It amazes me how much I see/hear this question: "What is the best weapon?". This is usually in reference to low tech 'martial arts' combat. Swords (and oh the many many types that get argued about), spears, bow and arrow, mace, flail, quarterstaff, sling, club, etc. usually all fall into the mix. But then of course there are plenty who want to throw in the somewhat obscure, much lesser used historically, martial arts weapons such as nunchaku, sai, kama and yes.. even shuriken.The answer, to any reasonable person, is simple: it depends on your situation.
Are you on a battlefield? If you are.. are you on a horse? Standing? Charging? Are you in the front line? Are you wearing armor? Is your enemy? Is your enemy on a horse?
..or were you thinking about carrying a bow and arrow downtown for close quarter combat at the pub?
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3 comments:
Situation is always the determining factor...it seems. Although, I don't think even I could imagine a situation where a long bow would go unnoticed in the local tavern. But, training with some of the traditional weapons (or at least their modern counterparts) could be useful in some circumstances today. Much of the Kobudo weaponry, due to its simplicity have modern equivalents today: knives (obvious), tonfa to a police baton (PR-24), wodden dowel or broomstick to a Jo staff, etc...
Imagination and dedication in training are the only limits.
More here: Kobudo: Traditional Weapons in a Modern World
The best weapon also depends on the skill of the user. A katana does not make one better warrior. Sure it looks cool, but with out disciple, training and practice, it is just a long knife.
In the end, the best weapon is mere the warrior him/herself.
I believe that the human mind is the best (or worst?) weapon. I turn your attention to history where humanity has invented weaponry with increasing deadliness and sophistication. It got so that people don't have to aim the weapon anymore to kill.
This is not a philosophical issue. Look at what humanity has created:
a simple sharpened rock as the tip of a spear;
sharpened rock into a simple knife;
sharpened stick for a spear...;
gunpowder, cartridge ammunition, oriental martial arts weapons (many different types). All of these came from the mind of people who needed more efficient ways to kill that gave combatants a feeling of security because of the distance to the target.
Today, we have pilotless aircraft that carries all types of ordinance and in some instances can be pre-programmed to drop it's load on a target many miles away at a pre-determined time automatically.
In terms of martial arts, a combatant with the ability to grab the first thing they can get their hands on and crack their assailant with it successfully is the best weapon.
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