10 Fascinating Facts About The Samurai? DEBUNKED!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
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On this video we are going to review together and respond to a list I found on Listverse. This lists talks about samurai in Feudal Japan, so if you are interested check it out!
Here is a link to the previous video response to Listverse I made
• 10 Reasons Knights Wer...
Link to the original article
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I honestly *love* your point about you don't have to *bash* the other side when talking about how much you like your side.
I also like how you listed *axes* as one of the weapons Samurai would wield, *debunking* the myth that Japanese warriors didn't use battle-axes; by the way, I think a video on the top 10 *obscure* Japanese weapons, including the Masakari and the Tsurugi, would be a *great* watch.
PS: It'd be cool if you visited your Discord server again.
did masters bang the whole yard or was it a hi honer few got his secrets
My little warhorse
I think the dumbest thing the guy in the museum said was that knights couldn’t ride horses because of their armor.
Or that he said they couldn't get onto the horses, like that the implication was that thousands of knights carried wooden platforms with them on campaign to be able to mount their horses before battle. hmmm 🤔
Agreed, many Cultures that used armoured cavalry of any kind do as well.
Oldest weeb
He probably watched "that" movie with "that" infamous scene and took it as historical evidence.
Our german word for knight, "Ritter" literally comes from "Reiter" which means Rider.
When Metatron uploads, there could be the President of my country in the same room and I wouldn’t freaking care.
Depending on the president, I can totally get that. Cough treudaeu, cough Biden..
That being said, I agree man.
Ahah thanks
@@DobleWhiteAndStabley We have Olaf Scholz, a man who can probably put himself to sleep and can't remember anything that might inconvenience him.
@@kaltaron1284 We have Sauli Niinistö, who had the golden opportunity to really take charge, and maybe even become the next Kekkonen, with the COVID-19-pandemic, but was too cowardly 😅.
I am reminded of the other museum worker who did cartwheels in a full suit of Plate armor
"Samurai didn't use guns..."
Actual samurai the minute guns were introduced: So anyway I started blasting!
As Shogun 2 basically said for the Otomo intro
“Sure it was somewhat dishonorable but who cares? Victory is more honorable”
@@Predator20357 "Winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing."
-Vince Lombardi
Something (in addition to the stuff mentioned) that we should remember about "knight armor versus samurai armor" is specialization. Knights were shock troops (not all knights fought mounted), while samurai were more hybrid ranged/melee troops, thus samurai would have to sacrifice a degree of protection for a degree added mobility in order to use bows/guns better, while knights preferred the added protection because they fought pretty much exclusively in melee.
This is what is often forgotten (or ignored) knights or samurai didn't design (or more correctly have their armorsmiths design) their armors so that someone centuries in the future could "win" an Internet debate but rather those armors were designed for the battlefield role the warrior was suppose to use it in. Neither the Samurai nor the knights were idiots after all. Armor is always a compromise between several factors and the battlefield role often determines what factors are favored over others.
that is not true. Just as not all knights fought mounted, not all samurai were "hybrid melee". If they fought on foot in close combats. like they primarily did during the 15th, 16th century with spears they would wear heavier version of Tosei Gosoku and did not carry bows.
The same is true for knights. Different suits offer different ranges of mobility and protection.
I still recall a historical tour through one of the castles here that the tour guide asked for estimates for the weight of the armors on display. And after my reply of 20 to 40 kilo, they went for the expected statement that these armors were so heavy and cumbersome that knights were unable to move in them. I bit my tongue because there's no point in trying to tell the guides their script.
To be entirely fair, decorative suits often were.
@@rafaelrodrigues7971 the armor they used to explain this was pikemen half plate from the 17th century. So clearly meant for foot combat which they said wasn't possible.
You would think guides would know more about what they're talking about. Pretty disappointing the whole myth of overly heavy armor needs to die off.
@@rafaelrodrigues7971 The problem is that it is often generalized. I saw some documentaries where they stated that the typical loadout of modern infantry soldiers weighs about as much as a typical full plate armour. They also raced a person in well fitted plate armour against a person with typical infantry soldier´s loadout on an obstacle course. They person in plate armour was more agile due to the better load distribution.
@@MT-jt5uo Often they're not specialists with a historical background but people hired to read off a script and entertain a group of people while ensuring nobody sneezes on the oil paintings.
In these dark times of education, we need People like you. Thank you, for your service.
Metatron can you make a video about medieval First aid and medical care? This field have a lot to be spoken about and is very intriguing.
A hug from Brazil my friend.
That would be a great topic since there are a lot of mythgs and misconceptions about the state of medical care during the Middle Ages and the Reaniassance.May people seem to thing that there was no medical care back then outside of leeching/bleeding and prayer when in reality there was more than that. Specifically, the fact that a young Henry V survived and arrow to the face that had to be surgically removed showed is proof that they knew more about medicine than they're commonly given credit for.
@@Riceball01 yes indeed, glad you understand the point.
@@Riceball01 I'm aware of what you're referring to with Henry V (the surgeon also used lavender to treat the wound which has anti-bacterial properties, I believe), and it's definitely important for people to know what they could do; but at the same time we shouldn't use the apex of medical care to generalise in the same way that we shouldn't use the worst examples to generalise. I think we just don't know what was the "medical standard" in society throughout the period was - which is what I want to know lol. Like every village would have had a person everyone went to if they needed help; I want to know what the average of that persons knowledge was over the course of the period
Geschichtsfenster has a video about this topic (or rather a video debunking another video about medieval surgery). But that is a German speaking youtuber.
I would like to suggest an addendum to this idea -- videos on first aid/ medical care throughout feudal Japan as well as in Ancient Rome. I think that the similarities and differences would be most enlightening.
Wait a minute… white guy, hairy, samurai armor… Metatron, are you Ainu??
😂
Would be even more funny to point out that the samurai clan in Hokkaido at the time was the one named Matsumae which has the same crest on his armor.
@@laughtercatz He's getting rid of the armor now so people won't notice
No. The crest is very, very different. The real one is half th crescent.
Are Egyptians white? I don’t see how Sicilians can be considered white. They’re the Mexicans of Europe
Man, it takes a rather specific type of person to dig up some obscure study about the potential size of samurai noses but not make the effort to figure out what their standard equipment would have been.
I also found that pretty strange lol
I think it takes an underpaid bored intern that needs to fill the word count grabbing random shit from diffrent clickbait articles and rephrasing it putting into a list and then considering themselves fact checked cause somebody else "done the research".
@@adamsosna7263 Yeah that sounds it
Things like that are important to woke racists.
It sounds like they just took a few descriptions of a few dudes and was like "yep, this is the norm" even though if Ainu *were* that prominent among the samurai and lords, they would *not* have been so easily ousted from Honshu, let alone ultimately subjugated later in Hokkaido
Were there samurai of Ainu decent? Definitely, but the same could be said of the other 2 or 3 peoples who, combined with Ainu, made up what is considered Japanese people for the past several centuries.
Did that guy really just say that you can't get on a horse in European plate? How does he have the job he has??? You could do GYMNASTICS in full plate if you were in peak physical condition like a professional warrior such as a KNIGHT would be.
I know right? Curator of the armour and weapons section, it seems..
@@metatronyt he needs to go back to school or watch your channel.
Nepotism, sycophantry and (((academia))) basicly everything western is bad whilst everything nippon is good.
The neighbouring nations were far more advanced than the japanese in the art of warfare which is why every campaing the japanese tried to invade someone they got their asses handed to them.
He tows his lines and does as he's told, as most "educators" do these days.
I agree but I believe the reality was that most knights and samurai weren't necessarily in shape as the title had more to do with bloodline rather than earning the rank. So most knights and samurai were "rich kids". Of course there were those that took the role seriously but I think the norm was they were just folks with money and cool armor.
3:56 - indeed they do, because the "fact checkers" are more like wrong-think spotters or continuity advisers in a movie's credits, which are people that analyze the set, scenes and other things to make sure it goes along with the narrative (it probably doesn't exist in modern hollywood, because in order for that to happen, there needs to be care for the fan-base that isn't just a bunch of shills, or content addicts)
Or, they are just overworked minimum wagers just skimming to see if the article gets the gist. Not everything is subject to a "narrative".
If you want my two cents, I think it is mostly a low-level scholar doing the fact checking (entering graduate work or just starting post-grad education). These folks are desperate for money but also not quite at the level to fully grasp their own material.
@@starguardlux2874 passion makes for a poor substitute for knowledge.
@@starguardlux2874 I would say that its rather optimistic of you to assume they even have the degrees to even be a "low-level" scholar, but I know what academia has come to nowadays and what qualifies as an academic these days, so it really isn't that far off to assume that.
The narrative governs more than you think for the behind this rampant idiocy, but you are correct, not everything is subject to a narrative
@@starguardlux2874 making minimum wage doesnt give you an excuse to be a shit employee...do your job or leave.
@@ninjawannabe87 it doesnt have to be "subject to" the narrative to an objective product of said narrative...so i wouldnt even give that much to him.
youre original comment was right, this IS a result of an agenda either first-handedly or second-handedly.
🍻 We cannot get enough of this channel. Well done, as always 👏
Thanks!
@Metatron I need to address something with you. In your "black Africans in Rome" video, Why did you use Greek black-figure pottery as an example of black people being present in Greece? The Greeks used this style of pottery up until the 2nd century BC to represent themselves. It was purely stylistic. Equating it to black Africans is extremely disingenuous as well as claiming their presence there was "commonplace". Also, I noticed that a few of the images you used were taken from an afrocentric black revisionist website. Not a good look metatron.
Ashigaru: That's a lot of talk for someone in Yari poking distance
I'm currently writing a book series based in a fantasy samurai setting, I find your videos extremely helpful and keep me from falling into the popular misconceptions, please keep up the good work noble sir!
I remember one of Shad's videos where he even debunked the whole illiteracy of the masses in medieval Europe. I guess one could elaborate with the degree of literacy in comparison to the elite classes but illiterate they were not.
Yeah, since literacy was measured in their ability to read and write Latin, not whatever language they were speaking in their daily lives. If you can speak the language fluently, learning how to read and write isn't actually that hard.
Didn`t charlemagne decree that the common people to be taught to read and write?
Also, look at the Swiss today: I've seen official documents written in dialect, despite the spelling being not officially recognised and Germans being almost unable to read it!
Back in the middle ages, there were so many more dialects and no unified spelling!
Total illiterate? Yeah no. But low literacy? That is so true dude. Don't swing to the other stupid extreme
@@edi9892 that's a huge part of what Charlemagne was pushing for, consistency in writing to make literacy more feasible
Having Way of the Samurai 3 on the background is just slay
There is an old Perry Bible Fellowship comic depicting people of the future visiting a movie theater to watch a film titled "World War II". Within they watched two very colorful knights in axis and allied livery joust each other, with the allied knight's lance firing a rocket which blows the axis knight's head clean off! We are heading towards a similar complete misunderstanding of history if that article is any gauge.
Wasn't the European Literacy based on whether you could read or write in Latin instead of who could do the same in their language
In the Bujinkan we called the chokuto the tsurugi or just the ken. One year in the 2010s, Hatsumi Soke designated it as the weapon of the year and we all went out and bought them and trained with them quite a bit. Hatsumi Soke also said the weapon was very ancient and predated the samurai. Googling tsurugi only turns up some poorly preserved artifacts. We trained with chokuto/tsurugi as a way of exploring how body mechanics changed when using a straight double edged sword. It was similar to using a Chinese jian sword.
Chinese blades definitely influenced Japan a lot, especially before Japan worked out how to turn the poor supply of iron in Japan into something actually usable.
I'd love to see a video on the Ainu one day.
you wear the crest of Shingen Takeda... 火林風山 -- the clan of my father in law -- love history and your vids n I am waing for more.
I thought the whole myth of "European armor was so heavy and clunky, tin can lolz" was dying out? I'm a little encouraged--the article is from 2013. That was almost ten years ago. We're not there yet, but thanks to people like you, we're making progress. Keep up your great work! :-)
i deeply respect your goal to educate and debunk myths with fact and examples and experience.
Hi, Metatron.
Could you please make a video about medieval First Aid medicine?
People mostly focus about all these funny sub-alchemy medicines and other half magic half actual knowledge operations.
But nobody talks about what if you broke your arms/leg, or get other type of common injury.
I know something about that, but your take about that would be very helpfull.
You always know something I didn't.
Modern military armor is built on two principles: mobility and protection. It's always held true through history from what I've seen. The "perfect" or ideal kit is one that offers the most defense without compromising dexterity and range of motion. It's why composites, segmented plates, open joints, etc. Are so revolutionary after the smallest of adjustments. Look at the difference between 2001's plates and PARACLETES and today's kevlar, ceramics and ablative coat steel cores. Shaving carry weight, allowing flexibility, but maintaining the same ballistic protective properties and then some, with still more advancement on the way.
It makes quite a bit of sense. A soldier that dies too quickly or can't move is not very useful
It always triggers me when people spread misinformation about full plate armor. These misconceptions about full plate have been disproven already right?
Many times, both from sources and reconstructions.
In general, a knight in full plate armor had more mobility than a modern day infantryman in full gear.
But unfortunately this, and others, mith on Middle Age spread during Victorian Era, where "middle age = bad" (heavy and cumbersome armors, heavy and dull weapons, illiteracy, superstitions, filth...). So it's deeply routed.
Doesn't matter when you simply ignore or slander anything that disproves your beliefs.
I'm still waiting for some historical movie that will include at the end "Factchecked by Metatron". That would make me believe that we are moving somewhere in positive direction.
So glad to see more of your content. I’ve haven’t seen your stuff in a while and thought you might have quit TH-cam because I couldn’t find you. Is there anywhere else I can find you so I don’t have to worry about TH-cam refusing to promote your content to me?
I have a Patreon page. Alternatively I also have a Metatron facebook page. Thanks!
I think he's demonetized or shit like that. I don't get notifications anymore when there's a new vid. I have to check every 2 weeks.
"At a time when very few Europeans could read," Imma stop you right þere. Europeans being illiterate is a misunderstanding based on different definitions of "literate". At þe time of knights, literacy was being able to read and write *Latin*. However, over time, þe word has become þe far more general being able to read and write. If we were using þe definition from þe time period in question, fewer people today would be considered literate. However, if we apply today's definition to þe past, þe vast majority was literate *in þeir native language*. If only þe nobility could read and write in Europe, þe European economy couldn't have functioned.
4:15
Victorian Tropes have done so much damage to research on Armor. Even the Dendra Armor was not too heavy for foot combat, and that stuff was quite a bit more tin can-y than almost all other armor.
EDIT (#1 because there will probably be more as I watch more)
The Chokoto, as I understand, was an Infantry sword, with the Ainu using larger, longer swords from horseback alongside their mounted archery.
The adoption of the Ainu swords coincided with their expulsion/assimilation into Yamato society.
13:52
No, it's not fantasy. In fact, it is quite correct, as the Samurai are indeed the descendants of the Ainu "traitors" during the Yamato wars of Conquest.
They are descended for the *various* peoples that made up ancient Japan, which *includes but is not limited to* the Ainu. There were centuries of cohabitation and interbreeding was inevitable.
If the only greatest, strongest warriors were Ainu, they'd never have been ousted from Honshu even with some "traitors" among them
@@InfernosReaper It's not a matter of "some" traitors. It was the two largest clans, who were significantly outnumbered still by the remaining Ainu, but broke the unity of the Ainu clans against the Yamato Invaders. Besides, the idea of large-scale intermarriage among the warrior classes is not only unlikely, in that time period it would have been laughable.
It is not that the Greatest and Strongest warriors were Ainu, but that their fighting style was by far superior to the Yamato style, namely Guerilla Warfare based off of Horse Archery as opposed to heavy blocks of infantry. The Ainu could easily avoid engaging the Yamato infantry so long as they held the major cavalry advantage. Once the two largest clans changed sides, a different outcome was inevitable.
You're doing God's work, Raph, keep it up! Much love and appreciation for what you do, especially your patience with these goobers🤣
Thank you friend!
Two aesthetic martial cultures. European and Japanese. Ive been fortunate to watch your content about these empires for 3 years. I just got another katana for my birthday 3 months ago, its quality. I use my old beat up wakizashi as a machette in the woods.
Samurais, the topic that made me discover Metatron!
Thank you for always giving us much details.
I have a great deal of respect for the Italian culture.
Those guys watched entirely too many "historical drama" movies, and couldn't keep their centuries straight, as you pointed out....
And although the bit about literacy rates might be vaguely true as teaching commoners to read, write, and do math was permitted to samurai during peacetime, and commoners included merchants as well as farmers (who often had small workshop/factories in their back yards) and fishermen.. and the merchants had futures trading in the Osaka /Kobe area for the rice / salt / etc. exchanges there, so they were VERY good at math & accounting. In peacetime, the samurai needed the school fees as cash income, and there was a free market in 'terakoya' private schools teaching commoners.
The bit about Ainu was absolutely ludicrous... like saying that European knights were taller than the farmers, so they must have been descendants of Africans.. NO. ..
Thank you for taking on those spurious assertions!
Technically we're all descendants of Africans.
Great video! Sadly there is much misinformation in all eras of history, but the crusade must continue! Keep up the great work sir
misinformation is everywhere... In every other academia fields. So it is best to first educate urself on ur topic of interest.
Wassup Leonidas!
I have no doubt that the upper class of Japan were paler than those that toiled in the sun all day but I find it strange that anyone would assume that it was genetic rather than environmental.
Thank wokeness for that, people today are more obsessed with skin colors than they were during Jim Crow.
Renaissance Nobility end Edo period Samurai mythologized swords because they were bureaucrats at that point, carrying swords in cities where it became the last symbol of their lost glory. These guys were practically civilians and swords are the best weapon in a civilian setting
Always enjoy your work Metatron. When I was much younger, say from 12 until my eary 20's I practiced a style of Okinawan karate called Uechi Ryu. Every few years a small group of experienced practitioners would come out to Australia and stay with us and from memery I want to say every 4 years a group of us would go to Okinawa and some would compete in an all Okinawan world championship including full contact kumite. My instructor Karl Ailif actually took out this title a couple of times and another good friend and teacher of mine Scott McLaren placed well too. Unfortunately I never travelled to Okinawa as I worked, studied at University and played rugby union at a high level as well and just didn't take the opportunity. My sister who was also very good did travel widely overseas though. I remember most of the Okinawan guys were quite a bit shorter than most of us except one sensai Higga. He was six foot four inches very athletic and a skilled karate-ka. Some of the Okinawan sensai favoured Australians and I remember one in particular had a strong like for Americans. At the end of each training session we would kneel and bow to the instructor and thank him for teaching us but there were also pictures of the founder(drawing) and old photos of previous masters and we would clap twice and kneeling bow to the floor thanking them for teaching us as well. Sorry I don't remember correctly all of the Okinawan terminology and I don't want to butcher it as even though I went on to practise more modern martial arts these people will always hold a dear place in my heart. There was even a written component to our black belt grading and I suppose the ritualised clapping and bowing to previous masters was linked to something akin to Shinto ancestor respect or even worship and though I had an understanding of this at the time I couldn't have articulated it nor did I fully comprehend the deep level at which I was participating in another culture. All of which is pretty cool upon reflection. Hope anyone that bothers to read comments finds my little story interesting. Have a great day guys
I'll talk about what I know, and I know that for making the semi rigid space-suits for the apollo program, the requisite was to protect from micrometeorits on the lunar surface, Nasa after trying to desingn something from the start and without much success, went back and looked at europen plate armor, especially the gountlets, and took that design to the spacesuits for its mobility; that's quite an archivement for the XV-XVI tech. So the fact that even the most heavy european armor of those centuries gave good mobility should be quite accepted, there is even an old black and white video of a researcher from the eraly 1900 showing how freely he moves in armor
Sometimes even anime is more accurate about samurai than "fact checked" clickbait articles. And I'm not saying anime is accurate.
Katanas had spirits. To the animistic religion of the time, so did toilets and washcloths. So did Sengoku Japan have superior toilets and towels?
Even more sad is the heaviest medieval European armor was specifically made for tournament jousting. You know the thing that REQUIRES YOU TO RIDE A HORSE.
While the idea of Samurai being “descended from Ainu” is certainly ludicrous, I’d be interested if there’s evidence that people in northern Honshū had any significant amounts of Emishi heritage. Or maybe if Jomon blood was more prominent in older Japanese populations. Btw are you wearing new kote sleeves? I don’t think I noticed them before, they look awesome
i would like to learn more about the ainu. They didn't drastically look different from the Japanese right? plus from what i know there are prominent japs like hiroshe abe and kazuki kitamura who have that jomon aesthetic, probably have ainu anecestry.
@@jmgonzales7701 The Ainu have a destinctive phenotype, often the men have full, long beards. Raciologists (scientific racists) of the 19th an 20th century even had the theory that the ainu are some kind of "lost white tribe", which turned out to be an idiotic idea.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 I have heard that the Na zi tried to find a link between the ainu and the aryan race. But that that begs the question, what even are the ainu?
@@jmgonzales7701 The Ainu are related to ancient sibirian east asiatic groups which are also related to people like the Native North Americans (altough the link goes back a long time like Patheoltics).
The Ainu have a strong resemblence to western eurasians and genetic link too so the "lost white tribe" is not as idiotic beside the fact that eh those terms like "White" and whatever are omega outdated and not used by any modern country beside one ...... which has not even paid sick leave so i doubt its fair to call it first world country beside its military.
But in general ainu also have strong connection to the yamato and okinawa people. But i also read they are strongly connected to the indian people (altough i cant find that link anymore so not sure).
Genetics and ethnicitys are for sure interessting and complicated because there is not simple black and white but alot of genoms and some ethnicitys have more than others of some :D
Or you can be a Redneck and says "the ayre yellow.... that kinda look white abit" or how ever americans talk about ethnicitys in their colouring system.
@@ZunaZurugi only one country uses term white? if we should not use the term caucasian, white etc then what term should we use since "white" is oudated.
if you are speaking of America, as the non first world country beside its military? i think its unfair since they have the largest economy, great tech innovation and have great cities as well. It definitely fits in being a first world.
Speaking of the ainu, i heard that Japanese who had more of a Jomon appearance might be because of ainu mixture? guys like hiroshi abe and kazuki kitamura.
These lists are all the same. Spitting on Knights while licking the boots of the Samurai using old anime tropes for both. "The Samurai fought evil"? that's a good one. What were they thinking?
Omg yes! Thank you for preaching this!
As a history teacher that sees the result of this stuff on kids, teens, and even the exams and textbooks we use, it really does my head in.
I think that honestly the East vs West comparison usually brings out the worst in people. Personally I love armour period, full stop, so I can appreciate it all. BUT I do feel I have to point out that knight fanboys can be and sometimes are more toxic than Samurai fanboys. Kinda am wanting to make a video on it and give my opinions. I'm just not sure I wanna open that can of worms either.
Awesome to see you here!
I'm a Samurai and Knight fanboy, and i think it would be fine for you to make a video about your opinions!
2:27 is the perfect reaction to the entire article.
Once again Metatron you have stroke a mighty blow against idiocy . Your masterful use of the fact was spot on and the use whit in you delivery a bullseye. Kudos lad and continue on producing grate content.👊👍
Never clicked so fast
0:17 this is why I watch this channel: to be called a Noble One. The rest of the content is good, too. I guess...
The literacy argument is not just unfair, it's untrue. New information shows that literacy rates among the non-nobility is nearly all cultures with a written language was much higher than anyone previously thought. It's unlikely that the poor were reading the great works at the time, but most of them had enough letters and numbers to do sums and calculations, and enough ability to read to read publicly posted announcements and send and receive letters.
How about a video yari vs naginata? Would like to See this from you
as far as I know, Ainu started appearing in northern Japan in 12th century when people were pushed out of the continent by expanding Mongol empire. That is several centuries after the appearance of Samurai. Also, Ainu was actually a an ambrealla term of these people living in tribes and did no speak Japanese, and consisted of at least 5 language groups.
Only in the recent political narrative did Ainu became a kind of "oppressed minority" and an "aborigini" of Japan.
If they said that Samurais were descendants of Yebisu, and that Yebisu were the early Ainu, that would have been a bit more plausible.
Effing Mongols, literarl raci$t Warmongering Barbarians. In the context of Japan they didn't look drastically different to the majority of Japanese. Plus i doubt that they were caucasian like what other people say. What this tells us is Japan wasn't as naturally homogenous we thought. Thou there are Some Japanese out there probably would ainu ancestry that contributed to some diverse phenotypes to some Japanese. Actors like Hiroshe Abe and Kazuki kitamura definitely fits the Jomon Aesthetic. With that being said arent the ainu really an "aborigini" of japan?
The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido they have been there for thousands of years.
This article is likely confusing the Emishi with the Ainu, and taking a very poorly understood part of japanese history and extrapolating into a frankly laughable conclusion
prior to the rise of the Samurai class, we have accounts of numerous wars within Japan between two groups. The Yamato, the ancestors of most modern japanese, and Emishi in the north. The Emishi are your prototypical hairy barbarians because the only accounts we really have come from their erstwhile enemies, but if you believe it they may have been related to the Ainu, it's not that far fetched.
According to period accounts, the Emishi differed from the Yamato in that they relied primarily on horse archery over massed spearmen (the imperial armies of this period were based off those of mainland china, so yeah, they fought with spears and shields on foot). This was clearly less than ideal because the more mobile but less numerous Emishi could just hit and run and avoid open battle, making them a pain to deal with until local lords seemingly adopted many of their tactics for local defense, leading to a class of mounted warrior minor nobility for policing the outlying regions.... which may be the basis of the Samurai as we know them. Again, this is from surviving accounts written long after the fact supposedly based of early works, so the accuracy of this information should not be assumed as absolute
So the Samurai may be loosely descended from the methods of a group related to the Ainu, and some clans may have been descended from Emishi clans that swore loyalty to Yamato lords.... yeah, that's a 'best case scenario'. We know samurai clans came from many different origins, including some that are obviously of Korean of Chinese origin just based on their family names.
Becoming Samurai was as easy as a Daimyo saying you were now Samurai, and all your descendants, even ones you adopted and had no blood relation to, were Samurai unless another Daimyo said no. So the idea of them having a single unified ancestry based on the romantic ideals of what samurai supposedly looked like is.... infantile, i think, is the word for it.
@@t.wcharles2171 how does one become "native" a lot of countries were basically migrated by a lot of people. So what makes a tribe native?
@@jmgonzales7701 they were there before anyone else in the case of the Ainu people.
12:38 My thoughts, exactly 😅. Comparing nobility to peasantry (or the entirety of the population, who were mostly peasants, etc.) is nonsense 🤯.
The last part is interesting: what we know of ancient japanese culture and etnic groups? I know that the Yayoi were of chinese ancestry and Ainu do not share the same origin of other japanese groups. I also have the misconception that Jomon period is the only culture present in the arcipelago in ancient time...
13:37 Interestingly, I payed attention to a lot of details like this when I went to Leeds Armouries and I was actually surprised (not necessarily rationally) by how "normal" the average suits of armour were in height (granted, being on display a few inches above the ground can perhaps somewhat alter how accurate your perceptions are). I remember expecting Henry VIII to be short, but the guy was like 6ft 2. A couple stood out to me as being particularly short, but most were, well, pretty average. One in particular really stood out to me as being a damned giant. If you put a 6ft 4+ man of athletic build in full harness it's seriously intimidating lol. But considering all of these people would have been very wealthy, they'd have had comparably nutritious diets to modern people, and we've not changed enough genetically speaking for that to make a difference.
Well on average medieval people were short but "on average" is the average over the whole population meaning it includes those who didn't eat as well, nobility typically wasn't much shorter the modern people.
Medieval people were all short is one those myths people spread by not fully understanding what they read and generalizing things.
@@SampoPaalanen Well I'll be honest, I don't have a fundamentally solid reason to believe the average medieval european was shorter than the average modern european, other than it just being a "common knowledge" thing. I have heard people (who are interested in this specific area and claim to have done the research) even say that the diet of many peasants was *healthier* than that of many of the nobility, and that rather implies sufficient nutrition prior to the lack of a lot of the unhealthy extravagance. Peasants would have been most effected by things like famines, so there would no doubt be generations of poorly developed people, but yeah, I'm not sure the average would have been poorly developed
@@tommeakin1732 i thing a big reason for the perception of people being short is that the diet of the average city dweller in that time would have been pretty bad, all things considered. Bad diet leads to short people, on average, and this was true of cities like London all the way up until the industrial revolution. So a lot of accounts of 'medieval life' from the perspective of urban centers around the mediterenean would give you a rather strangely slanted view of 'average'.
if you're talking about the 'average' medieval peasant, who's got to farm his own land and maintain his own home.... yeah, his diet's gonna be pretty high in calories, even when compared to modern people, so they'd have been decently large people on average. Nobles, especially knights, would likewise have had very calorie heavy diets to maintain a very active lifestyle
3:25 Maybe, his source was T. H. White.
I actually really like how it is in thaumcraft, where at first you get your modern samurai armor and then later upgrade to europian resnesanse knightly armor, fully satisfies the cool factor and also realistically portrays the protection you get versus arrows and swords.
I have seen the reverse where whenever Asian mostly Japanese armor, fighting styles, weapons are brought up the European medieval people tend to shit on them. As stated that each has its pros and cons and the choices are made to produce the best outcome depending on the circumstances.
It's as though ALL cultures knew that warfare was dangerous and that your weapons and armor needed to be as effective as possible...huh.
Thanks for doing this video. That article was a bit on the offensive and silly side.
Especially the Ainu crap. Hairy Samurai. What the hell hahaha
Also, fun fact, On the Oyoroi. What westerners seem to miss while drooling over
the front of the armor, if you peek around back just between the shoulder plates there
is a solid loop where everything ties together. It's also the point where the armor
was hung from a hook and rope and could be used to both place the armor on
the owner and used to assist in mounting horses. Which Samurai usually had
a steeping stool for. Getting on and off horses in all that was tricky and some
times dangerous. Especially if you fell off in battle. Mobility didn't mean shit then.
What incense you used in your helmet that day mattered more at that point hahaha
On that note why don't Westerners ever bring up that Samurai where also head hunters
and took great care in how their heads where to be taken and presented when losing
battles? It's all Bushido this and Bushido that. Japanese warfare was brutal AF with
little to no quarter given. As a foot soldier you were lucky if your commanding officer
didn't invite the winning party to kill you as they retreated. Which happened. Please
feel free to kill my flank as we retreat. Honor and Zen. Honor and Zen hahaha
Pure fantasy.
I had someone arguing with me about the Katana vs longsword on a star wars video lol. He was talking about the crossguard saber, and how Kylo wields it like a "medieval longsword, which is heavier than the katana". 🙄🙄🙄
So, I inform him that he was incorrect in saying so. He challenged me on it, so I posted a few different videos about the two swords. One from Sell sword arts, and one from Skallagrim. No shit, he proceeds to immediately discredit Sellsword, then proceeds to say exactly what Sellsword said about the weight of the 2 swords. I immediately laughed at his comment, and let him continue believing myths.
Didn't longswords tend to be a bit heavier though? They were longer, and the guard was bigger.
@@turtlesaredifferentfromtor6745 It varies from sword to sword of course, but both could be anywhere from 2 to 3 pounds on average.
@@turtlesaredifferentfromtor6745 Katana were intentionally designed to be heavy because that made them more durable and better at cutting. The blades are also considerably thicker than those on european swords. The balance point is also considerably further down the blade of a katana, so they certainly feel heavier even than longer medieval swords.
Ironically enough, this extra weight is what makes a katana so well optimized for cutting. If it was anything like as light as a lot of the fanboys want you to believe, it'd have been pretty useless as an actual weapon
im binging ur content again, i just love how cracked said here that "their soul lives in the katana" and how "katana is their most valued weapon" but in the other article from ur video yesterday they say they were ashamed of them :D
no timescale, periods, region, nothing, they all loved it and were all ashamed of it...
top notch reporting right there....
The entire armour dispute can be resolved with “there were different types of armour for different types of warriors eg:swordsmen,horsemen,bowmen and musketeers, some armour was built for mobility like the swordsmen and the bowmen but the stereotypical knights armour was usually designed for horsemen, but all and all there are several armour classes and classes of warriors with specific armour” but a more simplistic way of saying this is “do actual research”.
How to be a woke historian 101:
Europe bad? Check.
Cultures/races from other continents good? Check
A bit of virtue signalling at the end just for good measure? Check.
"Actually, most samurai were African trans women. They were direct non-binary descendants of the Woman King tribe and came mostly from the totally historically accurate land of Wakanda." - Woke Hollywood 🙃
Only european history gets that treatment.
It won't be a satire in the coming years, this will be what they'll teach students in history books
Saying that all big nosed and hairy guys are Ainu makes about much sense as calling them all Bankers!
As a Samurai i really like your channel. I would recomend it to people that would like to learn about Samurai more since it is more accurate than than many movies, documentaries and articles that exsist. keep up with great work. the only problem i had with this video is how the take on what was the main samurai sword ( which is katana ) evolving trough history
I recall back when the history channel did some history shows, they did one on Samurai. How sophisticated they were, warriors who did poetry and wore silk
I guess the writers never heard of Vikings and conquistador, or Troubadours of that Homer guy from Greece. I can’t think of any warrior culture that didn’t go for the good life in between cutting off heads
Thank you for, as always, keeping the facts straight! Appreciate it a LOT 👍
Knowledge is not power, it is only potential. Applying that knowledge is power. Understanding why and when to apply that knowledge is wisdom - Takeda Shingen
2:21 What a weird, indirect way of saying "Samurai didn't have jousting tournaments."
In terms of armor mobility, I feel like pointing out one thing. This is nitpicking though, so feel free to correct me, but I wouldn't say "every single one type of armor was designed with mobility in mind" - we had later tournament armors, that sacrificed parts of mobility for greater protection, or renaissance parade armors, that focused more on good looks, and could be bulky sometimes. Granted - this probably isn't what the author of the article, nor Metatron had in mind, but just for consistency sake I thought I'd point it out
I think their just talking about combat armor.
Even for Western Knights, the sword became a side weapon for the battlefield.
From what I can gather, the Ainu originally extended farther south and intermixed with the 2 or 3 other peoples who crossed into Japan and created what is considered to be the Japanese. Then the end product ultimately pushed the Ainu out because they didn't integrate quite as easily, before ultimately forcefully integrating most of them when Hokkaido was subjugated(well, the ones who didn't die fighting it, of course).
Traces of the Ainu culture can be found in Shintoism and a few linguistic bits here and there, like "kami" vs "kamui/kamuy"
Ultimately, trying to say *all* samurai are Ainu is dishonest, because that's discounting the other peoples involved in the formation of Japan and creates a bit of a logic problem in "if they were Ainu, wouldn't the Ainu have dominated Japan instead of being driven off Honshu?"
Were there some samurai of Ainu descent? Definitely. Same applies all the other ethnic groups that ultimately became the Japanese, though.
Yay, samurai content. Been missing it on your channel.
Even the peasants in medieval Europe could read and write, some at a very young age. In fact we have records of letters written by children asking for books to be returned after lending them to other children a number of miles away. As a linguist yourself, I thought you'd have been more familiar with the fact that the term "illiterate" was used in the medieval period to mean people who couldn't read ot write Latin.
No. Making a blanket statemnt like that is plainly incorrect. It very much depends on where, when and what you mean by "peasant".
Yes, there were places and periods where literacy was more common even among poor people. However it really only started to grow significantly after the reformation thing that happened.
@@Nerazmus I didn't make a blanket statement, I was correcting a blanket statement that was made in the video Metatron was reviewing on a point he didn't address. I simply said that peasants could read and write, not that ALL peasants could. There is historical proof to back up my statement, as I mentioned in example above.
I also mentioned that 'literacy' as we know it is not how the word was used historically in the medieval period. But the ability to read and write was far more common throughout the lower classes than most people are taught in history today. Just another of those revisionist lies/misconceptions that we need to divest our society of.
The fact that there is people who are allowed to work in museum with zero knowledge of what they're talking about is horrifying
Hairier? Lighter skin? Big, straight-bridged noses? Why, they must think you're the spitting image of a medieval samurai!
Actually... all armor looks like a tin can compared to... Conan the Barbarian's armor. If you need anything more than a cod piece you need to get better.
Do you know Warhammer 40K and "What if the Emperor had a text-to-speech-device" by any chance?
@@kaltaron1284 I do now. I'm not sure if that was a good thing...
@@st0rmrider What do you mean? The Adeptus Custodes are awesome. Except Kitten but maybe he will learn one day.
Hey Metatron, I always wondered, did the samurai wear padding under their armor like european knights?
I think they only wore a hakama under armor, but dont trust me on this.
Man, it is true that people, especially hardcore Japan/Anime fans tend to somehow view everything that comes from or is influenced by Japan as superior in every way, as if that little island nation was the El Dorado of the world.
The European armoured knight couldn't ride or get on a horse? To quote Val Kilmer in Top Gun, 'Cough-bullsh*t.'
I think that might be referring to knights in a joust... in combat.
Knights averaging at 6'5"? God-damned ogre kingdoms.
In your opinion, could the Goon and Hoko system or even the Goseibai Shikimoku created during the reign of Shikken Hojo Yasutoki established by the Kamakura Bakufu be interpreted as a form of Bushido? Obviously what you said about Bushido is correct but still.
I laugh my ass off everytime some of my friends start talking how the katana is the ultimate weapon and that no other weapon can match it in any way possible.
A spear wearing soldier would play around with someone using katana, that isnt that long weapon afterall.
That "knights were terrible warriors" article is soul shatteringly stupid, I'm still processing that one. How did it even get written? It's just so insulting to the people who actually lived in the medieval period- they obviously weren't any stupider than us today. Not to mention, why in the hell would anyone wear plate armor on the battlefield if it wasn't effective? The whole point of battle is to not die while attempting to kill the enemy. If armor didn't help with that, no one would have used it. This fairly widespread attitude that medieval and/or ancient people were stupid is just so dumb it makes my eyes water. It pisses me off when people don't give earlier humans the credit they deserve. Truly, I am offended on their behalf.
Not very far into this video and this crap is already getting me all foamed up! Damn this damnable misinformation about history!
@Metatron
I have to wonder about that bit about heights (ie- 180cm - 196cm). Now I would agree that a general census of height across all of (medieval) Europe would produce numbers similar to height averages of today (perhaps a bit less), however, I can't forget the mention of the Germanic tribes of Ariovistus and how the legions of Caesar were afraid/ hesitant to fight them because they stood (on average) a head taller than Caesars men (or so we're told). _This is the part where Caesar makes his speech favouring the 10th legion, announcing that he too had heard of the size and ferocity of these Germans and that the legions didn't need to fight them if they didn't want to. He then says that he's sure that the 10th legion would never abandon him, however, and that he'd fight the Germanic hordes with just the 10th legion if necessary. This is about when he dismounts his German and Celtic cavalry and mounts the entire 10th legion on horses and thus where the 10th legion got its name of Equestris from._
Anyway, if these stories about the size of the Germanic warriors were true, as well as stories of the Vikings/ Nords (who were also Germanic people) ALSO being giants were true, then perhaps the average size of a German or Germanic warrior WAS 180 to 196 cm...
Anyway, it's things like this that make it hard for me to entirely dismiss claims like the one made in that video.
Those stories don't match with actual archeological findings.
the romans have a tendency to oversell their enemies. By making your enemies sound especially frightening, you also elevate yourself. Were germanics taller than italic romans? maybe, but probably only by a few inches.
Seriously, why must every praise of Samurai kits go like "OMG ARMOR O THE GODS PERFECT KIT EUROPEAN ARMOR ACROSS ALL OF HISTORY, NO EXCEPTIONS, CLUNKY TIN CANS"
I mean, if European armor was like wearing a tin can, then why would it be made in the first place, let alone worn?
And, get this through people's thick skulls: *NOT.ALL.KNIGHTS.WERE.RICH.ENOUGH.FOR.FULL.PLATE.*
ETA: Yeah, comparing literacy of Samurai to most people in Europe at the time is like comparing a perfect whiskey to a poop sandwich. Couldn't be more different.
And a lot of knights lived before they developed full plate.
@@hollyingraham3980 Thought about adding that point, just didn't know where to put it, thank you for mentioning it
But katanas can cut through time and samurais breath fire
superior nihon steel folded 10,000 times
So can us marines. XD
The thing that many japan fans seem to forget is that Samurai mostly fought other Samurai for hundreds of years. There wasn't really an external necessity to progress as knight armor and weaponry did. Knights were developed to counter quick and mobile units like vikings and magars and later had to fight Saracens and Mongolians and most of the time went out on top.
Armor and weaponry develop quite a lot in Japan actually, Samurai actually face foreign enemies more than people think, Samurai's Origins lies in fighting off the Emishi even after Samurai establishment or fighting off Raiders from Mainland Asia for some examples, knights mostly fought other knights, Vikings would have the same weapons as early pro-knights The Only Exception was the kite Shield even then I'm not sure, only Eastern Europe ever fought the Mongols and that was only a few times which the wins were not as big like people make them out to be,Saracens again only a few times, what matters is not who you're fighting but the need to develop arms and armor which comes from fighting in general.
It's always nice to see a history-themed channel that doesn't seem to hold a strong bias towards a specific culture or region, to the point they tend to vehemently insist they're better than everyone else. Unfortunately, you see this all too often with history-themed content.
I hate that people always try to put down knights but always overpraise the samurai. Those people have no ideia what they are talking about.
Your presentation style is so pleasing and I can’t for the life of me pinpoint why
There was medieval armor designed without mobility in mind: castles... There is also modern armor designed without mobility in mind: bunkers...
It's only been 13 days? I just checked because I watched this when it came out and I'm having withdrawals 😂 I thought surely it'd been two years
Man that armor of yours looks fragging' good ! 😆
Debunking dumbass video's always +1 !
Love the wargammer empire army in the background