Credit: https://www.quora.com/If-you-put-a-knight-and-a-samurai-in-a-fight-who-would-win
Human
society is never free from conflict. Every society in every place and time,
therefore, needs warriors to resolve conflicts and wars effectively by using
their courage and fighting skills and to provide a living example based on compassion,
discipline, and self-development in accordance with the code of ethics they
adhere to. The samurai and knight were two elite warriors serving during the middle
ages Having high skills in martial arts, they were highly respected for their honor,
courage, helpfulness, and dedication to serving their respective lord, and protecting
their country. Despite their similarities in various traits, the samurai and
knight were different in origins, training, armor, and code of conduct.
The
Samurai arose in the 7th century when Japan implemented a feudal system. To secure
their riches, the landowners (daimyos)
recruited the samurai. The first samurai were peasants who got long training
and became a highly skilled warrior class. Most samurai working for a daimyo were
the lord’s relatives. To empower them, some samurai were hired from outside of
the clan. When the hired samurai were not in service, they would return to
their lands to till the soil. In mid-1870 the samurai class was outlawed as the
Meiji restoration aimed to modernize Japan, including its army.
Though
the first samurai were originated from peasants, they soon rose to power and formed
a special social class, i.e., military nobility and officer caste. The caste
was hereditary as children born into samurai families since their childhood, were
supposed to go to a Ryu (school/lineage) to get a samurai warrior rigorous
training. The training uniquely combined physical training, Kendo ("the
Way of the Sword"), the moral code of the samurai called Bushido
("The Way of the Warrior"), spiritual discipline, i.e., Zen Buddhism.
Chinese studies, and poetry. Girls also received martial arts training. Although
most samurai women were mainly assigned to defend their homes against invaders,
not to fight on the battlefield.
The
traditional suits of samurai armor consist of the kabuto (helmet), the mengu
(face armor mask), the dou (the torso
armor), the kusazari (armor for the
legs), the kote and kogake (for the arms), and the katana
swords, bow, and arrow. The kabuto was decorated on top with horns, which,
together with the mengu decorating with a bristling mustache, was designed to
strike fear into the enemy. The samurai armors had many variations and
ornaments as each clan used to create a unique identity using color and
ornaments on its armors. But these armors were generally made of leather, and
later iron scales or plates tied together, decorated with different designs of
silk laced cords. All of these elements were relatively light and were
principally designed for protection and mobility as well. Since
the Samurai were supposed to be skillful
in fighting from horseback and on the ground, they also
rode a horse, and only the samurai were allowed to ride
horses in battle.
The
samurai were obliged to lead their lives according to bushido, an unwritten
strict code of honor and morals. Strongly Confucian, the bushido code
stressed a combination of loyalty to one's master, honor until death, martial
arts mastery, sincerity, self-discipline, frugality, respectful ethical
behavior, and compassion towards others. Since they firmly held total loyalty
and honor until death, they accept death in serving their master a valiant end
and committing seppuku or hara-kiri (method of taking one's own life) rather
than facing defeat or humiliation at the hand of their enemy as an honor.
Although
the European knights emerged in the same social system and period (i.e.
feudalism in the medieval era) like their counterparts in Japan, they originated
from the highly skilled ancient world cavalry armored forces and officers—not from
peasants. Since the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, Western Europe
became a feudal society and landlords hired knights to protect their palace and
territory from neighboring lords, bandits, and sea raiders. Knights were hired
because they were the most effective type of warriors at the time. Different from daimyos who first recruited samurai
from their relatives, European lords could not recruit relatives because they
usually equated to nobles, a class higher than knights. By the end of the 16th
century, European countries began creating professional armies that were
cheaper, quicker to train, and easier to mobilize. Consequently, knights became
obsolete and disappeared.
Different
from the samurai caste which was hereditary, knighthood was not inherited. Though
the sons of knights might have a privilege to get military training and
opportunities to be a knight, it was a military qualification someone had to
earn himself. To be a knight, one should spend about 14 years training. Unlike
the samurai candidates who got training a special school (Ryu), knight-candidates
was trained in a castle of a lord where he learned riding, war skills, and
sports (hunting, hawking) from the knight. He was also taught comportment,
courtesy, cleanliness, music, and dancing by the ladies in the castle, and
learned lessons in religion from the chaplain. When he was judged ready
(generally between the ages of 18 and 21) he was knighted in a religious
ceremony in which had to swear to the knightly code called chivalry.
In
terms of armors, it is obvious that the knights' armors which were mainly made
of metal were much heavier than the samurai's. Knights had two types of armor:
chain mail and plate. Chain mail was made from thousands of metal rings
designed to build a long cloak called a hauberk. A chain mail hauberk could
weigh as much as 13 kilograms. To help cushion the armor weight, it was covered
with a padded cloak underneath. The Chain mail was flexible and offered good
protection, but it could still be pierced by an arrow or thin sword. Thus, by
the 1400s the second type called plate armor was created. It offered better
protection but less flexible and heavier than chain mail. A full set of plate
armor, including the helmet, rerebrace (for upper arms), breastplate (to
protect chase), pauldron (for shoulders) vambrace (for lower arms), gauntlets
(for hands), cuisses (for thighs), poleyns (for knees), sabatons (for feet),
and greaves (for ankles and calves) weighed more than 25 kilograms. The main
weapons of a knight were a sword, a lance, a mace, and a longbow (particularly
used in battles or for hunting). Like the samurai, a horse was also a part of a
knight’s weaponry. The horse was also armored for protection by using metal
plates to cover its neck, head, and sides.
The
knights’ code of conduct was called chivalry which obliged the warriors to
"protect the weak, defenseless, and helpless, and fight for the general
welfare of all" (Moulik, 2020) unconditionally. Chivalry was based on a
combination of military ideals, Christian values, and etiquette. It required knights
to be bold, gallant, loyal to their feudal or military superiors, preserve
their personal honor, generous to a fallen foe, reverent to God, protect the
weak and the poor, and respect women. Different from the samurai who committed
suicide to maintain their honor, Christian law, one of the bases of chivalry,
bound knights against suicide and strove to avoid death.
The samurai and knights were two highly respected warrior groups that played an important role in the same social system taking place in the same era but two different continents. Although they had some similar traits, they were different in terms of origins, training, armor, and code of conduct. The samurai originated from peasants, while knights were from the highly skilled ancient world cavalry armored forces and officers. The samurai was hereditary and children of the samurai were trained since childhood in a Ryu that uniquely combined physical, social, moral, and spiritual training. Knighthood was not hereditary. To be a knight, a child go through a long training in a castle of a lord. The training covered riding, war skills, sports, comportment, courtesy, cleanliness, arts, and lessons in Christianity. In terms of armor, the samurai’s outfits were much lighter than the knights because the former’s armor was mainly made of leather, while the latter’s armors were made of metal. The samurai lead their lives according to bushido which stressed loyalty to one's master, honor until death, sincerity, self-discipline, frugality, respectful ethical behavior, and compassion towards others; but the knights’ code of conduct was chivalry which required knights to be bold, gallant, loyal, preserve their personal honor, generous to a fallen foe, reverent to God, protect the weak and respect women. All of these differences are essentially caused by the two different cultures in which they lived.
Reference
Moulik,
A. (2020). Rogues Among the Ruins. Niyogi Books
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