The ships of the fearsome Mongolian army are getting closer and closer to the coasts of the Japanese archipelago, and Jin Sakai, one of the last samurai left on the island of Tsushima, prepares to welcome them by sharpening his katana. The launch of Ghost of Tsushima, the last exclusive for PlayStation 4, is now near, and to have a chance of victory against Khotun Khan and his ferocious soldiers it will be essential to know the history and characteristics of the arsenal available to warriors of the Kamakura period: in the various trailers we have been able to appreciate the mastery of katana and bow shown by Jin, but samurai could boast many other lethal tools, which we hope to be able to admire in action also in the green Tsushima.
Katana
As stated in the past few days by Chris Zimmerman – co-founder of Sucker Punch, the development team working on Ghost of Tsushima – the gameplay of the exclusive wait PlayStation 4 is built to rotate around a cutting edge protagonist, the katana, the weapon par excellence of the samurai. These famous swords are descended from tachos, blades of which we have evidence already in the tenth century AD, lighter and thinner than their most famous younger sisters. The arrival of the Mongols, equipped with leather armor very resistant to cutting weapons, was the fuse that triggered the most important change in the history of samurai armaments: the very sharp, but too delicate tachos broke against the armor of the enemy of overseas, leaving the Japanese warriors helpless.
A change was needed, and quickly. Thus the katana developed, with a lower curvature than the tachi, heavier and with a much thicker blade. Ideal for drawing blood-red gashes in the armor of Jin’s enemies.
Our protagonist is therefore one of the first men in history to wield a katana, a weapon in which – it is said – the soul of the warrior who wields it resides. The merit of the creation of these jewels goes to blacksmiths of excellent ability, such as the famous Masamune, born exactly ten years before Jin’s adventure and author of blades exhibited in numerous Japanese museums, coveted by collectors all over the world. The name of the blacksmith certainly sounds familiar to many video game enthusiasts, given that the blade of Sephiroth, antagonist in Final Fantasy VII, it is called Masamune (and this is not its only videogame cameo!).
To create a katana they are necessary not only in-depth knowledge of the steel industry, but also an extraordinary force. The starting point is the tamahagane, a block of steel that is hammered and bent fifteen times: this explains the resistance of the katana, since a blade is made up of 32768 layers! The sharpening is obtained by hardening the steel, that is by alternating high and low temperatures; everything ends with a manual finish in the name of precision, to enhance as much as possible the mortal beauty of the sword destined for the samurai.
The Japanese blacksmiths forged yes functional weapons to combat, but they were also real works of art, and a sword has even become a symbol of the Japanese people. Love-no-Murakumo, the “sword of heaven“is one of the three sacred treasures of Yamato (ancient name of Japan): it seems to be preserved in the sanctuary of Atsuta, although it is impossible to prove it, since it is not visible to the public.
As narrated in Kojiki – the first Japanese fiction text we have received – Murakumo was firmly planted in the tail of Yamata no Orochi, legendary eight-headed dragon defeated by the god Susanoo to save the beautiful Kushinada. For this reason the blade is also called Kusanagi: kusa is one of the Japanese terms for the sword, while nagi can be translated as “snake” or even “dragon”. Given that the Kojiki was composed in the eighth century, it seems difficult to imagine that the Murakumo is a real katana, but it seems legitimate to let go of the reins of the imagination, given that the characteristics of the legendary sword are not known … always there!
We are used to associating the katana with the wakizashi, a shorter sword, sometimes used for the warrior’s ritual suicide (seppuku): the two weapons, worn together, clearly indicated that the owner was a samurai. However, wakizashi appeared only in the fifteenth century AD, about one hundred and fifty years after Jin’s adventure: we can therefore abandon any hope of being able to use it in Ghost of Tsushima. The possible tactics, however, remain many, even with just the katana, capable of ensuring the user speed and manageability: it goes from the yoko rpm, a horizontal shot that aims at the delicate region of the abdomen, to the kesi rpm, with which the blade flashes from top to bottom to hit the opponent’s head or shoulders.
The extremely elegant nukitsuke is fundamental, an initial position that aims to intimidate the enemy and allows you to quickly extract the katana from the sheath, just as shown by Jin in the gameplay trailer of Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch seems to have paid a lot of attention in the reconstruction of the fighting techniques with the katana, and we can’t wait to try them on the skin of the soldiers of Khotun Khan!
So much
Unlike the wakizashi, the tanto, considerably shorter than the katana and also used as a dagger, had been invented centuries before the Mongol invasion of Japan: Jin in fact uses it as a melee weapon of choice during his infiltrations into enemy camps . With a single or double-edged blade, the tanto can be used not only to stab the opponent in a very short range, but also as a lethal cutting weapon. Tokyo’s Mitsuri Museum houses one of the most famous in Japanese history, forged by Masamune himself and used in 1600 during the decisive battle of Sekigahara. But this kind of blade has a peculiarity: it has long been used also by Japanese women.
In fact, every future wife of a samurai was given a kaiken, a particular species of something to always carry in a small pocket of the kimono. In the event of her family’s defeat, the woman would have to commit ritual suicide to avoid falling alive into enemy hands, severing the veins in her neck from left to right. In one of the most memorable scenes in Akira Kurosawa’s cinema – important source of inspiration for the atmospheres of Ghost of Tsushima – Kaede, femme fatale of the film Ran, seduces Jiro, brother of her late husband, slowly approaching him, with two eyes like living flames, holding a kaiken in his hand. Kaede rejects male authority and indeed manages to impose itself on it, pulling the strings of the entire film from behind the scenes.
There was no shortage of women who used the kaiken and other weapons also outside the domestic context. The brave onna-bugeisha protected their communities and, in exceptional cases, lined up alongside their husbands in battle, and were not second in value to the samurai, of whom they were the female counterpart. Their legendary progenitor is Empress Jingu, promoter of major social changes in Japan in the third century AD: after the death of her husband, Emperor Chuai, Jingu managed to conquer Korea, and in 1881 she became the first woman to be represented on a Japanese banknote.
Trained rigorously to the use of kaiken and naginata (which we will discuss shortly) the onna-bugeisha boast among their ranks heroines like Tomoe Gozen, protagonist of the Genpei war, which contrasted the Taira and Minamoto families between 1180 and 1185 ( a century before the events narrated in Ghost of Tsushima), described in Heike Monogatari as “a warrior who was worth more than a thousand”, and Hojo Masako, who died in 1225 after spending her last years in seclusion. Curiously, the onna-bugeisha already revealed as present in Ghost of Tsushima is called Masako: who knows if he will prove to be a formidable ally or a lethal opponent …
Yumi
Among the most respected arts of Japanese warriors we find kyujutsu, that is, the ability to grasp the yumi, the Japanese bows, and to shoot arrows with a very long range. As magnificent as they are difficult to use, the yumis are asymmetrical arches, present both in a short variety (called hankyu, to be used on horseback) and in a longer version (the daikyu, used by walking troops).
The characteristic asymmetry of the Japanese arches is described since the third century AD in some Chinese chronicles; a discreetly preserved yumi dating from the fifth century AD was discovered in Nara. The reasons that led to such a particular shape are much discussed: perhaps the most reliable theory states that the handle on the shorter side allows to balance the different degrees of elasticity of the upper and lower parts of the arch, shaped starting from a single, very long piece of wood.
With a height that can exceed two meters – far greater than the size of the Japanese minutes – the daikyu is a weapon that inspires fear in its opponents, and ranks of archers well trained in its use have managed to turn the tide of many battles .
Only firearms – produced by the Japanese since 1543, the year of the invention of the Tanegashima arquebus – managed to supplant the Yumi slender. Still with reference to the Genpei war, the Heike Monogatari sings the deeds of the legendary Yoichi, the Japanese archer par excellence, narrating an episode also reported in Pom Poko, an animated film by Studio Ghibli: those who have seen it already know Yoichi’s exceptional skills , also appeared in the video game Okami!
Jin will certainly have to master yabusame too, or the art of horse archery. An excellent command of the animal will be necessary, since the shot engages both hands and prevents holding the reins. We can only hope that our equine companion is at the height of Agro, perfectly autonomous during the bow feats performed by Wander in some of the most memorable encounters of Shadow of the Colossus …
Naginata
An absence that has made a lot of noise among those waiting for Ghost of Tsushima is that of the spears. The trailers shown so far do not show similar weapons, but the development team has assured that Jin will be able to find several death tools to fight the Mongols during his adventure.
Given the historical period in which the story is set, we could hope to stumble upon the most famous Japanese spear, or the naginata. It is one of the most elegant weapons available to Japanese warriors, also loved by onna-bugeisha. The heavier version used by men is called o-naginata, while for women a ko-naginata was forged, lighter and slightly reduced in size: this weapon was even used by court ladies, immortalized in a beautiful print of 1896 by the artist Toyohara Chkanobu.
The first historical references to the naginata date back to the twelfth century, and the weapon became famous with the Genpei war, which we have mentioned several times as a watershed event in Japanese military history. The growing centrality of the horse in battle made it a formidable weapon to mow animals and make riders fall to the ground ruin: given the importance of horses in the expansion of the Mongolian empire, Jin’s enemies would be terrified at the sight of our protagonist armed with naginata!
The long range of the weapon it is also useful in ground fighting, since it allows you to keep the enemy at a safe distance and can hit both lunges and cuts. The undoubted charm of this spear has meant that its practice continued to the present day, well beyond the extinction of the samurai: the art of naginatajutsu is appreciated all over the world as one of the most fascinating Japanese martial arts.
The arsenal available to Jin boasts a respectable history, and reminds us of the value of Japanese warriors, men and women, who impress us so much with their sublime mastery of melee weapons and bows. What are your hopes for the combat system di Ghost of Tsushima? Do you have any favorite weapons that you would like Jin to use to defeat the hordes of Khotun Khan? Let’s talk about it together in the comments!
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