Just checking in to point out that the samurai sword is actually pretty useless against anyone wearing armor or carrying a heavier sword. It breaks, y’see.
Let’s not even consider a charging, armored Kodiak swinging a bear-sized sword at you. :eek:
But what if the samurai was Ditka?
It’s the bear. No question about it, the samurai will probably get one heck of a blow in before the bear crushes him to death, followed by the mauling. I will give the samurai an outside chance of giving the bear a mortal wound, if the samurai is very lucky and very agile, but there is no way the samurai walks away from that.
I know nothing about swordplay but i doubt the correct strategy would be ‘turning and running’.
I would think the smart man would dodge and land as heavy blows as possible until the bear decides the fight isn’t worth it.
A good strike across the nose with a katana would give any land creature pause which would provide another opening for the samurai to strike. We’re talking about an animal against a trained fighter with a lethal weapon.
A fighter trained to fight other humans, using a weapon designed to be lethal against unarmoured men.
Now switch the scene to a 1000lb bear that can run at 35 mph, has a reach of 5 foot, fur so thick that it’s close to armour, and 5 inch claws. He’s not trained for it, and his weapon suddenly isn’t such a lethal implement.
I’m just wondering what kind of lethal blow a Samurai could deliver, this bear isn’t standing upright, it is not going to be swinging with its upper limbs, and the head is pretty damn near armour plated.The fur is dense, it will not slice easily at all.
The Samurai sword is designed for slashing, not stabbing, and no slashing blow is likely to take out this bear, it would need a deep penetrating stab, by the time your deep stab has hit something vital, the sword would probably be at or near the hilt, the bears claws would have already taken the swordsmans head off or crushed his skull
Samurai is going to be lucky just to take one of the bears eyes, trying to get a slash at the neck would be immensely difficult with a bear charging in on all fours.
First order of any battle is to assess your opponent, Samurai takes one look and buggers off.
Back to the “no mortal foe on the battlefield” comment, how about spears and pikes (or pointed sticks)? Someone wielding a bo or staff who is equally skilled in using his weapon as the samurai, will have a considerable advantage in range.
I’ll put ten dollars on the samurai, but only expecting a huge lucky payoff.
Absolutely.
(And he’d better get into hiding quick, because the bear is faster!)
Full-sized Ditka or mini-Ditka?
You also apparently know nothing about bears. Grizzlies have been known to take a fatal round from a high-caliber weapon and continue to run for miles. Rounds from a .44 have bounced off of their skulls. They move incredibly fast, and dodging a bear charge is a near impossibility. The end result here would be a pile of bear scat laced with ghi.
Read * Alaskan Bear Tales* by Larry Kaniut sometime. It’ll make even Tarantino consider using something more formidable than an overhyped long knife.
A bear’s heart rate slows down considerably during conflict, an attribute that prevents them from quickly bleeding to death from bloody encounters with other bears. In the event someone gets so damn lucky as to actually deliver a lethal blow, it will likely be preceeded minutes to hours before by their horrific mauling and dismemberment.
In bear behavior courses, we were taught not to shoot at the head with our 12 ga. pump slugs as they’d probably just graze off the thick skull but to take down the front legs and then circle from behind and put three slugs in the spine at the neck. Going for heart and lung shots was discouraged since, as mentioned, it would likely kill them only after they’d had a rather horrible way with you.
Read the book… the guy that jumps ashore off a boat to take a dump and has a bear swat his head off with a single blow and then play with it on the bank like an oblong soccor ball, much to the horror of his friends. Old Groaner, found with 3 or 4 different caliber of bullets imbedded in his skull, coincidentally matching the calibers of a missing hunter. Etc, etc, etc.
Without question, the BEAR!
Well, to be fair to the bear, I guess it would have to be mini-Ditka.
C’mon now…haven’t you folks played enough Tekken? Kuma only beats Yoshimitsu if neither player is very good. Otherwise, Yoshi’s combos are too fast and his teleport and self-healing are a big upside as well.
I don’t have any information to refute your knowledge of fighting bears. I just wanted to give a little credit to the human because it seemed as everyone was just assuming he would stand still and accept his fate. I also wanted to point out that winning the encounter doesn’t necessitate a dead bear at the end. I think its well within the realm of possibility to injure the bear enough for it to disengage. Unless of course the animal is cornered or defending its young which was not specified in the OP.
If the animal is impossible to move away from then its basically an 5 lb. sword vs a 1K lb charging bear. No contest.
Bear wins! FLAWLESS victory…
Right. The samurai could do some serious damge, but the bear woudl kill the samurai before it bled out.
Nor, if we give the samurai full armor, we have a different bet. I say the samurai wins, but it badly hurt.
Given the specivity of the OP, I would say the bear. Not 100% though. There was an old retired man nearby who killed an attacking cougar with a pocket knife.
However I would just like to point out that the Samurai tradition has a long history, and their use of the sword in battle was not as prominent as their use of the long bow prior to the 14th century . Subsequently they did carry firearms as well.
Guy who trains in using a Japanese sword checking in. You’re right, these A vs. B things are usually stupid topics.
I’d want a spear at least thankyouverymuch. I’d probably get some good slices in, but one hit from a bear and you’re going to have some broken bones at best. If I were lucky, I’d chop off a paw and reduce his mobility enough to do more damage or get away, but I wouldn’t want to place any bets.
The documentary was spouting a bunch of garbage. The mythology around swords in Japan existed even in the early days of legend, but swords were not ever seen as the end-all and be-all of weapons. They were actually considered secondary weapons on a battlefield. Spear infantry were higher paid and more valued than swordsmen in the Warring States period. Horsemen used their bows more than any other weapon, and archery was considered to be one of the main skills of a bushi. The focus on swordsmanship came about mostly during the Tokugawa era, late in Japan’s feudal history, when open large scale warfare was practically nonexistent and when firearms were recognized as trumping archery.
Other misinformation in this thread:
You sure as hell can thrust with a Japanese sword. There are many thrusting and even half-swording techniques present in both armored and unarmored traditional Japanese sword combat. About half the kata I’ve been learning over the last couple of years feature a thrust, and thrusting is definitely a recognized and valued technique in old-style martial arts. It’s been most thrown out in modern kendô, much as cutting has in fencing, but that doesn’t mean the actual weapon isn’t capable of it or that the technique was never used.
A sword that broke when it encountered armor would have been basically useless on a battlefield. In most time periods, samurai preferentially fought peers in battle, who would have armor of around equal quality to theirs. Edges were commonly damaged in combat, but the swords weren’t made of glass or anything, and they would most likely not break when they encountered armor. In fact, a great deal of the construction of the sword was optimized for preventing breakage or extensive damage to the blade in adverse conditions.
There has always been an arms race between armor and weapons, no matter what culture and time you’re talking about, and something that became useless would be either revised or discarded. Swords were around from ancient times up until pretty recently, even in the West. Actually, they were probably used in earnest more recently in the West than in Japan. That famous cavalry charge in Poland during WWII was made by guys armed with sabers, while Japanese officers were the only soldiers who had swords on them, and they were carried mostly as a token of office.