Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Tran
While the Japanese bows don't have the range or power of Welsh longbows, I'm not sure why you'd think they were useless. They were the primary weapons of samurai for several centuries for a reason.
|
Within a region that did not have enough iron or leather for armor and thus had to resort to making wooden armor that did not even reach the protection of leather armor. Basically, the reason why the Japanese bows worked was because it was useful against what they were supposed to be used against. Weak wooden armor.
An example of just how weak the Japanese bows were: During the First Mongol Invasion of Japan, the Japanese were basically pushed around the Korean troops whose battle suits could not be penetrated by Japanese bows. That was a major factor in why Kyushu was almost completely conquered before the grave mistake made by the Mongol commanders in retreating to ships with the typhoon coming.
The lack of iron is also a reason why katanas were held in high esteem: In order to refine the low quality iron and thus not waste the valuable resource, swordsmiths had to work for a long time, which contributed to the "katana art" legend. Because good quality iron was scarce and thus required much time and costs to manufacture, swords became a status symbol.