Hi :)

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Ushio san, I understand your explanation, many English words have 2 meanings also.

You know... Japanese kanji can be read in many ways.
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It is difficult for us to translate it into a foreign language each other. :( :) :D
Note: "Ushio san" means "Mr. Ushio".

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why white Americans seem to have little interest in European arms and armour and focus on the 133t samurai and NINJA!

What is 133t? :?:
All of you know... many Americans misunderstand about a ninja. (Many Japanese misunderstand about European arms and armour.)
I think the one of the causes are video games and movies...
However, it is important to be interested in foreign culture. And we know the truth. :) :)

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I see little reason to question Ushio on his (her?) interest in the European stuff.

I am a man.

thanks :)

Sorry, to go completely off-topic, 133t stands for leet, which in turn is derived from elite. It is commonly used by geeks and nerds in the online gaming community. I believe it was originally intended to allow someone to quickly type out a message while fighting, but now is considered by some to be a "language", which they use to belittle the n00bs or newbies.

I do not have a high opinion of people who act like intentionally butchering the English language makes them superior, and therefore use what little 133t I know when I want to sound like a ignorant moron.

Those who use 133t are in my opinion also more likely to be among those who glorify ninjas and the like. In this case, by ninja I mean brightly colored anime guys with six foot hair who jump around whacking people with I-beams. They have no idea what an actual ninja or anything else is, but they talk like they know everything and leave comments on WMA YouTube videos about how pathetic WMA is and how a proper ninja would destroy an entire medieval army in a nanosecond. (Of course, you do have to spend twenty minutes figuring out their insane combination of 133t spelling and inability to spell anything else but 133t correctly.)

Grrrrr... Alright, done venting now. ;)




Edit: The head-bucket thing is interesting though. I've never heard of that before. Would it be a temporary thing for transporting an enemy's head to... somewhere, or would it be a sort of trophy box? "Ok kids, eat all your veggies and after dinner grandpa will show you his head collection."

if braveheart is a reference (thought i wouldn't count on that) i remember a scene with a messenger bringing a basket containing the head of edward the longshanks's nephew. would it count? :lol:

The main difference is not the container or way the head is treated afterward, but that in Europe the heads in question usually had to be forcibly removed against the owner's wishes. The samurai were crazy enough to kill themselves and arrange for their heads to be shipped to their boss.


Edit: Crazy by our modern standards and viewpoint. They would not consider it such.

Hi :)
I supplement it a little...

The samurais made up lightly. Because they knew it each other：if they lose their head is cut off.
They had respect each other at the same time to be cruel. (Of course it limited to the samurai of high position.)

Do you know the young samurai "Taira no Atsumori"? :?: He is young samurai who was kiled at 17 years old...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_no_Atsumori (English Page)
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This story is famous and sad. :cry:


The head is evidence who defeated rather than war trophies.
The head with a helmet has value. And the head of low rank soldier does not have value.
However, actually it was used for ostentation of power(or achievement) by collecting a lot of heads of low rank soldiers.
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Thanks :)

thanks ushio for sharing i love reading about japanese stories, i read about shinsengumi and the satsuma rebelion quite a few times and a little about some daymio like shingen takeda and kenshin uesugi(my two favorites)

i'll read this with keen eyes, thanks a lot :D

Kind of reminds me of how Celts and Germans cut off heads for tropheys and rewards, then mashed up the brain, mixed it with lime and stuff, rolled it into a ball then threw it in the pile of otherones to show off to the neighbors :lol:
Ah, thank you Horrible History.

Hi :)
I have a question bout the difference of a Samurai and a Knight...

Some Samurais burn incense in their helmet(kabuto) before the battle.
It was consideration to the enemy who cut off a head.
They regarded the shameful way of dying as shame...

I have a question. :?:
The knight(high position) who became a captive was treated politely in many battles.
The knights(high position) assumed that they became the captive of the enemy and did do any measures? :?:

Thanks :)

A link to some picture taken at the exhibit from another forum.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2859103...d1157f0b72

I just got back from seeing the Return of the Samurai exhibit in Victoria Canada. I got to attend 2 lectures on samurai armor by Trevor Absolon and I had a chance to read a preview of his soon to be published book on samurai armor...anyone with an interest in really learning about this subject should consider getting his book when it come out later this year or early next year as it will absolutely be the best reference book on samurai armor ever published. Here is a link to the pictures I took, there was no flash allowed, the lighting was a little dim and the room back round was sort of reddish which made it hard to get really great pictures. http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz238/estc...?start=all