Mitchell's+Samurai

= Samurai = Samurai were people that believed in bushido. Bushido teaches that that katana is the samurai's soul and a samurai is a samurai is completely dependent on his weapon for fighting. Katana are the sword that was the weapon of choise of samurai. The samurai thought their katana to be so precious that they would give them names and treat them as part of their family giving it much care. Another cared weapon is the wakazashi given to thirteen-year-old boys on their birthday along with an adult name and a katana. A wakazashi is often called a samurai's honor weapon and taken in homes when other weapons are left outside. A samurai would often sleep with his wakazashi under his pillow. The katana and wakazashi were often called the daisho (big and small), small being wakazashi and large being katana.



Samurai also got other weapons than the katana and wakazashi. The tanto was was often given as a replacement for the wakazashi in daisho. If a samurai fail to follow his orders he would commit a ritualized suicide called seppuku where the samurai would disembowel themselves. Samurai were also trained in the art of the yumi (longbow). This bow helped the Japanese win many wars even after then invention of firearms. They were often made of bamboo, wood, and leather and had an accuracy range of 50 meters and a range of 100 meters if accuracy was not a problem. In the 15th century samurai also started to used spears more often than swords in hand to hand combat. These spears were called yari.





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For more information on samurai go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai

For more information on daisho go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daish%C5%8D

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