Do not mix up common soldiers and samurai - should be obvious that the latter are more equal to the european/near eastern knights.
However, their swords where mostly of at least "good" qualitity, even if they didn't have rice straw sandals to put on their feet in winter.
European knights on the other hand had some crappy armament at times ...
dual-wield
When I said "elite" troops, I meant that. Not just the beefed-up Version of infantry. In DOM terms this would most likely be the holy troop type.
As someone said - wielding 2 full-seized swords effectivly is
very hard in every regard. The chinese swords used this way are generally rather short (up to 80cm) and very lightly build - I doubt they would pierce an late 1100 european-style double layered chain mail, neither trusting nor slashing.
Sometimes dual-wielding of the daisho is attributed to Miramoto Musashi ("Book of 5 Rings"), dating in the late 16th (early 17th - not shure about this) century. But I somehow doubt that it took really that long until someone got it right. On the other hand, as I said before, swords got shorter over time, and around 1100 it would have been simply impossible to use the Tachi/Katana of 1,4m one-handed all time.
The Wakizashi isn't an eastern form of the main-gauche, though. It's mostly 50-70 cm long and a real shortsword, not some form of dagger. It is carried at all times, so when in a friends house it's the main weapon, as the longsword is left at the entrance. In regular combat it is used when fighting in confined spaces or when the battle is that "tight" that the combatants get into grappling range regularly. It is used to
deflect incoming blows, than counter-attack while the fighter closes in if used as a main weapon. Doing this while using it off-hand is incredibly difficult ...
Last -and least
- it was used to commit seppuku ...
main weapon
At times, the bow was the primary weapon, sometimes the naginata, then some sword in varying length. I think personal preference and the randomness of situation would have had a strong influence.
Keep in mind, though, that in general blades with less than "good" quality where used for either swords given to peasant-soldiers or sword-lances in general. This shows that the lances where considered disposable to some degree.
Everything AFAIK and IMHO, as ever...
A.
edited: spelling
[ January 08, 2004, 07:48: Message edited by: Arralen ]