MA: Jomon: The Courts of the Ryu - Looking for insight

[legowarrior]

Reserverd

[Shangrila00]

The Bow and Spear were always dominant in Japanese warfare. It shifted from mounted archery, to bow and spear and other polearms (mainly nagatina), to musket and spear and other polearms, before the Tokugawa Shoguns pacified the entire country. The sword was always a secondary weapon, as a backup to spear, bow, or musket. The greatest predominance it ever achieved in actual warfare was the very end during the invasion of Korea, in which musket troops (with sword sidearms) were present in such number that they were often pressed into melee.

Jomon always drew more from myth than history anyway, but insofar as historical systemic shifts in warmaking can be applied to the era system, the big ones were from mounted combat and individual champions to mass infantry, and from the current samurai dominated warfare to ashigaru (evolving from rabble to professional soldiers) dominated warfare in a hypothetical post-late era. The current Jomon is something of a mix-and-match as it is, with sword troops that never existed, crap militia ashigaru, and heavy shock cavalry which were historically introduced concurrently with professional ashigaru and massed musketry.

[Squirrelloid]

Something to keep in mind about historicity, the katana was originally a cavalry weapon. The curve and length of the blade are pretty indicative of this. Which also matches what is known about japanese warfare before massed ashigaru.