Quote:
Originally Posted by seiki
a samurai would never take a ninja-like mission or anything like that they didn't even choose their own missions they had masters you know
|
actually, according to legend, when Japan was first opened to the europeans, a group of "ninja", later revealed to be samurai, tried to kill a european ambassador, as well as a legendary chinese hero who was visiting. At least, i think it took place in Japan...it might actually have been in a China, which at the time had a great deal of Japanese influence. His name was Wong Fei-Hung, and he was both a master martial artist (including the Drunken Fist style, according to one interpretation) and a doctor. granted, there are a great deal of legends surrounding the man, but this was a bit unique. the task of the samurai was to implicate the ninja, who, at the time, were servants of the Emperor, just like the Samurai were. you said it yourself, the Samurai served their master, their Daimyo...they were honorbound to follow his orders, and even if they were ridiculous, as in this case, it was considered shameful not to follow them. it caused a great deal of conflict even amongst the samurai ranks, because even though it was dishonorable to deny the orders, following them was ALSO dishonorable. but those alledged "ninja" used singleedged straight katana, instead of the slightly curved katana you are describing or the doubleedged blades more classically attributed to the ninja (which curved towards the tip, but were in fact straight-edged, as i've said)
i will post images of the blades as soon as i find them....one will be a more modern remake (same style, but with a futuristic look) but hopefully i can find a classicly styled singleedged one