Girl's Behavior 
Guy's Behavior 
Flirting 
Dating 
Relationships 
Fashion & Beauty 
Health & Fitness 
Marriage & Weddings 
Shopping & Gifts 
Technology & Internet 
Break Up & Divorce 
Education & Career 
Entertainment & Arts 
Family & Friends 
Food & Beverage 
Hobbies & Leisure 
Other 
Religion & Spirituality 
Society & Politics 
Sports 
Travel 
Trending & News 
Recently there have been two groups that have been slugging it out. It’s the HEMA(Historical European martial arts) fans and bujutsu aficionados. The HEMA like to think that traditional European martial arts and weapons are superior to all in the world. While the Bujutsu aficionados defend the reputation of katanas. I’ve briefly talked about these two groups before but In this take I’ll be going into greater depth to explain the fallacies these two groups usually show. First I’ll give some trivia about the Samurai and European warfare.
1.) Why the Katana is what it is
The Katana has a complex history in both how it was made and why it was made that way. There are many things many people don’t know about the Katana, here are those things.
Japan almost never fought foreign enemies: Due to Japan being a isolated island nation, Japan rarely had any foreign contact. The only foreign enemies that the Samurai actually fought were the Mongols and a alliance of Korean and Chinese soldiers. Other than that, the Samurai mostly fought amongst each other since Japan for most of it’s early history was divided between clans. In other words the Japanese didn’t have the time or a reason to actually change their warfare and improve their weapons because they never expected conflict with foreign enemies and were too busy at war with each other.
Resource issues: Even though Japan has always been able to produce abundant food and textiles, lumber, stone and straw, Japan is known as a country that has very little natural resources(Iron, natural gas, coal and copper) because it’s a island nation. Which is why Japan took longer to catch up with the West. The little iron they have is of low quality and had to be turned into “Tamahagane”(Jewel steel). Japanese blacksmiths are considered the best black smiths in the world not because of the Katana but because they can take low quality iron and Build decent blades and tools out of it. Even today, some of the best Kitchen utensils come from Japan.
Smithing tamahagane: Even though Japanese blacksmiths could make decent blades, there were still some issues with their iron(Tamahagane). Most tamahagane had high carbon levels(3-4.5%) which meant brittle blades. Nothing could be done about the carbon levels but in order to remove impurities they would fold the steel. There were a few occasions where the tamahagane had low carbon(1%) and was able to be turned into durable Katanas but those were exceptions. However, nowadays as a result of importing high quality iron, the Japanese blacksmiths are able to produce high quality tools and traditional blades.
While most Katana blades were made out of poor quality iron, the masamune and muramasa series of blades were known for being nearly unbreakable but those were exceptions.
2.) Samurai
Some people tend to underestimate the Samurai, yet when you ask them what they know about the Samurai, they simply say that the Samurai used katanas. That’s all they know about the Samurai.
Samurai training starts at 3 years old: Samurai would start training with wooden swords at three years old, as they got older, they would learn new skills such as Hand to Hand combat(Jujutsu), military strategies and skills with other weapons.
Samurai arsenal: Most people assume that the only weapon a Samurai ever used was a Katana. The truth is, there were many other weapons the samurai used and most shocking of all, the Katana was not their primary weapon, it was actually the Yari(long spear). The samurai also used daggers, bows, warhammers etc. The two weapons people seem to not know about are the Tekkan and Hachiwari. These two dull heavy swords were used against armored enemies which relied on blunt force rather than cutting power.
Hand to Hand combat of the Samurai: While nobody knows who created Jujutsu, it’s heavily implied and very probable due to historical records that it originated as a long lost Japanese martial art called “tegoi” and eventually evolved into Jujutsu. What is known is that the Samurai where the ones who refined it into Jujutsu by adding new concepts necessary to defeat armored and or larger opponents.
The samurai started training in Jujutsu at a very young age, this martial art was used as a last resort if a Samurai lost his or her weapons on the battlefield. The Samurai would still be able to subdue a enemy even though the enemy was armored.
Jujutsu relied mostly on grappling(Joint locks, chokes and throws) because striking is ineffective against armored opponents. It applied the laws of physics and required mostly technique, skill, fluidity, agility, flexibility and only little strength. For these reasons it is a very effective martial art against larger and or armored enemies that is still practiced today but now has a alternative called Brazilian Jiujitsu that is a descendant art of traditional Japanese Jujutsu.
3.) Discrepancies about the Samurai
There is a certain group of people nowadays that tries to stain the image of the Samurai by over generalizations over some things that only applied to certain Samurai. For example, they want you to think they were all homosexuals(not saying anything is wrong with homosexuals) but it’s clearly exaggerated since no records claim that all Samurai were gay.
female samurai: Many people assume that the Samurai was a “male only” military class but the truth is that there were some female Samurai, while rare, it’s still biased to neglect their existence. One of these was known as empress Jingu. There were also some female soldiers called Onna-Bugeisha(female martial artist) they fought alongside male Samurai in battles.
Not all were gay or bisexual: While it’s true that there were certain homosexual/bisexual Samurai and Japan never had laws that banned or promoted homosexuality, it’s far fetched to claim all Samurai were gay/bisexual since homosexuality/bisexuality is rare. The important thing to know is that Homosexuality in Japan didn’t really catch on until the 7th century when Buddhism was introduced into Japan. Records imply that Buddhism technically introduced homosexuality into Japan which is implied to have cause fictional stories(which some mistake as true stories) of homosexuality to be written and real life homosexual behavior to become a reality in Japan. Samurai were frequently at war with each other, so they were constantly around the same sex, which some people believe can cause people to delevop some homosexual/bisexual behaviors. It wasn’t till the Edo period when homosexuality started to make it’s way into the Samurai class but that in no way implies they were all gay. In fact Geisha primarily offered their services(sexual and non sexual) to the Samurai.
Short stature: Some people nowadays like to put too much emphasis on tall stature and brute strength yet forget about other factors tat determine whether a person can take care of themselves in a fight, such as fluidity, skill, flexibility, reflexes and endurance. Most Samurai were of short stature(5’0”-5’6”) with a few exceptions being around 5’8”-5’10”. The tallest Samurai confirmed to have existed was a man named Benkei who is said to have been a little over 2 meters tall(between 6’6” and 6’9”). He was a great warrior but still lost against a smaller Samurai named Minamoto no Yoshitune because Minamoto’s smaller frame made him more fluid with his techniques against the towering Benkei.
4.) Why European weapons were what they were
Now that you have got some idea of what the Samurai where like, I will know discuss European weapons.
Access to better resources: One of the reasons why Europeans could produce durable weapons was because they had access to better iron as a result of having more landmass than Japan. The other reason was trade, Europeans would trade resources amongst each other and lastly conquests, the Vikings were known for their raids, which allowed the Vikings to acquire resources.
War with each other: Europeans had no choice but to create new weapons in order to one up each other due to conflicts between kingdoms.
5.) Types of European weapons
There are many weapons European warriors used. Here are some named weapons and classed weapons.
Zweihander(German longsword): A Medieval European weapon that is well known among the HEMA community. It was mostly used by German mercenaries called Landknecht.
Ulfberht: A Viking sword that was said to be “unbreakable” in battle. Some say it’s the greatest sword Europe had to offer.
Cestus: A type of fist weapon used in pankration fights and gladiator fights.
Various daggers: There are many types of daggers and knives that originated in Europe.
Rapier: A sword of Spanish origin commonly used in fencing, it has a very thin blade but is very light allowing the user to swing a great speed.
battleaxe: A large weapon most notably used by the Vikings. It was also a cultural object of the corded ware culture.
6.) Vikings
These individuals are usually stereotypically depicted as hulking hairy barbaric men who swing wildly with their weapons. The reason for this is because the enemies of the Vikings depicted them in a biased manner. Historically the weren’t exactly barbarians.
Disciplined: Vikings actually were disciplined, just like the Samurai, they trained from a very young age in warfare.
Didn’t wear horned helmets: there’s no evidence that the Vikings actually wore horned helmets.
hand to hand combat: Vikings also had a hand to hand combat system known as “Glima”. It’s a martial art that originated in Norway and is a hybrid of multiple types of Scandinavian folk wrestling(Lausatök, Hryygspenna and Brokartök) It was a type of grappling art used by the Vikings that is still practiced today.
Female Viking warriors: A recent discovery has proven that there were indeed female Viking warriors. Unfortunately it is being politicized but many movies video games and shows have already shown similar concepts. Germanic folklore does mention “shield maidens” which were basically women who took part in combat.
Viking height: Vikings weren’t 7 foot 500lb muscle bound monsters. They were actually on average around 5’7” while the females were around 5’2”.
7.) Knights
Often compared with the Samurai, due to similar structure and class.
Disciplined: Due to being associated with chivalry, it’s no doubt that knights were very disciplined, just like the Vikings and Samurai, they also trained at a young age.
Hand to Hand combat: German knights most likely learned a old German martial art known as Kampfringen. It involved both grappling and striking, it also features mounted grappling that can be used by one horse rider against another.
8.) Illogical arguments HEMA and Budo aficionados use
Both sides often try to make a pint against each other but rely on illogical arguments to do so.
Comparing a katana to various European weapons: The one mistake HEMA fanatics do out of obsession is constantly compare the Katana with various European weapons. For example, a Katana is a Sabre and is curved which means it works well for cavalry. While a zweihander is a two handed long sword that is made with higher quality resources and is more of a polearm which means comparing these two weapons like comparing a sniper rifle with a sub machine gun.
Samurai vs Viking/knight: People of both sides are always debating on who would win. Obviously the HEMA aficionados claim the Viking or Knight would win while the Budo aficionados claim the Samurai would win. It’s not that simple, those are clearly biases. It’s not as simple as saying the Viking/Knight has a shield the Viking/knight would win, or the Samurai has good aim with now, the Samurai would win.
There are many other factors, such as who is more skilled, who makes more mistakes, who gets tired faster, who got distracted, who is faster who has better reflexes, Who is more fluid with their techniques and if there is any fear in either warrior. Size is a factor but being larger isn’t always going to grant a victory. A larger person will almost always be stronger than a smaller person while a smaller person will almost always be more fluid than a larger person but both the smaller and larger person must also rely on skill. In other words victory is determined by the individual not by size alone or the type of warrior.
Armor and shield of the Viking/knight: Some HEMA aficionados claim that the armor and shield of the Knight or Viking would make the Viking impervious to the Samurai’s offense. As I mentioned above, The samurai had various weapons that worked well against armor such as the Ōtsuchi, Tekkan, Kanabo and Hachiwari which could deliver blunt force and knock a armored person off their feet.
Katana: By now you should know that the Katana is mostly surrounded by fiction, so some Bujutsu aficionados still think the Katana can cut through anything. While the Katana can indeed cut through flesh and bone fairly easily, it can’t cut through metal armor including chain mail.
European weapons vs Katana: A lot of videos on YouTube that puts European weapons against other weapons mostly features Longsword vs Katana, Zweihander vs Katana, Claymore vs katana. There are also so many videos where HEMA aficionados just trash talk the Katana and videos where the Katana is overhyped. Why not try something new? For example a Jian vs a Rapier, or a Dao vs knightly sword etc?
Same hype different subject: Some Hema aficionados are overhyping vikings and Knights the same way the Katana was has been overhyped.
overall, both sides have good sources and logic to support their side of the debate but they frequently use illogical arguments to support their claims.
Most Helpful Opinions