I might take him seriously if his spelling wasn't so bad Or maybe the blood rush is making his keyboard all swirly (is this even a real word?)! Col
Just a correction, The characters Bu Do dont tranlate literarly into the "Martial Way". They are both Chinese characters that translate more correctly to: Bu - "Against many spears" Do - "Way" Budo arts dont just focus on the external abilitys but also try to hone you as a person. But more importantly Samurai kick Ninja ass! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Exactly, us Samurai types are just generally better than those Ninja peasants. lol. Just joking. *Wonders if he will wake up in the morning.*
Do you know what the word "samurai" meant? Servant. Hmm... I'd rather be a fee range ninja, than a servant samurai.
There is an old proverb that says, "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." I believe that that is somewhat relevant here. But not to take anything away from the samurai, really. This is all in fun. They were a great group of warriors. I believe that their code of bushido limited their capabilities in combat, however. Also, samurai might have had honor, but many abused their power and committed many unspeakable acts. For instance, samurai would test out the cutting ability of their new sword on innocent villagers. Ninja typically only killed when necessary. It's the whole idea of harmony once again. I would still bet on the ninja to win in a true battle, however. Samurai just couldn't handle guerilla warfare tactics that the ninja often employed. No poisons or dislocations. Just ambushing and true combat. Oh yeah!
Actually, that's a bit of Hollywood sneaking in. The typical sword carried by the ninja were katana either a) handed down thru the family b) taken from dead/defeated foes or c) stolen. The ninja-to, short straight edge sword was a utilitarian tool mass produced and meant to be discarded if neccesary. It was not the main fighting sword. Personally, I don't think it could have handled the stress of going up against a katana, my opinion though, take it for what it's worth.
I agree with you Brad. As I stated somewhere before on these boards, the ninja would often search battlefields for the discarded katana of dead samurai. I also don't believe that a ninja-to would hold up to a katana as it was no where near as finely crafted. The ninja simply could not afford such things. So anyway, yes, the sword used mostly by the ninja for battle were the katana of the samurai, or a katana passed down through the family, though I think it would be rare that a ninja family would have possession of such a thing; unless of course it was first stolen/found and then handed down. Well, that's all for now. Have a good one.
Ninja usually stole swords from fallen Samurai, or other places as you guys mentioned, and modified them to make Shinobigatana, which were generally shorter bladed katana with lengthened tsuka. The reason for the shortened blade was for quick drawing, and the tsuka was lengthened for reasons that i dont know (maybe you guys can help? ). In Shinobi No Mono, they showed them using the Shinobigatana in conjunction with the Kusari Gama, though im not sure if its the actual reason for it being lengthened. Here are a couple of examples of Shinobigatana. http://www.geociities.com/kage_no_mono/shinobigatana.jpg http://www.geociities.com/kage_no_mono/shinobigatana2.jpg If the links dont work, copy and paste them into a new IE window.
Hmm....... Well it would help if i spelt "geocities" right. Whoops........ http://www.geocities.com/kage_no_mono/shinobigatana.jpg http://www.geocities.com/kage_no_mono/shinobigatana2.jpg
Keep in mind, Shinobi no Mono, though Hatsumi was technical advisor, was still just a movie. Entertainment. I doubt that that swords collected from fallen samurai were shortened, after all, these were'are some of the best blades ever produced. The ninja-to was usually made out of a single piece of forged steel. Scrap would be a likely source, because these swords were meant to be expendable. Now, if a katana was found and it was broken, then I could see it being modified i.e. shortened. You see a regular sized scabbard, you think regular size blade not suspecting the bottom of scabbard contained a metsubishi of some type. As for the tsuka, I don't know either. Best guess? Allowed for more freedom in using. Keep in mind all parts of the sword can and should be used as a weapon. I'll have to research this a bit more.
Brad's absolutely right about what he has said. No one in their right mind would break down a fully functional katana to make a ninja-to. Only broken blades would have been used for this, if at all. It is true that the ninja-to was expendable and Brad's comment about it being forged of scrap metal is pretty accurate from what I've read. The ninja-to was a tool. For a weapon, the ninja would rely on the intact katana that they found on the battlefields or wherever they might have obtained one. I have heard, however, that longer tsuka were, in fact, preferrable to shorter tsuka. If katana were modified to make the tsuka longer, I don't know, but certainly katana weren't turned into ninja-to unless already broken.
alrught i didnt even read the second page so if someone already cleared this up srry the samurai was a class of warrior aristocrats very similar to the knights of england ,it was something passed on through the family not simply picked up as an art .speaking of art alot of samurai didnt practise a martail art infact some thought martail artists were just that artists not warriors.they did ovcourse not get along with ninja thinking they were dishonorable.they were outlawed after the meiji(forgive me if i spelled it wrong)era after a band of samurai raised an army and attempted to overthrough the new government.josh it is true that samurai did at one point go to war with all ninja that was when nobunaga attempted to gain control of the country.what a punk.there were a few samurai that hung around for awhile as outlaws but they eventually died out.how sad.however my friend claims to be a samurai and i beleive him hes a good friend.but atleast that proves that samurai dont always fight with ninja.lol!!!! -ichiro katsumori
But I thought they shortened the end by a few inches in order to draw their swords faster????? Mabey I am wrong but I have read this from over 5 sources. A few other sources say some other stuff too, so I am not really sure.
they probably did sometimes however it is very difficult to alter a blade without ruining it and i doubt that unless they had some free time would bother cutting up a perfectly fine sword for that
