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Sunday, October 24, 2010
The samurai weapons
Samurai weapons, Samurai armors and the Samurai way of life, hold a fascinating sway on the imagination. Samurai, the historically famous warriors of Japan, were known for their bravery, sense of honor, fighting skills and, of course, for their elaborate armors and weapons. They were an elite class of warriors who loyally served their masters, the daimyo.

Though thought of as, basically, the classic, essential soldier, most Samurai were well-educated and highly versed in literature and the fine arts. They had many pursuits outside of the arts of war. Samurai were, in general, followers of Bushido - which translates as "Way of the Warrior." They studied all weapons and skills to form a code of conduct which guided their actions on the battlefield and off.

Samurai were skilled in the use of a range of weapons such as bows and arrows, knives, spears and guns; but their most famous weapon and their symbol was the sword.

Thanks to countless romantic representations in movies, the word, Samurai, has come to signify the superhuman warrior. Actually the word finds its root in samorau (or saburau). This is a verb in Japanese that means "to serve".

History tells us that the Samurai first came into being out of the need by the feudal lords of Japan to have skilled, armored bodyguards to protect themselves from robbers and the warriors of rival clans. Over time, the samurai (also known as Bushi) became a class unto themselves, creating new power structures in Japanese society with elaborate traditions.

However, traditions, no matter how strong, can hold up against the inevitable changes in societies. The Samurai warrior clan slowly slipped into decay and then into extinction, due mostly to the abolishing of feudalism in the late 1800s. As the Japanese began to centralize their government, they also combined the many small armies of the land into one national army. And without feudal lords to protect, who would need the services of a specialized "bodyguard?"

Still the Samurai lives in legend and in our imagination, today, as true warriors to be respected and admired. And along with the soldiers who used them, the Samurai weapons and armor continue to awe people due to both their artistic appeal as well as their practical uses.


The Katana

The Katana is a curved, single-edged Japanese sword traditionally used by the samurai. Pronounced [kah-tah-nah] in the kun'yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji, the word has been adopted as a loan word by the English language; as Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both "katanas" and "katana" are considered acceptable plural forms in English.

In battle, katana was typically paired with the wakizashi or tanto, a similarly made but shorter sword. Both were worn by members of the Japanese warrior class. The two weapons together were called the daisho, and represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai.

Katana with long blade was used for open combat, while the wakizashi or tanto with shorter blade was considered a side arm, more suited for stabbing and close quarters combat. Samurai may have used the shorter sword for decapitating beaten opponents when taking heads on the battlefield, and seppuku, a form of ritual suicide.


In Japanese, the scabbard for a katana is referred to as a saya, and the hand guard piece, often intricately designed as an individual work of art, is called the tsuba.

Other aspects of the mountings (koshirae), such as the menuki (decorative grip swells), habaki (blade collar and scabbard wedge), fuchi and kashira (handle collar and cap), kozuka (small utility knife handle), kogai (decorative skewer-like implement), saya lacquer, and ito (professional handle wrap, also named emaki), received similar levels of artistry.


Each blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the smith and the construction method. The most prominent is the middle ridge, or shinogi. The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer, sharper, and more fragile edge - or a more moderate shinogi near the center of the blade.

The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic. The tip can be long (okissaki), medium (chukissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-okissaki). In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important.

The kissaki (point) is not a "chisel-like" point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a "tanto point" found on true Japanese swords. A straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional Japanese kissaki.

Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge - though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.


A hole is drilled into the tang (nakago), called a mekugi-ana. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the tsuka and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping out. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. The sword smith's signature (mei) is placed on the nakago.

Some marks on the blade are purely aesthetic. Signatures and dedications written in kanji and engravings depicting gods, dragons, or other acceptable beings, called horimono.

Some are more practical. The presence of a "blood groove" or HI (also known as "fuller") does not actually allow blood to flow more freely from cuts made with the sword. There is no difference in ease of withdrawing a blade from the saya, or a reduction of the sucking sound, which many people believe was the reason for including this feature on commando knives in World War II.

Instead, the purpose is to lighten and strengthen the sword blade. The grooves are consistent in structure to an I beam, lessening the weight of the sword yet keeping structural integrity and strength. The basic design principle is that bending causes more stress in material near the edge or back of the blade than material in the middle, due to leverage. Blood grooves remove material from near this neutral axis, which is closer to the blade's spine if one edge is sharpened. This yields stiffer blades of a given weight, or lighter blades of a given stiffness.

Furthermore the grooves (always done on both sides of the blade) make a whistling sound when the sword is swung (the tachikaze). If the swordsman hears one whistle when swinging a grooved katana then that means that just one groove is making the whistle. Two whistles means that both the edge of the blade and a groove are making a whistle, and three whistles together (the blade edge and both grooves) would tell the swordsman that his blade is perfectly angled with the direction of the cut.

Wakizashi

Samurai always carried a second, shorter sword named a wakizashi. Carrying both of these swords gave the samurai a greater advantage over a swordsman armed with only one sword, as a wakizashi could be used to greater effect in close quarters, often used to deliver the killer blow to the enemy.



Tanto
Another bladed samurai weapon was the tanto, which is more or less a dagger, and used for very close quarters, and often concealed and used in surprise attacks.







Samurai Armor

Not an offensive weapon, but a defensive weapon, the armor of a samurai was especially designed to be as light and as free-moving as possible, which put the samurai at a great advantage over opponents wearing rigid suits of armor as their ability to move quickly and freely wasn’t impinged.

One can only imagine how fearsome a samurai in full armor must have looked to the unfortunate enemy.




Kama

Samurai certainly were inventive, and every implement with lethal capabilities was exploited. Such an example of this is in the kama – which is nothing more than a farming tool similar to the western world’s sickle. Left and right handed
Kama were made, and when used in battle they were usually used in tandem. (Kama training for martial arts purposes still exists today.)

The Kama is a Japanese farming implement, not dissimilar to a sickle, used for cutting crops. Samurai and various other martial artists have also made use of the Kama as a lethal weapon.

When used for farming, Kama will be used single handed (they come in right or left handed varieties) while the other hand holds the crops to be cut. Used as a weapon, Kama are invariably used as a pair.

Kama have a razor sharp tip and inner blade for their offence, but Kama can also be used as defensive weapons to block and disarm an attacker.

Like other lethal weapons, a great deal of skill is required to make effective use of Kama. Numerous martial arts still use Kama training to this day. As Kama training is difficult, normally blunt, wooden or rubber Kama are employed, which are much more forgiving than would be razor sharp Kama if a mistake was made.

Kama were extra effective as samurai weapons because of the confusion caused by having to watch, dodge and break the defence of two weapons being used at the same time.

Ever inventive, the Japanese created an even more complex and interesting weapon to overcome their enemy using the Kama as a basis, which became known as the Kusarigama.

Kusarihama

Kusarigama are interesting weapons which evolved from Kama; the farming sickle, to incorporate a length of chain with a weight at the end.

Kusarigama are a notoriously difficult weapon to master, but someone skilled in Kusarigamajutsu can use the weapon in a variety of ways, such as…

Swinging the weight on the chain to distract or strike an enemy before moving in with the blade.
Disarming an enemy at range by entangling their weapon.
Entangling the enemy themselves.
Striking a deadly or injuring blow to the enemy with the weight.
Holding the weight and swinging to strike the enemy with the bladed end.
Kusarigama certainly added a whole new dimension to the Kama, particularly greater range.

Of course, Kusarigama from different regions and periods vary, but the most prominent difference is some Kusarigama have the chain attached to the upper-end of the weapon (usually on a loop on the near side of the blade, or to a hold made in the near of the blade) or to the butt of the handle. Differences also occur in the length of the blade, the size and shape of the weight as well as chain length.

Fans

Who knows if the term ‘fanning the flames of war’ originated here. Fans were used for a variety of purposes, and by a variety of people throughout feudal Japan. Japanese samurai in particular were known to have carried a type of fan called a tessen.

A tessen was actually a steel fan
masquerading as a harmless paper fan, which the samurai would use for throwing, fending off projectiles, and even clubbing people with when closed. Sometimes, samurai would even create a dummy folded tessen which was in fact a solid steel club.

It may seem a little bizarre that a samurai who carried swords and knives would have use for a fan, but, they were actually carried into places which weapons weren’t permitted; so what we have is an early example of a concealed or disguised weapon.

posted by dojocenter @ 5:54 PM  
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