3 ms·

Of course manga heroes are more about romantic ideals than historical accuracy, but even so, you can't really generalize about all samurai any more than you can

Of course manga heroes are more about romantic ideals than historical accuracy, but even so, you can't really generalize about all samurai any more than you can generalize about all European knights. The samurai class existed in one form or another for around a millennium. I rather doubt that they all considered it a "disgrace" to draw their sword.

PakG1 9y ago
If it was a disgrace to draw the sword, I imagine that swordsmanship and sword styles would not be so highly regarded, and there wouldn't have been entire dojos devoted to specific styles. If that were really the case, I imagine there would have been more dojos devoted to archery and spear styles, and those would have been held in higher regard than sword styles. Perhaps that actually was the case, but "popular" historical accounts seem to say otherwise?
krapp 9y ago
>The samurai class existed in one form or another for around a millennium. I rather doubt that they all considered it a "disgrace" to draw their sword. That's fair. I was just trying to imply that the samurai (and Western cowboy, and European knight, and even modern yakuza and mafia) all present a romantic facade in popular culture that wasn't and isn't necessarily reflected in practical reality. Apparently even the concept of Bushido is a cultural retcon[0,1] as is, almost everything related to ninja[2,3]. Some young Japanese hoodlums might buy into the hype, but I don't necessarily trust that anecdata as a basis to make some general statement about Japanese culture mistrusting guns because they're less honorable. [0]https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-UePD6Wp5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-UePD6Wp5A [3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR43l77jlpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR43l77jlpY

PakG1 9y ago

If it was a disgrace to draw the sword, I imagine that swordsmanship and sword styles would not be so highly regarded, and there wouldn't have been entire dojos devoted to specific styles. If that were really the case, I imagine there would have been more dojos devoted to archery and spear styles, and those would have been held in higher regard than sword styles. Perhaps that actually was the case, but "popular" historical accounts seem to say otherwise?

krapp 9y ago

>The samurai class existed in one form or another for around a millennium. I rather doubt that they all considered it a "disgrace" to draw their sword. That's fair. I was just trying to imply that the samurai (and Western cowboy, and European knight, and even modern yakuza and mafia) all present a romantic facade in popular culture that wasn't and isn't necessarily reflected in practical reality. Apparently even the concept of Bushido is a cultural retcon[0,1] as is, almost everything related to ninja[2,3]. Some young Japanese hoodlums might buy into the hype, but I don't necessarily trust that anecdata as a basis to make some general statement about Japanese culture mistrusting guns because they're less honorable. [0]https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-UePD6Wp5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-UePD6Wp5A [3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR43l77jlpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR43l77jlpY