The Japanese Samurai versus The European Knight

By Handmadesword.com PR Dept.
www.handmadesword.com

Handmadesword.com, the wholesale Japanese sword House All rights reserved

For six centuries the medieval knight dominated the battlefield and
influenced the Western world greatly. The armored, mounted warrior, born in
Middle Ages, revolutionized warfare and became the foundation of the new
political structure known as feudalism. The Church put the medieval knight to
the ultimate test-the First Crusade of 1095. The Church, which Christianized
almost all of the knights, gave them a very high status in society, one that was
sought after even by kings and princes. In the end, the legendary knights of the
Middle Ages were lost in a world in which there was gunpowder, muskets,
cannons, national states and so on.

No soldier or warrior has ever been around as long as the knight. They
fought on the battlefields in Europe for over six to eight hundred years. Slowly,
the knight rose his social status from that of the peasant to nobility. They were
supposed to follow a code of honor and rules for a knight known as chivalry,
which was actually not very well followed.

In England and in America, the popular image of the knight is mostly English,
thanks mostly to the story of king Arthur. Real knights, though, first originated in
France and weren’t even known in England for a long time. The king Arthur tale
was about the political countryside of post-Roman Britain.

Basically, there were three main stages of the knight: first, the emergence of
the armored, mounted soldier in the ninth and tenth centuries; second, the
development of knighthood in the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries as
an institution, and the age of the makers of the King Arthur legend; and third,
the fall of knighthood as a result of the rise of new social forces in the late
Middle Ages and early modern times-like colonization in the new world, and the
discovery of guns, cannons, and bombs.
 The early knights lived in castles like the early fortress that was built in
Rudesheim in Germany during the 11 th-century. In the fifth century, the
Western half of the Roman Empire was destroyed by the invading Germanic
tribes. Powerful local lords and war chiefs offered protection to the peasants in
return for service, which gave rise to a feudal society.

In the late eight century, the Holy Roman Empire was created by
Charlemagne, king of the Franks. To build and defend his new empire, he
needed thousands of well trained and prepared soldiers. At the top of his army
were armored cavalry men which were pretty much the first knights of Medieval
Europe. The armies led by Charlemagne and his allies were the only ones who
were able to stop the invading Vikings who raided northwest Europe in the
ninth and tenth centuries. The heavily armored cavalry of Charlemagne’s
Empire led his armies to victory against the Carolingian and Ottoman
emperors; they were also able to move quickly and easily. The early knights
fought with spears, swords, and sometimes a bow and arrows. Their armor
was usually an iron helmet, body armor, and a large wooden shield. These
equipments were so effective that they hardly changed for 300 years! However,
all the things that a knight had were very expensive to make and to acquire.
The knights had to live all over Western Europe if they wanted to defend every
area from invaders. Only they alone could defend the people of Europe from
people like the Vikings, Magyar Hungarians, Saracans and Muslims from the
south , and others who almost destroyed the huge and wealthy empire that
Charlemagne made.

The development of feudalism helped sustain the knight class. A local lord,
noble, or other leader would grant land to a knight in return for his military
service and loyalty. Peasants, then, would get protection from the knights and
local lords, but they had to work hard to serve them by feeding them with their
crops and by paying them a lot of taxes. This kind of feudal system raised the
role of the knight from mere soldiers to members of a new and powerful ruling
class.

The Normans are known by many historians as the most effective of the
‘new knights’-they were descendants of the Vikings who settled in Normandy in
northwest France. The Normans learned a lot about warfare from
Charlemagne's armies and won many battles through careful planning and
daring attacks. They made states in southern Italy and Sicily, and conquered a
lot of Great Britain. Many Normans also served in the Byzantine armies, and
when Pope Urban II called for a crusade against the Muslims, Norman knights
were at the forefront of the great armies that went to the Holy Land.

The arms and armor used by knights and other Western European fighting
men changed a lot during the Middle Ages. However, from the earliest days,
armor almost always had more than one layer. The first layer would be a pair of
loose breaches (see picture on next page) and a shirt. Over the breeches the
knight would wear hose, which were like two separate tight-fitting trouser legs.
Over his hose, a 12 th-century knight wore mail leggings, called chausses.
Next, to cushion his armor, he would put on a padded coat called a gambeson.
On top of this would be a tunic (kind of like a robe), which was very long and
used as a mark of wealth and status. The knight’s armor consisted of chain
mail-sheets of interlocking iron rings-mostly worn over some sort of quilted
padding that absorbed the shock of a blow. As his main piece of armor, the
chain mail shirt was called a hauberk, which usually had a chain mail hood
called a coif. The hauberk was really weird because over this the knight would
wear a short surcoat known as gipons, where it would really hard to wear in the
summer because it would get very, very hot. The knight also had a helmet,
called a bastinet, to protect his head, and a wooden shield. He was armed with
a heavy sword that was used for cutting mainly, and not stabbing. Some were
equipped with long lances, like those long swords like weapons that would be
seen in tournaments where two knights would charge at each other while on
horses. In the 14 th-century, the lower layers of clothing and armor were similar
to those worn earlier, but the knight had extra protection on his arms, elbows,
legs, knees and feet. The strongest part of the armor was now the plate armor,
which was made of metal scales and plate covered in decorative cloth.

The knight’s most important possession was his special war-horse, the
“destrier”, which is special because it was born and raised for the sole purpose
of aiding a knight in battle. Without this expensive animal, the knight wouldn’t
be considered a full member of the elite members that followed the cavalry. In
training, the knight practiced using weapons while riding this large animal, and
war-horses were looked after carefully and were so valuable that some wealthy
kings even dressed them in armor before going to battle.

In battle, a closely packed group of knights on horseback walked into the

attack, then lowered their lances to make their final charge. The sight of the
dozens of knights riding side by side, with the blades of their lances was very
frightening.

When charging, a knight almost stood on his stirrups (foot supports), but was
held steady by the raised back of his tall, wooden frame saddle, which gripped
his hips. He held his heavy lance, which was usually over twelve feet long, in a
couched position (almost sitting down), as it was locked tight under his armpit.
This meant that it could only be moved just a little bit to the left or to the right
when he aimed at his target, but it gave him a very firm grip at the lance.
Basically, the knight, with his horse and lance, became totally unstoppable. It
was really hard for another knight to get knocked off his horse, since his feet
were almost ‘latched; on to the stirrups; but once he got knocked off, it was
almost impossible for him to get back on during a battle.
 Knights were the leaders and the backbone of most western European
armies. They were supported by the squires, who were young men that fought
only in an emergency, and professional cavalry sergeants, including highly paid
archers. There were also thousands of highly equipped foot soldiers from
towns, or peasants who were forced to leave their homes in the country, who
had little or no training.

To win a battle, the knights of one army usually had to defeat the knights of
another army. The other soldiers tried to protect their own knights. One of the
most important battle tactics was conrois. This was a close formation of knights
designed to charge at enemies that were just standing around, and other
cavalry, and was supposed to catch the enemy off guard. It was almost
impossible to stop a conrois once it was started, and once the knight split up, it
was really hard to get them back together again. So, if the tactic was going to
be effective, the knights had to knockout their enemy in one huge blow (doesn’t
it remind you of the legend of the green giant earlier?).

At first, the knights, and men in general treated women very poorly, or more
like ‘possessions’. But when the crusaders returned to Europe, their view of
women changed after seeing how the Muslims treated their women. Courtly
love, and love songs from troubadours became very popular. This type of love
between the knight and his ‘lady’ wasn’t very sexual, but very mature and
romantic; the woman would give the knight a handkerchief that the knight
would take with him to the battle field and fight with the cloth on his arm of
tucked away somewhere safe.

There were many reasons why knighthood declined towards the end of the
Middle Ages. Archers began to replace knights as the ‘elite on the battle fields,
while new weapons like steel-armed crossbows, gunpowder, cannons, and
eventually handguns made the heavily armored knight seem weak. The main
cause of the knights’ decline though was that western European was changing
and the feudal knight was now outdated.

Although fighting men played an important role in Japanese history from the
nation’s beginning, the class of warriors known as samurai did not emerge until
the twelfth century A.D. By that time, many small chiefdoms were unified into a
central state that was headed by an emperor or empress who was believed to
be a godly figure. In his study of early Japan, Jonathan Norton Leonard writes:
When landholders found they could no longer depend on royal officials for
protection against outlaws or predatory neighbors, they armed their sons and
retainers [servants] and put themselves under the leadership of chiefs
renowned for fighting ability…To gain additional strength for defense or
offense, the warrior-chiefs of each small region banded together and offered
their services to more important lords. In return for this support the lords
agreed to protect the minor chiefs and their followers and to share with them
any booty that they might win. The lords in turn pledged allegiance to still loftier
noble men who were members of some ancient and mighty family, or at least
claimed to be.

This was very similar to the feudal system in medieval Europe where the
lords protected the vassals in return for their services. In medieval Japan, the
relationship between warriors and clan chiefs was very intense. An outcome of
this feudal arrangement was a strict code of warrior behavior emerged known
as Bushido (way of the warrior), which called upon warrior to sacrifice his life
for his master. Such an act was thought of as the highest from of honor and
respect. It was during the twelfth century that these warriors became known as
samurai, meaning “those who serve.” Although the samurai were mainly
soldiers, many excelled in the arts and philosophy. In these pursuits, the
samurai normally showed the same type of discipline that characterized their
martial skills.

Throughout the centuries dominated by many different shoguns (military

leaders) and daimyos (ruling families), the samurai evolved from servants to
military rulers (similar to hoe the medieval knight rose in status). However, the
samurai weren’t one single group of fighter-there were many different ranks
and jobs, where a complex system of subclasses existed. At the top were
wealthy chieftains, while at the other end of the scale were poor samurai barely
made a living. In between the two levels, here were many different social levels
with different lifestyles, privileges and responsibilities.

Most of the stories about samurai that go out to the public as movies, books
or plays and art depict these legendary warriors in history as ferocious men
with extraordinary swordsmanship, battling, mastering of the martial arts, and
the strict code of discipline by which they lived and followed. Although these
views show accurate accounts of samurai I a particular time of their ‘evolution’,
there are many other phases of the samurai- seven centuries total! Not many
people know, for example, that the first samurai were mounted archers, more
skilled with bows and arrows than with swords!

What I found even more surprising was that many samurai warriors became
scholars, poets, artists and philosophers who like to make fine handwriting in
ink and brush (calligraphy), flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.

Horses and bows were very important in Japan (as in medieval Europe), and
were used in warfare from very early times, as shown in statues and artifacts
found in tombs of early chieftains. Samurai eventually became very skilled in
using the horse. Because their main weapon at this time was the bow and
arrow, early samurai exploits were spoken of in Japanese war tales as the
“Way of the Horse and Bow.” The quickness and force with an archer could
shoot an arrow was amazing! A bunch of arrows made of mainly wood with
poison tipped points were worn on a warrior’s right side so he could quickly
take out an arrow and fire it as he galloped along on his horse.

Although they weren’t as important as the bow, swords of various sizes and
types were also part of a samurai’s armory in the early days. They were mostly
for fighting close up with an enemy. Many different kinds of spears were used
also. The naginata, one of them, was a curved blade fixed to the end of a pole
several feet long. This was known as a woman’s spear because samurai girls
were taught to use it from an early age. That was one main difference between
the medieval knights and the samurai of Japan-women fought among the
samurai as well as men, even though most of them weren’t as respected as
the males. A device called the kumade that looks like a long-handled garden
rake was used to grab the clothing or helmet of enemy horsemen and to take
them off their horse.

Common samurai archers had armor made of lamellae pieces laced together
with colorful cords. The lightweight armor allowed for greater freedom of
movement and was light, so it was easier on the horse, which could even move
faster. The knights of Europe though, wore a lot of armor, and eventually they
wore an entire ‘metal’ suit, which gave them a lot of trouble in movement, and
was much heavier than what the samurai wore-plus, it must have literally killed
some of them during the summer due to so much heat; after all, the medieval
knight wore a lot of clothing, as you saw earlier.

As political events changed throughout the centuries, so did weapons and

armor. One of these changes was the shift from bow and arrows to spears and
swords as the main weapons of the samurai. Changes in armor followed as
well. Some mounted archers wearing heavy armor were very effective in wide-
open places, but as time went by, the samurai had to fight more on rough,
wooded and mountainous terrain, where it was hard to stay on a horse. The
bow and arrow was slowly abandoned, along with heavy armor. Light, flexible
armor that gave more freedom of movement when fighting with swords was
developed. Later, in peaceful times, armor further evolved into very ornate
dress uniforms now recognized as works of art.

As the sword and spear became more popular, disputes came up among
warriors about which one was more effective in combat. Unlike swords, which
were used mainly to slash or pierce the enemy (if the warrior could get close
enough), heavy spears were better for knocking down armored warriors from
their horses. Overtime, samurai swords became prized possessions of a
samurai warrior, and were considered to be the soul of a samurai’s being.
During the peaceful Tokugawa era, only samurai were allowed to wear two
swords- one with a long, curved blade called a katana, and another shorter one
called a wakizashi. Samurai were very, very sharp. A katana could literally cut a
person in half when used by a warrior trained in the art of swordsmanship. Fine
swords were not only effective weapons, but works of art as well. With
beautifully decorated handles and coverings. Before being used in battle, new
swords were often tested on the bodies of criminals. Sometimes new swords
were used to carry out the execution itself.

More changes in traditional combat tactics occurred among the samurai as a

result of Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century. During two invasions from
China’s Kublai Khan, the samurai clans worked together to drive away the
Mongols. However, the Japanese samurai were at a disadvantage because
they were used to fighting one on one combat whereas the Mongols fought as
organized units. The samurai were able to hold off the Mongols thanks to the
forces of Mother Nature.

So as time went by, the size of Japanese armies increased, and a new style
of warfare called ashigaru (“light feet”) came about, where disciplined troop
movements and imaginative strategies were used.

Life among the samurai changed drastically, but the strict discipline and
training that turned them into fighting men continued in peacetime as well.