It’s actually quite a beautiful story the way your friend spoke it. You can see how both men had to save face in front of their retainers but actually didn’t have an issue with eachother. I hadn’t actually thought about that in ancient Japanese politics but it makes sense the young hot heads sparring for a fight essentially could force the lords hand, the retainers are essentially challenging their lord to protect the retainers honor by proving they serve a brave man. It must have been an incredible trouble to keep young men trained in martial arts from not getting people killed with bravado. I can just imagine a lord rolling his eyes like “oh.. what else did he say” as he knows full well the young warriors are just to hot blooded for their own good. Amazing to think they were responsible for keeping people from getting killed through just cooling things off when little fueds erupted. Were horses existent in Japan before the mongols? where do the mongols fit into the development of the samurai?
It's a pleasure as always. And my sincerest thanks. I should also mention somewhere in this video that the samurai measured the greatness of a warrior not by their hand to hand combat skills but by their ability to field armies and to be efficient in battle tactics and strategy. I first learned that fact from one of your videos years ago where you explained that very thing. So, in a sense, this video only exists because of the work you've done in the past. Thank you again, and here's to more collaborations in the future.
Sort of symbolized what eventually did happen to all Samurai, once they realized that all of their skill and bravery was wasted on being pitted against each other in pointless battles over ever changing territory. But then once they went home they no longer had purpose.
A quick search on Wikipedia suggests, that this story is probably from the following source: “Konjaku Monogatarishū (今昔物語集, lit. Anthology of Tales Old and New), also known as the Konjaku Monogatari (今昔物語), is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794-1185).” If anyone’s interested… 🤓 Fun fact: Each tale in the Konjaku Monogatarishū apparently starts with the Japanese equivalent of the phrase “once upon a time”. ☺️
