Baba Nobufusa

image credit

Mr. Nobufusa never had time to produce any pictures of himself during his lifetime. As far as we know, he was always busy fighting enemies at all sides — both those with inferior ability and those who equal or surpass his skill. The result is that we don’t have any idea what he looked like while he was alive, except for the painting shown above. He lived from 1514 to 1575 and was part of Takeda Shingen’s 24 Generals. That scary title in the previous sentence simply means, he’s definitely not your typical fencing master.

Oda Nobunaga

image credit

Although the man in the picture above (circa 1582) has barely any hair left and looks like a servant in a Chinese cuisine, don’t mess with this guy. He was the son of a military governor with substantial holdings in the province of Owari. That means, both he and his father has the power to cut your head off if you ever attempt to malign their appearance. It’s good to know that people have a lot more freedom of expression these days.

Ok, now let’s take this article to a different direction. I know that you already know that there are hundreds of skillful Samurai warriors written in the history books, and that all their profile descriptions can be summarized in one simple phrase: “Master swordsmen who killed thousands of folks and probably committed suicide afterwards”. So let’s just go ahead and take a look at Samurai fashion, or the way they geared themselves:

The Standard Samurai Attire

image credit

There were no fashion or image consultants during the days of Samurai warriors, but their battle gear was one of the best forms of attire ever designed! You see, whoever designed this armor definitely made sure that a Samurai warrior cannot be pierced by an enemy sword on any part of the body. Wearing this extremely heavy armor, the warrior is almost totally safe. Makes me wonder how they truly died. Aside from suicide, perhaps lots of Samurai warriors died of muscle pain and fatigue.

The Never Ending Question

image credit

There is a popular question and heated debate among historians and history enthusiasts. The question is this: “Who would win, a Medieval English Knight or a Samurai Warrior?” You see, it’s a valid question. People usually dream of matches or fights which never happened. For instance, many people are curious of what could have happened if Rocky Marciano fought Muhammad Ali. As far as we know, the Brightons and Saxons never attacked Japan in the medieval and feudal ages, so there is no way of knowing who is the better warrior. So who do you think is better, the Samurai or the Knight?