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I have a (possibly) dumb question. Did the Japanese also have a prohibition on the ownership on easy to use ranged weapons for peasants the same way the Europea
by norea-armozel 11y ago
I have a (possibly) dumb question. Did the Japanese also have a prohibition on the ownership on easy to use ranged weapons for peasants the same way the Europeans did (specifically crossbows)?
- dragontamer 11y agoI'm not an expert here... but I've never heard of Japanese using crossbows at all. Which is strange, because China and other Far East nations definitely had exotic crossbows (Chu-ke nu / Repeating Crossbows), but I guess they never really made it to Japan. This Stack Exchange seems to confirm my assumption: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/22806/were-crossbows-used-by-the-japanese http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/22806/were-crossb... One answer notes that the wood in Japan made it difficult to build crossbows. The wood used in Japanese Longbows has distinctive properties... but does not have the right properties for a compact handheld crossbow. Seige Crossbows (OYumi) were used, since the large size got around the material issues with Japanese wood. But handheld crossbows had issues getting constructed there.
- norea-armozel 11y agoWhat about muskets? Was the peasantry prohibited from owning firearms?
- dragontamer 11y agoFirearms were expensive for a very long period of time. I doubt the peasantry would be able to afford it. Japanese did use muskets in war... but "peasant weapons" were typically simple farming tools (hoe, kama, kunai etc. etc.)