and that means you're not inclined to play these supremacist games where someone throws one culture under the bus to show the superiority of another
Would you consider doing some deeper videos showing the general progression of weapons, armour, and perhaps tactics and strategy over the centuries. I'm very good with the European equivalents, but I don't really have a great timeline of what was going on in Japan
The nice thing about the Metatron is that he tends to tackle... well, quite a few of those hyper-biased ones: Romans, and to a certain extent the Greeks. There's quite a lot of history and varied cultures to appreciate without acting like one civilization that was good at certain things was automatically great at everything.
Weebs ruin everything smh
"Samurai would never stab you in the back!"
Akechi Mitsuhide: *profuse sweating*
I really appreciate these sort of videos that separate myth and truth (or at least what we know of the truth). For me personally, I've found a new respect and admiration for both Samurai and Knights (as they are so often compared) as I learned more about them in a more historic context in contrast to the myths. So big thank you for doing these vids, I hope it reaches a lot of people, historically correct (or more correct) understandings are amazing in and of themselves. Maybe Katana did not cut through stone as some say and while that sucks, knowing how Samurai thrived to be professional and always seek the best methods and weapons to achieve their goals is just as cool for me. Not having godlike powers and still kicking ass? Cool as hell if you ask me.
It's always refreshing to see you talk about samurai history . Can we get a dedicated video about the bows that samurai used ? I think it's an important part of samurai arsenal that do not get enough recognition .
The Japanese Yumi was originally the primary weapon of the Samurai. It was a longbow offset to be usable while mounted. Despite modern claims based on light draw sports bows the war Yumi was almost as powerful as the English war bow. There is a lot of information available on TH-cam about modern archery included mounted.
@@markhorton3994 Usually that information is poor research where people compare a modern daikyu to a historical one. There's one example of an early Edo period bow based on a Sengoku model. It weighed in at about 89kg (or 198lbs.)
@@jonajo9757 I apologize for the nitpick and I mean no offence, but "weighed in" is inaccurate and misleading terminology, the phrasing "has a draw weight of" conveys the meaning better. Also, 198lbs? That's...a lot...
@@Vlad_Tepes_III I'm aware, and I just really don't think of it much because y'know. Anyways yeah, that's a lot of draw weight. Here's the video showing it.
th-cam.com/video/rP8d81jzQJc/w-d-xo.html
This video features reenactors using warbows draw about 110lbs. Somewhere at 5:18, that's when they measure the draw weight of the aforementioned bow.
@@markhorton3994 most inferior bow in asia ever
ooooo you know I had to comment on this!
The idea of samurai not using guns is my biggest pet peeve, that and their weapons being light. Hand cannons were imported from China very early on, even before European style firearms. Meaning gun powder has always been interesting to the samurai. They even had catapults that fired gun powder bombs.
Big fan of your work, my brother in Christ! Great to see you here
@@Sanguicat Thank you! Should be coming out with a load of new contend soon btw!
@@JapanatWar That's great! I'm excited to watch them when they come out :)
Hand cannons were not imported early, that's false. The fire lance, which you are referring to was brought to Japan around the 14th century yet it never caught on.
@@gibsonflyingv2820 I have an entire video on my channel with pictures of a bronze hand cannon dated before that time. Unless you’re saying that Japan doesn’t know their history, cause it’s owned by a museum there
0:24
1.Medival Artist are Always high and you cant Tell me otherweise.
2. That could also be Interpreted to the Message: the horses get along and the human is a fool because they kill eachother.
I find curious that apparently, on melee combat, the samurai mostly used two handed pole-weapons, akin to late medieval knights. That explains the almost lack of light, one handed-weapons being actively used in the front lines (including shields). However, while late knights used those weapons because of how good armor eventually became (shields becoming mostly pointless, gaps protected), as far as I understand, even the latest samurai armor level of protection would be somewhere akin to 13th-14th century knight armor (as far as coverage, they had bullet proof armor it seems), when there were still shields and the prevalence of polearms would be overkill?
One difference though: medieval knights used the lance as an expendable weapon for the cavalry charge. They switched to their side-weapon (sword or mace) when it breaks. Samurai though used their spears as their main weapon and drew their swords only when necessary.
@@MarvinT0606 Switching to the side weapon when the lance breaks is the same as useing the sword only when necessary.
Dont confuse lances for jousting, wich are made to break spectacular for a good show, with lances made for war.
@@wolf310ii Lances of war also broke and/or got stuck quite frequently, that's why the riders would go and grab a new one from a prepared stack.
@@Ackalan Yes, but what MarvinT wrote sound like knights would break the lance on purpose to switch to the side weapon asap
@@wolf310ii knights expected it to break on impact. If it didn't break, they'd lose momentum and be vulnerable to attack from any nearby infantry. Knights needed the momentum from a charge to force a breakthrough in order to break an enemy force and/or create a gap for their infantry to exploit.
befor I start
1- samurai are not just soldiers but states men
2- samurai when in battle use all kinds of weapons but the bow is their most important ( not the sword )
3- many samurai are administrators and never fight
4- the samurai are ultimately tools of their warlord and not independent actors
5- samurai are also poets , calligraphers and basically lawyers / judges
6- while bushido is important it is not the only text that governs their actions
7- they have a much longer historic context up to the late 19th century than most people think of not just 16-18 century
8- there wives and families are important to there story not just themselves
It'd be cool to do this video for other soldiers like Ancient greeks and Medieval Knights.
Big ups to Megatron smashing my childhood in one click.😁
I’m so curious about paper and bamboo armor. I can imagine an entire phone book on your chest could do something but there’s no way they’d wear something that thick
The paper used in paper armor was very different from todays paper… it was more like a cloth made with wood fiber. My thoughts from an amature perspective is that it was more like a European gambeson… thought I’m sure both Metetron and Shadiversity will want to choke me out for that interpretation
I know Metatron is Italian, but sometimes his accent, and cadence of speaking, makes him sound like Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life. lmao
Love your vids. :D
Gah dayum! My homie, my brother in Christ, Metatron, delivering us a banging episode. I am so happy about this information
Thanks!
Thanks, Metatron.
As usual, you are well spoken and well reasoned.
I appreciate you clearing up myths about how ninja and samurai are or are not related. I did not know most of what you covered regarding how they could be related or one in the same. Now, it makes sense. Thanks again!
I knew all of these! I'm a crafter so I look into a bunch of things to figure out what I want to make. Like the paper armor of the ashigaru. I guess I didn't know about the breastplate, but I did know they have a hat that was hardened paper or sometimes leather.
Out of topic: I love your wife's smile. You're a lucky guy, or may I say, you both are lucky for have each other. It warms my heart.
Learning about Japan's first attempted invasion of Korea from extra credits, I find it odd how while the Japanese distribute massive amounts of guns to their troops they didn't mount cannons on their ships
Cannons like the ones used in European naval and field artillery required reinforcement to fire relatively accurately, and if on ships, prevent the ship from toppling over or cracking the deck. I believe they did not do so because the hull designs of Japanese ships were not made to account for that and would just break under constant firing of cannons.
While the Portuguese taught the Japanese how to make guns, they didn't throw in even the idea of making shipboard guns after all. besides, naval warfare is only common when you have to constantly fight other countries coming from across the ocean. few Japanese wars were ever fought at sea due to the fact that for most part of Japanese history, they fought only themselves. there simply wasn't much need to fight other ships throughout most of their history.
@@FalconWindblader I imagine the imjin war would not have been a humiliating defeat for Japan if they had cannons on their warships
The timing of this video is perfect. I'm developing a Fantasy Samurai RPG campaign. Thank you for clearing up these myths.
Any update?
Samurai wearing Light Armor could stem from most depiction of Samurai having their clothes visible on their chest when wearing their armor, however there are literally different kind of armor with the heaviest one imo is the Nanban Armor.
When looking at a Knight, they will be encased in at least Chainmail which is fully armored.
It likely just comes from typical idea that the East prefer lights armor,Nanban armor was not the heaviest the thing about that armor it was done for fashion reasons, plate armor was already develop in Japan before contact with the West.
Knight's armor differed a lot.
15:31
This is also fueled by a perversion of the samurai code for the sake of propaganda by the Imperial Japanese army in WW2 where. Their recruits were ordered to either come back victorious or not to come back at all, which led to fanaticism. Which was so horrifying to the US soldiers who witnessed it that they just projected that onto all of Japanese history. Not helped by Japans portrayal of the Samurai in their own pop culture furthering this myth.
In WW2 the japanes army simply didnt had the option to retreat in most cases
I feel that the mythos of swords in general (including Japanese swords, such as the Katana) are actually a result of both firearms and "peaceful" periods of the 15th-19th Centuries.
With armor being less relevant due to either an increase in firearms or decrease in battlefields, duels became more common. What did nobles (of multiple cultures including Europe and Japan) have on hand? Swords!
Thus, for upwards of 300 years, "honorable duels" used swords. Writers of those periods writing about personal defense wrote about sword dueling because if you were writing about warfare and combat, you'd be writing about massed formations of pikes and muskets or cannons for siege warfare.
Since nobles were always dueling each other with swords, in fiction, these became the weapon of choice in general. The irony being the shear number of historical figures who were real or mythologized (may have existed but generations of story-telling exaggerated them and their feats) that never used swords. So many carried pole-arms, bows, lances, etc. The problem was that people saw the descendants of feudal knights or samurai dueling with swords and just assumed THAT had always been the weapon of choice. Movies, dime novels, manga, and anime haven't helped either.
I was once asked by a friend who would win; a Knight in full armor with a long sword or a Samurai in full armor with a katana. My response? The one that didn't pass out first. They would probably bash each other with the swords pointlessly if stupid, or resort to grappling if they weren't.
As a person who is Japanese (half Japanese but living in Japan) I’m thankful that this person has explained most of the things that a lot of people get wrong with :)
Yes and my ancestors are samurais let’s goooo
Hey there. I love seeing your passion for the subject. The samurai, like the paladin of old stories (ref. Chanson de Roland) fills a particular storytelling niche. A people will believe what they want to believe, sometimes losing the point of the story in the process. Thank you for the fun video & the very tasty looking snacks! :)
"I need a drink, DO WE HAVE SAKE?!"
Oh Metatron, you clearly suffered while making this video. We need more videos like this, modern misconceptions of medieval times need to be shattered.
There's so much I love about this video. I love all the armor and history facts. I even love the sponsor but, I'd watch those reviews in a video on its own, no matter who's chanel it's made on.
14:09 Miyamoto Musashi even said you can't just learn to use the sword alone, you also need to learn all the other aspects of martial arts
"Seppuku anyone?" had me rolling XD it's his face and the way he says it lol
13:07 That's fine but have you ever thought of this one? "Middle aged genetically modified Samurai Tortoises" Thought of that one seven years ago.
9:30 "Our men are running from the battlefield...."
I never believed any of those, but I'm old enough to remember when Websters dictionary still said that "samurai" was pronounced like "SAM-yoo-rye," and these seem to be ideas that spread after samurai became more prominent in mainstream western pop culture. A fun myth that I did hear back in the day was that karate was based on techniques developed to defeat samurai by punching or kicking through their bamboo armor. How's your blood pressure after reading that?
🤣😂🤣😂
Wood armor, kinda plausible under certain circumstances. BAMBOO armor, okay, that's just stupid...
Only the bit about punching through armour and it being made of bamboo is stupid. OK, that's quite a lot of stupidity actually.
@@kaltaron1284 Yeah. The bamboo armour myth and the fact that it's apparently still a common enough belief to make it onto Metatron's list is frustrating.
@@waterbeauty85 For Honor might’ve helped that one.
16:51 That made me laugh way more than it should have. 🤣
Thanks for debunking a lot of samurai stuff that I found questionable. Most especially the part where samurai hated the use of firearms which I found so weird. Whether you’re samurai or not, if there are guys with all sorts of weapons coming at you, and all you have is a firearm, YOU USE IT. It’s common sense!
Edit nearly 1 year later: The katana as a last-resort weapon reminds me of today's soldiers where pistols are mostly used as a sidearm or last-resort weapon for soldiers carrying standard rifles.
14:08 I love that Samurai were all MMA fighters. It makes sense as there wasn't a martial art specifically for their duties/job like Krav Maga is for body guards
The content is awesome, but my favorite part was getting to see you and your wife trying your treat’s!💕 She is so sweet & it’s always a treat to see her!
Thank you from me and her!
>honor meant bringing power to your lord
that reminds me of Shad's video on the myths about European knights and chivalry and one of his many important points was that while the specifics of what constituted "chivalry" and "honour" varied depending on area and time, the one thing that was relatively constant was...the loyalty to your lord.
When you think about it it is not really that surprising, as loyalty to your own is universally valued throughout the planet and through the millennia among all kinds of human societies, from ancient tribes through religions and cultures up to modern political parties, prison gangs and even popculture fandoms. It's just that very often the much more easily perceptible differences like language, cuisine and physical appearance obscure the fact that ultimately that which unites us outnumbers substantially that which divides us.
A lot of these, I was taught in very early childhood, but learned better in high school. I studied Japanese in high school, and I had a trip to japan which included some time living with a family descended from samurai. Those two facts contributed to a lot - though not all - of my corrections about these myths. A few, I'd learned the truth about before my age hit double digits though, I was lucky to have pretty good teachers even at a young age.
I remember reading James Clavel's "Shogun" as a teenager and just being totally in love with the book and its portrayal of the samurai. They seemed super brutal, and it was kinda awesome. I've always wondered how much of it was historically accurate. I thought it was based/inspired by a true story for some reason. It's been so long, I can't remember.
I hadn't actually heard of a few of these myths (namely the bamboo armour one) and I have to admit when you brought up the myth that the Samurai practiced Judo and Karate I was thinking to myself "yeah that sounds about right, they would probably learn some form of unarmed combat" not realising that those two disciplines where created much later. Also I have Sabaton's song "Shiroyama" to thank for my knowledge of the Samurai using guns, albeit due to a comment on the video for it. I'd also like to know where the myth of ninjas and samurai being opposed to each other comes from, anyone with any knowledge of the wartime periods of Japan (or who had played Total War Shogun) would know that that's complete BS.
Funnily enough Karate was developed on Ryuukyuu/Okinawa to defeat the Samurai without weapons after Japan had taken over there.
They would have practiced some kinda JuJUTSU (precursor to what would become Judo) & then some kind of standing unarmed combat forms just in case. karate is DEFINITELY out of the question, as it's an Okinawan invention & for most part of Japanese history, Okinawa, or rather, Ryukyu, was a separate country altogether.
For some reason the modern reinterpretaitions of the Oda conflict with Iga and Koga are to blame for the samurai fighting ninja tropes and also the hidden ninja village tropes. Since the people of those areas defended themselves with what can only be described as guerilla tactics against the much larger force attacking them, loads of myths about invisible worriors using trickery to come out top, operating from villages impossible to find are created. Combine that with a newfound apreciation of the shinobi texts containing examples of techniques to conduct succsessful espionage and sneaking around. Mixing different myths grounded in reality together to create that perfect stealth worrior hybrid.
@@Legion2210 Good point. Of course those people like to forget that Oda had his own Shinobi.
0:29 rare footage of two horses having a "that's rough buddy" moment
Okay how about Templar Myths You Thought Were True?
Thank you for talking about the idea of honor and how it's more honorable to win a battle with guns, or to retreat and fight another day, than it is to only use swords and never back down.
The samurai were professional warriors, not idiots.
Sidenote, for me personally, honor in battle means two things. You respect the art of waging war and you respect your opponent. To respect an opponent does not mean you intentionally nerf yourself to give them a fair shot, it's to acknowledge your foe as a fellow warrior and, if you both serve a different master, to maybe have no hard feelings over winning or loosing, since you're both honorably fighting for your lord and/or ideals.
This might be a bit of a nerd thing, but the Ninja Turtles I was brought up with had more of a Samurai like theme. They constantly referenced Bushido and their philosophy on honor. They were Ninjas because they fought where and when civilians wouldn't see them and so they were good at sneaking around, but they never attached anyone who didn't know they were there. I would say they were Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles.
but they did everything in stealth so Ninja
That’s one way of interpreting it.
Bushido is more like strict guidelines for warrior servants.
Which is what samurai were.
Servants, loyal their masters. Much like dogs.
Bushido might be thought of as an ancient doggy training manual.
Samurai CAN Be Ninja,and the MOST RELIABLE AND LOYAL are USED as NINJA
I'll be honest: I didn't know one thing: that there were SO many Samurai. Thanks to your channel and some others, I've known other myths to be wrong for quite some time now.
Granted it was a few years ago, but last time I was there the Victoria and Albert museum has some decent examples of heavy Japanese armour.
A number of years ago, i visited ,Grünes Gewölbe' Museum in Dresden / Germany. The dynasty of former saxon Kings/ Electors was known for wealth and collecting expensive things. The ,Grünes Gewölbe' is basicly former ,treasure chamber'. There was a ,Katana' produced arround 1700 by saxon court jewellry maker Johannes Dinglinger. He didn' t knew, from what material the handle / grip was made, so he made the handle from glass like material, we germans call ,Emaile'.
They were expected to be more physically fit then a civilian so they can move decently better, even in armor.
Interesting, never thought of the Katana quite that way. So it was kind of the equivalent of an officer's sidearm, like a M1911 (for a WW2 US officer) or a Type 14 Nambu (in the WW2 Japanese context) as far as symbolic badges of rank are concerned. In an actual combat context I suspect a better comparison would be (in the US/NATO context) a tanker's ( closest thing to Medieval Japanese heavy cavalry I can think of) submachine gun (for the US, an M3 "Grease Gun" up until the 90s, I think the Brits still used the Sterling for that) or carbine (i.e. the M1 or M2 carbine) and the wakizashi would be a pistol equivalent. The Eastern Bloc equivalent might be a Krinkov (AKS-74U) and a Makarov pistol.
The Imperial Japanese Army even issued cheaply mass-produced swords to their officers. Those weren't really that great but hey.
@@kaltaron1284 Yeah, but by then they were believing their own propaganda (which is where at least some of the myths detailed come from). Also, some of those "mass produced" swords were actually family heirlooms outfitted to the military standard (fittings, sheath, etc). Your average G.I. or Marine wouldn't know the difference unless he took the handle off. It's readily apparent then.
@@ironhead2008 That's true. Similar to how many (some?) Tachi were shorted to serve as Katana when they fell out of practice.
This is nothing unique to the katana. I think it's safe to say it's the case for most swords throughout history. Most swords are sidearms, or can be worn conveniently as one. The only thing that perhaps stands out about the katana is that there were legal restrictions on who could use them, which created more of an association with the classes who could use them
Very good katana that could stand the test of battle were actually few & far between, as only shit wealthy lords could afford them. swords issued to the likes of ashigaru had ALWAYS been cheap shit that either bent or broke often when used for their intended purposes. if swords were indeed drawn in a battlefield en masse back then, chances were you'd find shit tons of them littered around, bent or broken, after the battle was over, & the surviving soldiers wouldn't even bother sheathing their blades, as they too, were more often than not, bent or broken.
One thing to remember about Karate, is that it is in origin an OKINAWAN MA. Okinawa is a Ryukyun island, and while related to the Japanese people, they were not under Japanese control. Modern Karate was developed by Okinawan immigrants to Japan after Japan took control, who Japanified the language used, and took some influence from Japanese MAs like those of the Aikido-Jujitsu family.
I mean Japan controlled the area since 1609. But you are correct about all the other stuff.
Honor is a funny word we don't understand clearly, honor for a servant of the lord would be the same as discipline that some people in the army constantly talk about, let me explain, when you have a role in society you have to commit to that, in the power structure of feudal societies one is above everyone, if they don't follow that rule they are not honorable (bandits, rebels, escaped prisoners), is all about being the best servant to your lord, and in exchange the lord protects you from other people, the lord gives you a title, if you are a good servant (follow all orders) you are honorable and you deserve a raise and your family gets a better role in society, if you don't respect the rules and don't follow the orders of your lord you are going to get killed and your family is going to die without any honor. Seppuku was a way to pay for the mistakes you made and avoid your family getting killed, or degraded to lower servants, if you think about it a little bit further Seppuku wasn't about you killing yourself to get more honor in the afterlife, it was about protecting your family (and the Shogun used this to control families so they don't try to gain power).
Had some fun pausing to write these when the cards were shown on screen since you asked.
1-Light armor
Nah, they wore pretty strong armor that allowed them to survive arrows and stuff without requiring a shield, while also enabling 2h weapon usage, which they very much loved. Also wore some measure of bulletproof (resistant) armor when they were new but was phased out after some limited success cuz it just don't work good enough to justify it. Was eventually phased out as the country closed up and saw some peace, armor was obsolete during the Boshin war period so they didn't really bother producing more.
2-Guns
Hahaha, they loved guns, Sengoku Jidai period had more guns in Japan than Europe combined, or so it has been said.
They even developed their own forms of arquebus known as Tanegashima in the region of Tanegashima because they couldn't get enough from the Portugeuse. Leading to the famous Oda three line formation near the end of the Sengoku period.
3- Katana
Nah spears and bows all the way, much like everywhere around the world. Swords were mostly sidearms.
4- Ninja
Modern ninja depictions are something born from pop culture, actual shinobi were much more normal looking with no full black uniforms, rather dressing more like peasant and everyday folk instead. They also actually served samurai lords in many situations, ironically being more "honourable" and loyal than samurai were.
5- Martial arts
Yeah, to some degree. Like every other warrior class in the world, being able to defend yourself in a disarmed/unarmed or grapple situation is something worth learning.
6- Few samurai
They were a whole social class, with different tiers within them too, plenty of elites considering the large number of clans and their feudal wars. The difference between a low ranking samurai and a samurai lord could be much like a manager and a CEO, except that your CEO could often be the head of state for the region.
7- Retreat
Not never, but quite a dislike for it I think, ultimately they've got a war to fight and win so it did happen, cases of routs and fights to the death happens.
8- Backstab
They would, they love winning, backstabs win.
Physical backstabbing aside, they'd also do the metaphorical betrayal backstabbing politics, samurai history is full of it.
9?- wood and bamboo armor
Yes and no, samurai would typically have the best equipment available, because good equipment brings success.
bamboo and wood were also used in the form of deployed shield screens. Bamboo was also used to fill the Horo, which was a back tied bag of sorts to protect the rear from arrows for some extra important people.
Didn't know they used layered paper though, makes sense in the context of a economical or desperation thing; better than nothing I suppose.
Japanese armour and swords may not be the best, but they are one of the most beautiful in the world. Also, werent they more customed in mounted archery before the warring states period, and the o yoroi if im not mistaken is much more suitable for archery and skirmishin. better choice is still european full plate though, that or a nokia brick.
First, I was suprised that some people would believe in part of this things (e.g. samurai didn't use guns), but I also didn't knew everything (samurai could be shinobi is my favourite new info). Thanks for expanding my knowledge :)
I know this is a stupid question but, did the samurai ever use a double edged sword?
Yes, before the samurai era, warriors used two kind of straight swords:one single-edged called chokuto and a double edged version called tsurugi.
Not really, however there was one famous double-edged tachi named Kogarasumaru.
Very enlightening. Knew most of this already, but still very educational. Bravo!
😂🤣 this video cracked me up. I've learned enough over the years watching your channel and others to know all those claims were false.
In relation to the honor stuff it never made sense to me as a kid, I used to think if they were honor this honor that did they hold back their warriors in battle to.ensure both sides have equal numbers? 🤣 Thank God I know they wouldn't have given a crap if they outnumbered their enemies.
That idea reminds me of the Clans in Battletech if you know that one.
I think there's another layer of abstraction to it, it's not that we necessarily perceive them to act like we do, but that modern people project _their idea_ of how people in the past would have acted, which often turns out not to be true
Bel video fra
Grazie
One of my favorite episodes. Very fun and educational 😊👍🏻
"Samurai were honorable" bruh, Samurai literally killed innocent bystanders for practice, you call that honor?
most honor codes have nothing to do with not doing that.
The prevalence of crossroads-killing is hugely overstated. It was illegal to randomly kill townspeople (obviously) and the only historical example I could find (the Yoshiwara spree killing) ended with the perpetrator, who was actually a rather high ranking samurai, being executed.
That's not to say that it didn't happen, especially in the lawless sengoku era, but still specific clans had their own rules and I doubt they often included "kill anyone you want as long as they're not a samurai". Logically speaking, if you killed some random townsman or farmer and it turned out that he was a skilled worker for a higher ranking samurai in your clan (or even worse, your lord), how do you think it would turn out for you? Many samurai also weren't soldiers (especially in the edo period) and had equivalents to modern day jobs like police, firefighter, accountant, bodyguard etc. I can't imagine that they were inherently more psychopathic just because they were part of the samurai caste.
Despite it being a complete meme of a series that I like, the Samurai Warriors game series taught me the gun part. Even in the games Nobunaga had guns and a lot of them and his main tactic in the games was shoot to kill and don't stop shooting. Good on you, SW.
Ah, yes, the Katana, the sword that never breaks only shatters, the blade that slashes steel and spacetime continuum. The weapon of mass destruction where a single samurai could with single strike split stones and mountains. The weapon so powerful that it had to be outlawed otherwise Samurai would never be defeated by lowly standing army in western style with Gatling guns, canons and numerical advantage.
Also you are wrong, Metatron, Samurai never retreated they just advanced in the opposite direction. They never worried about stabbing people in the back as the blade also cuts the front of the person so it's alright.
I hadn't thought about it before, but in many ways it seems like the katana fill the same role that a pistol would in later centuries. It serves as a badge of station (samurai carry katana, military officers carry pistols), as a reserve weapon if your primary weapon becomes unavailable (samurai use yari but may fall back to the katana if the yari becomes unavailable, modern soldiers use rifles but may fall back to a pistol if the rifle becomes unavailable), and as a practical weapon depending on the circumstances (You can use a katana in a more confined space, although a tanto or wakizashi might be even better, than a yari, just as it's easier to use a pistol in a more confined space than a rifle or a shotgun).
Neat.
A good one would have been "Samurai don't use shields" with explanations like their weapons could cut through them easily or needed two hands. The big square sections on the shoulders of some armour were for catching arrows and could be detached and held when in battle.
Amazing video. I have to say, you're sense of humor is really coming through well. You had me cracking up the whole time
1) Knew this one
2) Knew this one
3) Knew this one
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Also from what I have found with research, bushido was written after the samurai era. Apparently there was also a very disturbing practice of the master pillowing the boy students until they hit puberty, apparently this would create a bond between the teacher and student "nanshoku into wakashudo". Seppuku was not something they chose to do it was a horrible way to die and was usually forced on them.
Thank you very much ! It's really cool video !
As always big thanks for great video! Greetings from Mexico!
man, to see how excited your wife to join you in this video, it really is heartwarming. you are one lucky guy, metatron!
Spent the better part of a hour talking to a friend about honor. His position was Samurai were all about honor & bushido. I tried explaining many different ways. Most of what he was referencing came about long after the major fighting had stopped. If he really wanted to respect the concepts he should actually look at what they had to say. Instead of sticking to his personal beliefs. Long story short he still believes what he believes.
To paraphrase them "Well can't i make those ideas real by fulfilling them today?" I basically ended the conversation with, yeah man sure. Cause it was clear he didn't want to hear it. And i didn't need to keep wasting my time.
Great video! You are spot-on regarding the myths. I’m reading “Samurai Arms, Armour & the Tactics of Warfare, the Collected Scrolls of Natori-Ryu.” Tactical retreat is definitely part of the battle plan. The West’s impression of samurai honor code and battle philosophy is shallow at best.
"The samurai would NEVER use fire to burn their enemies alive! It's so dishonorable!" That's my favorite myth.
I admit that in the past I did perceive some of these myths as true, but when you get into researching about the samurai you learn very quickly what is true and what is not. I love your videos Metatron Sensei.
I've actually been learning quite a bit from him. He's a good and patient teacher of these subjects.
I find it funny that the way most of us know about this stuff is we were the kids who bought the myths and loved them so much we deep dived and learned the truth.
I can't help but laugh at the two horses almost grappling each other in the tapestry.
I always find it amazing how much what people WANT to believe overshadows FACTS.
Great video, one thing though. At 3:05 you say the armor hung completely on the shoulders, but if you watch "Let's ask Shogo" s video of getting dressed in that kind of armor you find out that the sash they used to affixed the katana to the waist was strapped thight after the armor had been lifted a bit, to make the weight rest on the waist.
A couple days ago I saw Werner Herzog interviewed on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert about his book, The Twilight World. It's the story of a Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippines jungle for 29 years, thinking WWII was still ongoing, while waiting for orders from his commanding officer. Maybe this guy was one of the ultimate Samurai, but instead of a sword he carried a rifle. You can check out the video on the Colbert TH-cam channel. And, I hope Werner does another one of his documentaries on this story, narrated by his soothing voice.
And on the Japanese TV channel, NHK World Japan, I saw Pancan, the canned bread and how it was developed, and because of it's long shelf life recently sent to Ukraine.
I really like that you record your own footage demonstrating the armor in person. It's, you know, both different from the norm and informative. It also makes you look like a huge dork, so that's amusing.
But seriously, I approve.
Very surprised to hear how many samurai there were.
I appreciate the regular uploads recently bro fr!
Many shinobi were hired mercenary scouts and messengers, in some cases operating well in the open, marching with the army, and expecting a certain amount of... for lack of a better word diplomatic immunity from combat. Nobunaga hired some clans in particular quite frequently because they were native to the mountainous terrain of the local area of the campaign he was on. He hired them for a few major reasons... to reinforce existing ties and loyalty, to secure safe passage through the area, and to better curry messages between his party and his enemey, which was an important part of war.
Of course even if these hired guidesmen were operating under an assumption of safety from both armies, it probably wouldn't stop them from being put down if they were _discovered_ while spying on an enemy position.
Often they were paid not simply in money, but also in goods, such as guns and armor, which they could then use in future hires, though, as mentioned with Nobunaga, some daimyou had secured enough loyalty with these local clans that they wouldn't easily contract with another lord, preferring only to work with one lord, or sometimes lords known to be allied to one... others however were only interested in working for anyone who would pay them.
Often the samurai marching in a land were not native there and would have almost no experience with the terrain, geography, flora and fauna, and thus would be in a terrible situation if they weren't contracting shinobi. There is some documented evidence of this happening to a few lords' campaigns, though I can't recall who specifically.
(Worth noting: I'm reciting all of this from memory, so some details may be misquoted as it comes from research into historical sources I did more than a year ago, and even then the sources may have been misrepresented within their scholarly context by persons with specific biases. I'm just leaving it here because, in my experience, this information is contrary to what many people assume ninja were like, and represents my findings when attempting to get closer to the truth. Please _do_ research for yourself if you're at all interested.)
Thank you, Metatron! The true facts are much appreciated!!
Loved the video! The jokes killed me this episode. I couldn't stop laughing all of the engrishu honor speak. Thank you for dispelling these myths.
Metatron I love the insight you give into the subjects you dive into. Much of what you have said I have "learned" in the past but could not recall sources from in order to "prove" in discussions. I love your presentations and the depths that you reach in your explanations.
Every time I hear some """"""Expert"""""""" say that knight armor was clunky and like a tin can I always say "You're talking mad guff for someone in crusading distance!!"
Ninja and history and history of modern culture.
During the Asuka period (592-710), Shoutoku Taishi (574-627) hired Otomono Sabito, a descendant of Ominomikoto, as an intelligence officer and assassin.
Shoutoku Taishi called him shinobi (meaning anyone who wants to get good information). Otomono was from the Iga region.
The Hattori clan in the C7, Iga region wore black costumes at the Shinto ritual of Aekuni Shrine. They were called Kurondo (Black Party).
In 1180, the Hattori clan participated in the Genpei War as a samurai. They were good at guerrilla warfare.
C12, the Hattori clan became the lord of the Iga region in cooperation with the peasant samurai jizamurai and became independent from the shogunate.
They became mercenaries in various parts of Japan. They later became known as the Iga-ryu.
C14, literary work Taiheiki has a record of Sinobi.
In 1578, the Tenshō Iga War began a war between the Nobunaga army and the Iga clan.
In the 1600s, it was written as Xinobi in the dictionary compiled by the Jesuits.
In C17, the popular culture novel Otogibouko, the creative Sinobi appeared. Creative Sinobi such as Sinobi's Goemon Jiraiya appeared in Kabuki, Joruri, Kyogen and they became popular.
In 1911, the novel Sarutobi Sasuke was published. Since then, Sinobi has appeared in many novels.
In 1916, the first ninja movie, Kougaumon, became popular.
Around 1920, they were called ninsha.
In 1958, the novel Kouga ninpocho was published. In this novel, many ninjya who use techniques like psychic powers appeared. This novel influenced manga and anime.
In 1957, the novel Yagyu bugeicho became a movie. Since then, ninjya has appeared in many movies.
In 1959, managa's Ninjya bugeichou, Sasuke was published. Since then, ninjya has appeared in many managas.
In the 1960s, Onmitu Kenshi, a television series featuring ninjya, was broadcast.
This TV series was broadcast in Australia and the Philippines, so ninjya became popular with young viewers.
In 1967, the anime series Kamen no ninjya Akakage was broadcast.
In 1967, ninjya appeared in movie 007.
With firearms it's the same with the knights. There are depictions of knights using firearms in later periods during sieges... also gunpowder in general was known in medieval europe, while most people think it was much later thing