Knight vs Samurai - Accurate Historical Comparison

A comparative video based on accademic research. Here I shall examine the European Knight and compare his weapons armours and fighting style with that of the Japanese samurai.

Samurai (侍) were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan.
In Japanese, they are usually referred to as bushi (武士?, [bu.ɕi]) or buke (武家?).
By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.
As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. The culture associated with the samurai such as the tea ceremony, monochrome ink painting, rock gardens and poetry were adopted by warrior patrons throughout the centuries 1200–1600. These practices were adapted from the Chinese arts.
In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in kanji. Recent studies have shown that literacy in kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood.
Some samurai had buke bunko, or "warrior library", a personal library that held texts on strategy, the science of warfare, and other documents that would have proved useful during the warring era of feudal Japan. One such library held 20,000 volumes. The upper class had Kuge bunko, or "family libraries", that held classics, Buddhist sacred texts, family histories, as well as genealogical records.
A samurai was usually named by combining one kanji from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name.

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outro ES_Knights Templar 2 - Johannes Bornlöf

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[MoeMoeJoeJoe]

Samurai Armor: "You cannot be 100% protected."

Plate Armor: "Bullshit."

[razgrizknight]

The greatest advantage of the European sword, is the secret, certain-death technique known as unscrewing and throwing the pommel.

[everinghall]

lol, modern day soldiers carry more weight into battle than a knight did. where did that whole "big slow knights" myth come from?

[Bamiyanbigasf]

Knights win because they have a natural advantage of military progression where as Japan didn’t need the same armor

[shadiversity]

Another excellent video, very enjoyable.
This topic can be a tricky one to approach as there's many opinions out there. I've even found a school of thought that feels comparisons like this should never be made and could never reach a definitive answer, which I disagree with. I love cross culture comparisons and the knight vs samurai is especially fun because they're so similar. Of course at the end of the day the combatant with the greater skill will generally win, but all things being equal I too give the advantage to the knight due to their superior armor and more developed/specialized weaponry. It also has to be said that 15th century European smelting and forging technology was also superior. Their armor was not only steel, it was hardened steel where, as I understand it, most Japanese armor was made of iron.

[christopherjones]

Okay, you've convinced me: knights trained just as hard, could do a lot of the same things, had more types of weapons available, _and_ had better armor. Dang.

[MaestroBlur]

The poor Samurai wouldn't stand a chance due to the thunderous rain of Pommels ending them all rightly.

[Executor]

Samurai: you can't just stab me through the opening in my helmet.
Kmight: longsword goes stabby stabby.

[fromolwyoming]

I also think the knight, but you forgot a few rather important things.
1. Half swording. This was designed in Europe in order to deal with heavily armored foes, by allowing the knight to use one hand to grab part of the blade to thrust with better control at the gaps. Also to note, the long sword could be flipped around to use the guard and pommel as a makeshift war hammer.

2. Tamahagane, which is what the Japanese used to make their katanas, is essentially pig iron. Sounds a lot less romantic. This was used because the iron in Japan was a lot lower in both quantity and quality.

3. Nearly all of the knight's weapons, especially by the 15th century, were designed to deal with armored foes. As you pointed out yourself, it's impossible to cut plate armor (chain too, for that matter), meaning nearly all of the samurai's weapons would be about useless against the knight's armor.

4. Finally, and one of the worst myths out there about the knight (not directed at you), is that their swords were not sharp and only used to bash. Basically a steel baseball bat. And certain shows like Game of Thrones have only helped keep this myth going (which is odd considering the weapons otherwise look fine). The long sword may not have always been sharp, but it could cut quite well. And it was never used to bash a person (except the guard and/or pommel), but to either cut them down (lightly armored) or pierce a weak spot in the armor (a heavily armored foe).

These are the reasons why I think the 15th century knight would overall win against the samurai.

[karlroberts]

I just stumbled upon your videos. Very thorough and interesting information. Unbiased, and based on facts, not opinions. Thank you.

[Sbjweyk]

I think the knight has another some additional points speaking for him. For example the katana is mainly a cutting weapon with a thick and curved blade. The problem is that you can’t do much with this against a plate armor because it only has tiny gaps to stab in. On the other hand the knight has a longer sword made to stab into the gabs of armor and there are a lot of gaps in the armor of a samurai ( in comparison to the full plate armor). Additionally the knight is trained to bypass better armor than the samurai even has so its not much of a hindrance to him, while the samurai needs to figure out how to even scratch the knight.

[bigmanflav]

“Unleash hell boys”
Yeets pommel rain on the Japanese lines.

[merlball]

A knight and a samurai face off. The sounds of battle:
"Banzai!"
["Tink, tink, tink!"]
"Forsooth, methinks he is trying to give battle with that sad bow. I shall offer him the lance as an answer."
["Galloping"]
["Crash!"]
"Aaaah! Watashi wa shinde iru... (Ouch I'm dying!). Kore wa dō yatte dekimasu ka? (How can this be?). Watashi wa mubōbi ni naru hazudesu. (I am supposed to be undefeatable.). Watashi no kowarenai yoroi wa dōdesu ka? (What about my unbreakable armor?) Aaagh... gurgle gurgle... (Aaagh... gurgle gurgle...)"
"Squire! See if this poor chap can be bandaged. If not, please grab the fantastic letter openers he has sheathed at his side and round up that pony he was riding."

[KnyghtErrant]

Happy to see a very level and academic approach to this topic, which is often prone to a whole lot of misconception and myth! I hope you choose to do a comparison of bushido and chivalry in a future video, that would be very interesting! Thank you very much for the shout out as well, it's very appreciated.

[physical_insanity]

You are like some kind of wise master, almost like a jedi.

[aaagagatagtgtt]

I find it interesting how much of the debate on this subject tends to focus on katana vs. longsword rather than analyzing the extensive range of other weapons that both samurai and knight used and how they compare. (Perhaps they are simply the two most directly comparable weapons from their respective arsenals.)

[notbobby]

One thing very few people consider in "Longsword vs. Katana" debates are the crossguards. They were not just there to look nice, the crossguards in both swords provided protection to your hands. Without a crossguard, your enemy could press their sword down the shaft of your blade and slice into your fingers. While this wouldn't kill you, it would be both very painful and make it far more difficult for you to keep a firm grasp on your sword.

The longer crossguards on the longsword gave greater protection, allowing you to catch attacks aimed at the fingers specifically. It also could be used as a hammer, a hard point to bash your enemy even when you can't attack with the blade. There was even a historical technique where knights would grab the edge of their swords in their hand and bash at their enemy's helmet with the crossguard, turning their swords into a mace.

[cristerowarrior]

Extremely unbiased look into the hypothetical. Great video

[SuperRichyrich]

I have plenty experience in sparring with different weapons.

Longswords trump Katanas any day.

Longswords have superior reach, are double edged and have good hand protection, whereas the Katana has essentially no hand protection and not much reach for a two handed sword.

[LucidLivingYT]

"The Pollaxe"

>Shows a warhammer