• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    2 months ago

    Longbow was the main battle weapon of samurai. Even after firearms, which they got the peasants to stand in a line and fire volleys just like in the West.

      • reliv3@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Reading your links, the correction you made seems semantically insignificant. Yumi is the word for “bow” in Japanese and longbows describe bows that are long. Longbows are not unique to the English, and there are a lot of bows that can be described as longbows. So my point is, if samurais used yumis that are long (which some did) then saying they used longbows is not incorrect. Nevertheless, thank you for letting us know what the Japanese called their bows, it was educational.

        • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          As someone who did archery at national level… Your comment is triggering my need to point out how difficult and different “longbows” are.

          I couldn’t handle it after years of playing. The term longbow in archery is as calling everything AR15.

          • Aux@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Well, a lot of rifles are called AK47 even though most of them are not.

          • reliv3@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            That’s pretty cool that you did archery at a national level.

            Respectfully, I still think that I am correctly interpretting the information on the Wikipedia links sourced above. I’m basing my conclusion off two pieces of evidence. The longbow wiki page linked above mentions that longbows existed in “many cultures”, and there is a separate Wikipedia page for the English Longbow. This pushes me to conclude that there is a symantical difference between the two terms, “longbow” and “English Longbow” though many people assume the latter when the former is mentioned.

        • lapislazuli@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Yes, there have been bows that are long, but not like the longbow. As you say, the longbow was used to shoot volleys, while the yumi could also be used on horseback. The longbow had a very heavy draw weight, around 90-120 lbs. That’s the weight you have to pull to get it at full draw. The yumi possibly had a a lower draw weight (although Korean and Mongolian and Turkish composite bows had draw weights of around 100 lbs as well, and they were mainly used on horseback). Again, the yumi has a shorter lower limb which meant it could be used on horseback (and it was) while there is no way a longbow could have. So the longbow and the yumi are very different technically.

          • reliv3@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing. I’m just pointing out that people are assuming “English Longbow” when saying “longbow”. Which, to be fair to these folks, the English Longbow is likely the most famous longbow in history. Nevertheless, even the Wikipedia page sourced above mentions that longbows existed in “many cultures” and there is a separate Wikipedia page for the English Longbow. This pushes me to conclude that there is a symantical difference between the two terms, “longbow” and “English Longbow” though many people assume the latter when the former is mentioned.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          used in English, yumi refers more specifically to traditional Japanese asymmetrical bows, and includes the longer daikyū (大弓) and the shorter hankyū (半弓) used in the practice of kyūdō and kyūjutsu, or Japanese archery.

            • lud@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              No, every language does similar things about loads of similar shit.

              You are just annoyed that you didn’t think of reading beyond the first sentence, lol.

              • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                I’ve actually read the whole article before. I was a weeb once…