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Samurai And Knights Differences

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Samurai and knights played an important role in medieval Europe and Japan respectively. Over the years, many historians have debated whether their similarities were greater than their differences. In Japan and Europe, both of the societies had small pieces of land owned by clans and have warriors to protect them, they made a system named feudalism. The warriors of Japan was called Samurai while the warrior of Europe was dubbed a knight. During the late 1100s, the Taira and Minamoto two large military clans, there was a civil war and the Minamoto won. They then created a system with the shogun being the highest class in the ranking. Historians have debated whether samurai and knight's were all that similar or not. The similarities between samurai and knights were not greater than the differences. This can be shown by looking at three areas: the lord-vassal bond, the armor, and finally, the training that both receive in early childhood.

The first area of important differences was the lord-vassal bond. The Samurai were hereditary while the knights were able to not be knights if they wanted. Another piece of evidence is that the knights had to require multiple acres of land to sustain themselves while the samurai …show more content…

According to a Picture and text on Samurai armor by Terry Bennett and a Picture and text on knight armor, "(The knights )As more powerful weapons such as crossbows and longbows became common, chain mail was no longer sufficient protection". At the same time, the samurai had, "small iron scales were tied together, lacquered, and then bound into armor plates with silk or leather cords ." These differences are significant because the Samurai are not set for Shock warfare or up close warfare while the Knights are not ready for projectile warfare. Both civilizations have adjusted to their type of warfare allowing them to have more protection depending on their type of

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