Quote:
Originally Posted by zzcat
Quote:
Originally Posted by VedalkenBear
After all, the samurai began as exactly the kind of mounted archer that dominated the medieval period in Asia.
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I think you are talking about Mongol horsemen, not samurai  |
This shows that you don't know the origins of the samurai. As I state above, Samurai began as _exactly_ the mounted archer that Mongol horsemen were. After all, the actual _training_ of the samurai was known as the 'Way of Horse and Bow'. Note what is present in that, and what is missing.
If you think of a samurai as a dismounted warrior wielding the katana, you are thinking of someone that only existed from the middle of the 1500s on. Samurai certainly existed in Japan for 500 years before that, and it is arguable for how long before that 'proto-samurai' existed (at least 200 years, in some people's estimate).
Please try to refer to the period when you say the word 'samurai', because it makes a very large difference. At different times, they were horse archers (before ~1530), highly pragmatic elite dismounted swordsmen (~1530-1600), and highly idealistic administrators (1600-1868).
If you would like to read a good book on the history of the samurai, you can check out Farris's
Heavenly Warriors.