Everyone knows that the weapon of the Japanese samurai was a sword. But did they fight only with swords? It will probably be interesting to get acquainted with their arsenal in detail in order to better understand the traditions of ancient Japanese military art.
Let's start by comparing the arsenal of the Japanese samurai with the arsenal of a medieval knight from Western Europe. The difference in both the quantity and quality of their samples will immediately catch your eye. The samurai's arsenal, first of all, will be much richer. In addition, many types of weapons will turn out to be practically incomparable with European ones. In addition, what we believe to be true is in fact very often just another myth. For example, everyone has heard that the sword is the "soul of a samurai", since they wrote about it more than once. However, was he their main weapon, and if yes, then was it always so? Here is a knight's sword - yes, indeed, it has always been a symbol of chivalry, but with a samurai's sword everything is far from so simple.
First, it is not a sword, but a saber. We just traditionally call the samurai blade a sword. And secondly, he was not always his main weapon! And here it will be best to remember … the legendary Musketeers of Alexandre Dumas! They were called so because their main weapon was a heavy wick musket. However, the heroes of the novel use it only during the defense of the Saint-Gervais bastion. In the remaining chapters of the novel, they make do with swords. This is understandable. After all, it was the sword, and then its lightweight version - the sword, which were symbols of chivalry and belonging to the nobility in Europe. Moreover, even a peasant could wear a sword in Europe. Bought - and wear! But to own it, you had to study for a long time! And only the nobles could afford it, but not the peasants. But the musketeers did not fight with swords, and the same was the case with the Japanese samurai. The sword among them became especially popular in the years … of the world, that is, in the Edo era, after 1600, when from a military weapon it turned into a symbol of the samurai class. The samurai had no one to fight with, it was beneath their dignity to work, so they began to hone their fencing art, open fencing schools - in a word, cultivate the art of antiquity and promote it in every possible way. In real combat, the samurai, of course, also used swords, but at first they did it only as a last resort, and before that they used a bow!
Ancient Japanese verses said: “Bow and arrows! Only they are the stronghold of the happiness of the whole country! " And these lines clearly show how important it was for the Japanese precisely Kyudo - the art of archery. Only a noble warrior in ancient Japan could become an archer. His name was yumi-tori - "bow holder". The bow - yumi and arrow I - were sacred weapons among the Japanese, and the expression "yumiya no michi" ("the path of the bow and arrow") was synonymous with the word "bushido" and meant the same thing - "the way of the samurai." Even a purely peaceful expression "samurai family" and that literally when translated from Japanese means "family of bows and arrows", and the Chinese in their chronicles called the Japanese "Big bow".
In the Heike Monogatari (The Legend of Heike), well-known Japanese military chronicles of the 14th century, for example, it is reported that in 1185, during the Battle of Yashima, the commander Minamoto no Kuro Yoshitsune (1159-1189) fought desperately to return the bow he accidentally dropped into the water. The enemy's warriors tried to knock him out of the saddle, his own warriors begged to forget about such a trifle, but he fearlessly fought with the first, and did not pay attention to the second. He took out the bow, but his veterans began openly indignant at such recklessness: “It was terrible, sir. Your bow may be worth a thousand, ten thousand gold, but is it worth it to put your life at risk?"
To which Yoshitsune replied: “It's not that I didn't want to part with my bow. If I had a bow like my Uncle Tametomo's that only two or even three people could pull, I might even deliberately leave it to the enemy. But my bow is bad. If the enemies knew that I owned it, they would laugh at me: "Look, and this is the bow of the commander Minamoto Kuro Yoshitsune!" I would not like this. So I risked my life to get him back."
In "Hogan Monogatari" ("The Legend of the Hogan Era"), which tells about the hostilities of 1156, Tametomo (1149 - 1170), Yoshitsune's uncle, is described as an archer so powerful that the enemies, taking him prisoner, knocked him out chisel hands from the joints to make it impossible to shoot a bow in the future. The title of "archer" was an honorary title for any distinguished samurai, even when the sword and spear replaced the bow. For example, the warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519 - 1560) was nicknamed "The First Archer of the Eastern Sea."
The Japanese made their bows from bamboo, while, unlike the bows of other peoples who also used bamboo for this, they were very large and at the same time asymmetrical, since it was believed that with such a warrior it would be more convenient to aim and shoot. Moreover, such a bow was especially convenient for shooting from a horse. The length of the yumi usually exceeds the English "long bows", as it often reaches 2.5 meters in length. There are known cases that there were bows and even longer. For example, the legendary archer Minamoto (1139 - 1170) had a bow of 280 cm. Sometimes bows were made so strong that one person could not pull them. For example, yumi, intended for sea battles, had to pull seven people at once. Modern Japanese onions, as in ancient times, are made from bamboo, various woods and rattan fibers. The usual range of an aimed shot is 60 meters, well, in the hands of a master, such a weapon is capable of sending an arrow up to 120 meters. On some bows (at one end) the Japanese strengthened the arrowheads, as if at spears, which allowed this type of weapon, which was called yumi-yari ("bow-spear"), to combine the functions of a bow and a spear.
The arrow shafts were made of polished bamboo or willow, and the plumage was made of feathers. The yajiri tip was often a real work of art. They were made by special blacksmiths, and they often signed their arrowheads. Their shapes could be different, for example, bifurcated moon-shaped arrowheads were very popular. Each samurai in his quiver had a special "family arrow" on which his name was written. The killed on the battlefield was recognized by it in the same way as in Europe it was done by the emblem on the shield, and the winner took it as a trophy. Tsuru - the bowstring - was made from plant fibers and rubbed with wax. Each archer also had a spare bowstring, a gen, which was put into a quiver or wound on a special tsurumaki reel ring hanging from a belt.
Much kyudo, according to European concepts, lies beyond the scope of a reasonable understanding of reality and is inaccessible to a person with a Western mentality. So, for example, it is still believed that the shooter in this semi-mystical art plays only the role of an intermediary, and the shot itself is carried out, as it were, without his direct participation. At the same time, the shot itself was divided into four stages: greeting, preparation for aiming, aiming and launching an arrow (and the latter could be made while standing, sitting, from a knee). A samurai could shoot even while riding a horse, and not from a stationary position, but at full gallop, like the ancient Scythians, Mongols and North American Indians!
According to the rules, a bushi warrior received an arrow and a bow from his squire, got up and assumed the appropriate posture, demonstrating his dignity and complete self-control. At the same time, breathing was required in a certain way, which achieved "peace of mind and body" (doujikuri) and readiness to shoot (yugumae). Then the shooter stood to the target with his left shoulder, with a bow in his left hand. The legs were supposed to be placed on the length of the arrow, after which the arrow was placed on the bowstring and held with his fingers. Meanwhile, relaxing the muscles in his arms and chest, the samurai raised the bow over his head and pulled the string. It was necessary to breathe at this moment with the stomach, which allowed the muscles to relax. Then the shot itself was fired - hanare. The samurai had to concentrate all his physical and mental powers on the "great goal", striving for one goal - to unite with the deity, but by no means on the desire to hit the target and not on the target itself. Having fired a shot, the shooter then lowered the bow and calmly walked to his place.
Over time, yumi turned from a weapon of a noble rider into a weapon of a simple infantryman, but even then he did not lose respect for himself. Even the appearance of firearms did not diminish its importance, since the bow was faster and more reliable than the primitive, muzzle-loading arquebus. The Japanese knew crossbows, including Chinese, multiply charged dock, but they did not receive wide distribution in their country.
By the way, horses and riders were specially taught the ability to cross rivers with a turbulent current, and they had to shoot from a bow at the same time! Therefore, the bow was varnished (usually black) and dyed as well. Short bows, similar to Mongolian ones, were also well known to the Japanese, and they used them, but this was made difficult by the fact that Buddhists in Japan disgusted such things as hooves, sinews and horns of killed animals and could not touch them, and without this make a short but powerful enough bow is simply impossible.
But in Western Europe, the feudal lords did not recognize the bow as a military weapon. Already the ancient Greeks considered the bow to be a coward's weapon, and the Romans called it "cunning and childish." Charlemagne demanded that his soldiers wear a bow, issued the appropriate capitulatory orders (decrees), but he did little in this! A sports equipment for training muscles - yes, a hunting weapon - to get food for yourself in the forest, combining a pleasant pastime with a useful activity - yes, but to fight with a bow in your hands against other knights like himself - God forbid! Moreover, they used bows and crossbows in European armies, but … they recruited commoners for this: in England - yeoman peasants, in France - Genoese crossbowmen, and in Byzantium and the crusader states in Palestine - Muslim Turkopuls. That is, in Europe, the main weapon of the knight was originally a double-edged sword, and the bow was considered a weapon unworthy of a noble warrior. Moreover, horse archers in European armies were forbidden to shoot from a horse. From the noble animal, which the horse was considered, it was first necessary to get off, and only after that take up the bow! In Japan, it was the other way around - it was the bow from the very beginning that was the weapon of noble warriors, and the sword served for self-defense in close combat. And only when the wars in Japan stopped, and archery by and large lost all meaning, the sword came to the fore in the samurai's arsenal, in fact, which by this time had become an analogue of the European sword. Of course, not by his combat characteristics, but by the role he played in the then Japanese society.
And with spears it was about the same! Why does a warrior need a spear when he has a powerful and long-range bow at his service ?! But when spears in Japan became a popular weapon, there were so many types of them that it was simply amazing. Although, unlike the Western European knights, who used spears from the very beginning of their history, in Japan they received them only in the middle of the XIV century, when the infantry began to use them against samurai horsemen.
The length of the spear of the Japanese infantryman yari could be from 1, 5 to 6, 5 m. Usually it was a spear with a double-edged ho tip, however, spears with several points at once are known, with hooks and moon-shaped blades attached to the tip and retracted from it to the sides …
Using the yari spear, the samurai struck with his right hand, trying to pierce the enemy's armor, and with his left he simply held his shaft. Therefore, it was always varnished, and the smooth surface made it easy to rotate in the palms. Then, when long yari appeared, which became a weapon against the cavalry, they began to be used rather as a strike weapon. These spears were usually armed with the ashigaru foot warriors, reminiscent of the ancient Macedonian phalanx with long peaks, set one by one.
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The shapes of the points differed, as did their length, of which the longest reached 1 m. In the middle of the Sengoku period, the yari shaft extended to 4 m, but it was more convenient for riders to control spears with short shafts, and the longest yari remained the weapon of ashigaru infantrymen. Another interesting polearm, such as a pitchfork, was the sasumata sojo garama or futomata-yari with a metal tip like a slingshot, sharpened from the inside. It was often used by samurai police officers in order to apprehend intruders armed with a sword.
They also invented in Japan something resembling a garden trident ripper and called kumade ("bear paw"). In his images, you can often see a chain wrapped around the shaft, which must be attached to the wrist or armor so that it does not get lost in battle. This weapon curiosity was used when storming castles, during boarding, but in a field battle with its help it was possible to hook an enemy warrior by the horns-kuwagata on a helmet or by cords on armor and pull it off a horse or from a wall. Another version of the "bear's paw" was actually a club with outstretched fingers, entirely made of metal!
The police also used sode-garami ("tangled sleeve"), a weapon with hooks extending to the sides of the shaft, with which they hooked on the sleeves of a criminal so that he could not use his weapon. The way of working with it is simple to the point of genius. It is enough to approach the enemy and forcefully poke him with the tip of the sode-garami (it does not matter whether he will be injured or not!) So that his hooks with ends bent like fishhooks dig into his body.
It was in this way that assassins, robbers and violent revelers were captured during the Edo period. Well, in battle, the sode-garami tried to hook the enemy by the lacing on the armor and pull it off the horse to the ground. So the presence of a large number of cords on Japanese armor was a double-edged sword. In certain cases, for their owner, it was simply deadly! The navy also used something similar to him - the uchi-kagi grappling hook.
Drawing by A. Sheps. The author expresses his gratitude to the company "Antiques of Japan" for the materials provided.
