Posts: 49 Location: Honolulu Hawaii
Wed 24 Dec, 2008 10:06 am
there's quite a bit of posts so far....
From what I've gathered from the book "The First Samurai" and some early Japanese history classes, the samurai were predominantly horse riding archers. At least this is true from 400 CE (the Emishi and later on the Nara who adopted their battle concepts) to 1700 (after the Settlement of 1598 and the ensuing peace thereafter). Not to say that Samurai were not lethal on foot, but Samurai were wholly "elite" in status equal to aristocrats. Usually very small groups of horse riders, literally in the hundreds at most in even the largest major Japanese battles.
This is in great contrast to Spartan Phalanx warfare which was totally on foot and had several thousand men in number.
In agreement with some stated before me, Japanese armor were designed for improving mobility for an archer on horseback, not fighting on foot. Also worth mentioning Samurai rarely used the Yari as it was commonly a foot soldiers weapon, not a Samurai's.
Also as some stated before, a Spartan soldiers armor is designed for fighting together as a group with your spear mates protecting your non armored side. If we are comparing Spartan spear and
shield to Japanese Yari (normally a foot soldiers weapon, not a samurai's) I'd say the Spartans would win out in unit to unit combat against a unit of Japanese yari wielding foot soldiers.
Also worth mentioning is the habit of Japanese units breaking down constantly in Japanese history. In a unit of say 500 samurai, if as little as 70 fell due to a shower of arrows, the whole unit would retreat. So in a Unit to Unit morale comparison I'd say the Spartans had far better mental steel as well.
I won't compare man to man as many before me have stated it's impossible to truly say as it's highly individualistic. And in a true war, the less mobile Phalanx pattern would fall to the more mobile Japanese mounted archery of the samurai using hit and run.
Quote: |
Something to also understand about this matchup is the Spartans always cheat when fighting. They only owe honer to the Spartan Way of Life. Samurai have a different honer system. Part of the Spartan training system was to under-feed boys. They were expected to steal in order complete their diet. If they were caught, they were beaten. They wanted the best cheating army possible. |
The Samurai had a different "honor" system, yes if you mean "bushido" but only after the 1700's I believe after largely peace had been achieved. During more of the warring states and before in smaller skirmishes, surprise attacks were the mainstay of Japanese tactics. Being "cheap", to put it bluntly, characterizes Japanese warefare very early on, as far back as 900 I believe.