Talk:Zipangu/@comment-25294437-20140821211449/@comment-76.184.240.236-20141224071434

Sorry to raise this comment from the dead like a necromancer, but I think I can contribute something to the conversation.

What's funny is that European swords weren't much heavier than their Japanese counterparts. I don't know why I'm even bringing this up (I know, it's fantasy and therefore not realistic), but this is something that bothers me whenever I see it in any fantasy setting.

The typical arming sword (knightly sword) you see in most Western fantasy only weighted 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) on average. The Zweihander of the same period weighed at most 7.1 pounds (3.2 kg) and was 5.9 feet (~180 cm) long. For reference, the average katana from the 14th century was around 1.1 - 1.3 kg  and was anywhere from 60-73 cm.

Also, European blades were not dull. They were quite sharp, and a well-made blade could hold an edge quite well. They also weren't really about brute force. Medieval swordsman were highly skilled with their weapon of choice, and as the German school of Fencing shows, had it down to a martial art (including concepts of "hard" and "soft" techniques) by the 15th century.

The key difference between the two paragimns, as someone else pointed out, was what armor they were expected to counter. Japanese armor of the medieval era was scale-mail held together by leather straps. Compare this to European armor of the same period, which was either chainmail or platemail, depending on whether you were going against a common foot soldier or a well-equipped knight, and unlike what you'd expect, European platemail was lightweight (the entire suit weighed ~30 pounds, evenly distributed over the body) and had a greater range of motion than the person wearing it. That's why European swords had a pommel; the pommel and cross guard of European swords were designed to crush plate mail and inflict blunt force trauma to the wearer underneath.

Finally, Japanese swords are an example of making something awesome from what you had. Unlike the Europeans, who were building of the metallurgy of the Roman Empire and were masters of making quality steel, the Japanese were using inferior materials, like unrefined iron. Hence, the special construction of folding the metal over and over again, and making the core of the blade out of soft iron and its cutting edge out of the harder iron; the folding gave it strength that the blade otherwise would not have. This has the interesting side effect of the Japanese blade requiring more skill to use properly; a European sword could take a hard blow without major deformation, while a katana could be snapped in half if the user wasn't familiar with it and tried to kill someone with it.

Here's some interesting reading that dispells some of the myths that we see in fantasy works regarding medieval armor and swords:

http://imgur.com/gallery/3j1jA