10 misconceptions about samurai we believe in movies and games

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Their ideas of honor, customs, and even weapons were not at all what you used to think.

1. The main weapon of a samurai is a katana

Most often, samurai are depicted with two swords in their belt - a long katana and a short wakizashi. Therefore, most people consider them to be melee warriors fighting with swords. But this is not the case.

The samurai, of course, used katana and wakizashi, but only in cases of emergency. Basically, this weapon served as a confirmation of their status, because commoners - merchants and artisans - could only carry one short sword (and then it was banned).

On the battlefield, the samurai were primarily horse archers. This is the privilege of the nobles, because in small Japan, with a shortage of pasture, a horse was worth a fortune. The bushi carried a long bow waku, daikyu or yumi and bamboo arrows to it. And the ability to shoot this weapon for the samurai was more important than swordsmanship.

This makes sense, because the enemy is usually easier to shoot than to poke at him with a sword.

Samurai, unlike European knights, did not wear shields. Their squires did it for them - they dragged large wooden tate shields so that the master could hide behind them during the shooting.

If it came to hand-to-hand combat, samurai took yari spears, naginata (something like a Japanese halberd, a kind of hybrid of a saber and a mop) and iron clubs and kanabo clubs to fight the enemy in armor. The bushi also used kusarigama and kusari-fundo - blades and sickles on chains, which are usually used in movies only by ninjas.

Finally, sometimes they brandished a nodachi, a very long, slightly curved sword (sort of like the Japanese version of a zweihander). Katana, on the other hand, was sometimes not taken on the battlefield at all, preferring to keep it as a status item.

2. Samurai are faithful to their daimyo to the last

In modern culture, the word "samurai" is synonymous with honor and devotion. The ancient Japanese aristocratic warriors seem to be literally obsessed with this. They are ready not only to kill, but also to die for their master. And the daimyo just needs to raise an eyebrow for his samurai to go on a suicide mission or commit seppuku, just to preserve his dignity.

But in fact, the samurai, like the European knights, were not at all so impeccably loyal. They served their daimyo while he paid them - mostly in rice. If the master ceased to suit the samurai, he could easily go over to the owner better along with all his warriors.

In Europe, betrayals also happened, but those around him began to treat the knight who had committed such a low deed with reproach. In Japan, leaving the master was not considered something completely unacceptable among samurai.

Alessandro Valignano, a Jesuit missionary who preached in Japan in 1573, wrote of the samurai:

They rise up whenever they have a chance to usurp the power of their rulers or join their enemies. They then change sides again and declare themselves allies. But they rise again when the opportunity arises. This kind of behavior does not discredit them at all.

Alessandro Valignano

The Japanese still have a saying "seven falls, eight rises." That is how many times the daimyo, in theory, could forgive the vassal who betrayed his trust. Or temporarily release a subject from service so that he does not resent.

3. You can easily cut another sword with a katana

There is a belief that samurai blades are incredibly strong and sharp. They can cut several people in half with one blow, cut an enemy sword or the barrel of a firearm, split an abandoned silk scarf or horsehair into two parts, and so on.

However, the katana was not particularly different from the saber or checker. The fact is that the Japanese had very little good steel, and therefore katanas could not boast of any qualities that Western long-bladed weapons would not have. Their sharpness cannot be called supernatural either: European blades cut paper, fabric and other things just as well.

So it is impossible to cut another katana with a katana, let alone a European bastard sword. If you don’t believe it, watch how the experimenter in the German program Welt der Wunder tries to do it.

A samurai with such a katana, who fought with a knight or at least a mercenary-landsknecht, would have had a hard time.

4. Samurai swords were forged from thousands of layers of steel

Many believe that real katanas are forged by a master armorer for several years. During this time, the blacksmith folds the steel blank many times, imparting incredible strength and sharpness to the sword.

This is, of course, a delusion. Billets from tamahagane, Japanese steel, also called "diamond", are really made by repeatedly folding and then flattening the metal.

But the layered steel, which is recorded as the advantage of the katana, was made by the Japanese not because of its unique properties, but because they did not have a more effective way to clean iron sand from impurities and better distribute carbon in the metal. This method of processing iron is not a great secret of Japanese craftsmen, but a completely ordinary technique that was used all over the world.

Thousands of times steel has not been folded. Bending the workpiece more than 20 times is a waste of time, as this leads to excessive diffusion of carbon in the material. The process of bending steel, called shita-kitae, was repeated only 8-16 times.

And when the Japanese began to import metal from Europe, they generally gave up wasting energy on Sita-Kitae, because European steel was cheaper and much better in quality.

And katanas have not been forged in years. On average, it took one sword, from three weeks to several months.

5. Firearms are unacceptable for a samurai

As you know, the firearms were invented by cowardly gaijins who do not know the path of honor. Such things are disgusting for a real samurai. He fights the enemy face to face and only with swords. And if the enemy shoots at him, the samurai will die with courage. Well, or he will beat off a bullet in flight with a katana. At least in the movies.

In reality, the samurai not only did not despise firearms, but also adopted them almost as soon as the Europeans brought them to Japan. The Portuguese wheel castle, called tanegashima by the Japanese in 1543, changed the wars in Japan.

Military units were formed from arquebusiers and pikemen. The Japanese were so carried away by firearms that by the end of the 16th century they had acquired a body of arquebusiers, more in number than in any European country.

Basically, firearms - and hand pistols, and rifles, and cannons - were purchased in the Netherlands. And to own some kind of cool imported barrel among the samurai was considered not shameful, but, on the contrary, honorable and status.

6. Samurai were elite warriors

Typically, samurai are considered fearless warriors who devote their entire lives to war. But this is not true. The word samurai, if you look for an alternative to it in other languages, will rather mean not “warrior”, but “nobleman” or “aristocrat”, but directly translates as “one who serves”.

Accordingly, among the samurai there were enough of those who had never fought at all. They acted as tax collectors, bookkeepers, officials, and so on.

Real warriors sometimes even laughed at such samurai, saying that they carry swords incorrectly - in a more horizontal position, which does not allow them to instantly draw their weapons.

And the samurai can hardly be called a real elite. For example, in 1600 Japan had 18 million people, and samurai accounted for 5-6% of the total. So you can hardly call them a small class.

7. A skilled samurai will stop the katana with a clap of his palms

Sometimes the military skills of samurai in films and anime are shown completely too implausible. So, sometimes experienced bushi manage to stop the blow of the opponent's katana by holding it between two palms. It looks very cool, but absolutely unrealistic.

In general, in different schools of fencing - both Japanese and European - there were techniques that made it possible to take away the sword from the enemy. But before grabbing the weapon by the blade, it is highly advisable to wear bracers and thick gloves. They don't touch the blade with their bare hands - you can only grab the handle or the opponent's hands.

It is simply impossible to stop the blow of the blade with a clap of the palms - you will simply be mutilated or completely chopped off your limbs.

8. Samurai followed the Bushido code

It is believed that "Bushi-do", the way of the warrior, is a set of rules governing the life of a samurai. And every bushi must know this code. If he violates it, he will be forced to commit ritual suicide seppuku, because the warrior must strictly observe his honor.

In reality, the samurai had rules of conduct, of course, but they were unwritten. The most complete list was compiled in his book "Hagakure" by samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo. There is only one small but: he was not a bushi, he had never seen a war and worked as a manager in the estate of daimyo Saga.

And Yamamoto wrote down not some immutable rules, but the memories of old samurai and his own ideas about the ideal warrior. So judging a bushi from Hagakure is like making up an idea of knights from courtly novels.

Real samurai thought of honor was very different from modern ones. And, for that matter, everyone made up the rules for themselves.

Many bushi did not see anything reprehensible in hacking down an enemy from behind without announcing the start of a duel.

Fratricide, betrayal, serving several masters at the same time among the samurai also took place. But what can I say, the whole art of battojutsu is devoted to quickly drawing out a sword and killing a person while he does not suspect anything - for example, during a tea ceremony. It doesn't sound like an honest act.

9. Seppuku is the best ending for a samurai

A samurai who dropped his dignity, in theory, certainly had to commit ritual suicide seppuku. It consisted in the following: bushi dressed in white, wrote farewell poems, then knelt down and with a short blade of a kusungobu ripped open his stomach. This should have been done without hesitation and with an impenetrable face.

A fellow samurai, called a kaisyaku, must chop off his head, but not completely, but so that it hangs on a piece of skin. If the kaisyaku carelessly blows off his head, the samurai will be covered with shame. If the samurai stood firm, his stomach was ripped open correctly and his head was cut off impeccably, then his honor was saved.

It sounds creepy, but in fact, hara-kiri, in most cases, were done not to save honor, but to avoid even more trouble. For example, if a samurai was defeated in battle and was threatened with captivity and torture, he chose a faster end, which also helped save face.

It is quite reasonable, considering how brutally the samurai treated the prisoners - burning, crucifixion and boiling in boiling water were common. Particularly unlucky people could have been cut in half … with a wooden saw.

And for samurai who dishonored their daimyo, seppuku was sometimes the only way to preserve property.

After all, if the bushi ripped open his belly, his fortune would be passed on to his heirs. And if he is tried and sentenced, the property will be confiscated.

Finally, painful hara-kiri was not done very often by the rules. If the samurai understood that death was inevitable, he could ritually touch his stomach with a fan, dispensing with suffering, falling out entrails and blood. And the kaisyaku quickly decapitated him.

And in addition, if a samurai daimyo died or committed hara-kiri himself, the bushi did not have to follow his example. He could go to a monastery and live there - this was considered an acceptable alternative to seppuku. Or you could give up the rules a little and find yourself a new master.

10. Ronins are honest and decent guys

In modern culture, ronin, roving warriors without a master, home, or livelihood, are portrayed as noble lone knights. They do not hesitate to defend ordinary people, put the burrowing samurai in their place and try to restore their honor and good name with good deeds and courageous deeds.

In fact, many ronin became gang members, robbers, rapists and thugs.

Samurai in Japan used the right to "kill and leave", that is, hack to death any commoner for a sidelong glance. Or to test the sharpness of a sword.

Having lost the daimyo, the ronin did not abandon their samurai manners. They killed, took away other people's property and were engaged in racketeering. Many of them became the leaders of the yakuza gangs. As you can see, in reality, the ronin were not at all as pleasant personalities as Zatoichi in Takeshi Kitano's film.