In some time periods there was actual dueling. People of rank would call out their name and position and duel with someone of the same standing.
This ended after the mongol invasion. They tried calling out the mongols for duels and the mongols didn’t know what that was and didn’t give a shit and just cut everything down.
At that point the Japanese dropped that for actual war.
Yup, even in Japan, the general weapons of choice were the spear and the bow. The sword was mostly ceremonial.
If a samurai had their sword out in a battle, they had probably fallen off of their horse and were in a lot of trouble.
It just makes sense. Why would you go in with a sharp piece of metal when you could just shoot a sharp piece of wood/metal from a safe distance?
In some time periods there was actual dueling. People of rank would call out their name and position and duel with someone of the same standing.
This ended after the mongol invasion. They tried calling out the mongols for duels and the mongols didn’t know what that was and didn’t give a shit and just cut everything down.
At that point the Japanese dropped that for actual war.