What if a Samurai was disarmed?

Question

What would happne if in Fuedal Japan, a Samurai was disarmed and attacked, how would he defend himself? As i know it, only a handful knew a little bit of Jujitsu. Were Samurai really just swordsmen and thats it?

Answer 1

Not all Samurai were skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

Yet if a Samurai were disarmed, and he were trained in Aiki-jutsu, then he would still be very dangerous.

Don't forget there were different levels of Samurai. High ranking Samurai received a complete training in the martial arts (including poetry believe it or not).

Lower ranking Samurai received less training, but always were proficient as swordsmen.

Spear, bow & arrow, sword, or Aiki-jutsu, were all learned to various degrees or specialties by the Samurai, but the sword was always learned to a high degree by all Samurai.

Answer 2

The samurai are of course best known for their l33t skeelz in using the katana. And you know, I've heard this question asked before. Generally in a more aggressive manner against samurai.

Yeah, samurai were focused on swords most of all and while budo (Way of War. Not to be confused with bushido) did include unarmed fighting, especially jujutsu (For prisoner taking purposes) you also have to think about the samurai as a whole. Now a samurai's sole purpose was war. They also had a big sharp sword: How are you going to disarm them?

For arguments sake let's say you do. The samurai also carried his wakazashi (short sword) and his tanto (long knife) with him. That's two back up weapons to gut you with and then take back his sword.

Also remember that a samurai may have carried a bow with him and possibly a spear if he was so inclined. So if SOMEHOW a samurai was disarmed without being dead then they're not unarmed.

Ofcourse you could cut off their hands but anyone is at a loss then.

Answer 3

AGGGG. OK people must not know how some one became a samurai. To be a samurai a kid got sent to a school were he learned EVERY Japanese martial art known to the times. the knew how to disarm armed opponents the new kicks punches joint locks and much much more. these guys killed basically for a living to think the sword was the only thing the knew would be very nieve. how ever in battle the used the spear More than the sword because of range. I have done two reports on them and studied Japanese swordsmanship

Answer 4

Guess you didn't like the other answers you got from your previous question, but you still seem to have a misconsception that samurai weren't trained in unarmed combat because the word "jujitsu" isn't mentioned somewhere. They were in fact trained in various unarmed techniques called "torite kogusoku" or "kogusoku koshi no mawari" or "kumiuchi" (the name jujitsu didn't come along until the 1600's) and kempo learned from their trade contact with the Chinese. Some were better or more thoroughly trained than others, but that goes without saying.

Samurai existed for around a thousand years, but the term jujitsu has only been around for about the last 400. Knowing that you can be assured that less than half the samurai knew jujitsu, because it simply didn't exist for several centuries.

Answer 5

samurai is a way of life. swordsmen are different from samurai. to be a samurai means that you have to be prepared for everything. for a swordsmen, you just have to be good using your sword. if you ask what would happen if a samurai got disarmed ? he would have been ready for that. being ready doesn't mean that he trained himself under that situation, but he knows what is his next step and do exactly just that without being afraid.

Answer 6

Disarmed to what degree is what I'm curious about.

Samurai didn't just carry a daito (long sword), but they also carried a shoto (side-sword a.k.a wakizashi), as well as a tanto (knife).

Even beyond that, some Samurai carried additional weapons such as Shaken/Shuriken (throwing blades), Kusarifundo (a 3 foot length of chain ending in lead weights, and so forth.
Additional tools like this could easily be carried inside the obi or kimono as sidearm weaponry in case the primary weapon is broken, or no longer useful for whatever reason.

Beyond that, middle to higher ranked Samurai were trained in many other forms of fighting, Sojutsu (spearmanship), Bojutsu/Jojutsu/Hanbojutsu (staff fighting), Naginatajutsu (halberd fighting), Archery, etc etc.

On top of that, many of them learned varying forms of Roikumiuchi/Jujutsu (depending on their time in history) for unarmed combat as well as weapons work.

So....the moral of the story is this : just because a Samurai were to lose his sword, that didn't make him useless.

Answer 7

if a samurai was disarmed, that would only be momentary. They know how to take their opponents weapons. I know that samurai's usually carried two long swords plus a short one (tanto) probably hidden in their boot.

Answer 8

part of the teachings back than and still today in any type of swordsmanship was taught several differant things to aid them in combat. they include using the surrounding area to fight for you so yes that means throwing dirt in their eyes to blind them among other things. they learned to understand their weapon to be a part of themself like an extra long very sharp arm. just understanding that would help them fight unarmed just like a shorter mace, flail, or morning star. samurai usually wore armor and so regaurdless of the attackers weapon they could easily use their armored arms to parry long enough to collect their sword. knowing this some might have used their armor as weapons and not just for defence.

Answer 9

no, in a school of samurays, it was kendo teaching (the way of sword), but also many other forms like jiujitsu or judo, that allowed to an disarmed samuray to fight and protect him self in a battle.

Answer 10

some people did jujitsu since they were 5