La La Ru wrote:
[Responding to Nate's confirmation of the inaccuratcy of an article on
the topic]
> Yes, Nate. It's a children's "educational" book I recieved on my
> birthday, when I was a child. Simon and Schuster Inc. mostly make
> children's book. I'm quite shocked how inaccurate the information
> is. Thank you for clearing this up. I wish to learn, not stereotype.
> That's a good philosphy.
Children's books are almost always simplified, sometimes to the point
of being just plain dumbed down, a process which unfortunately tends to
lead to gross overgeneralisation that turns into a distortion of the facts.
My own rule of thumb about things like this is to remain suspicious
of a given "fact" until I've seen it confirmed by at least two, and
preferably more, independent sources.
And to more fully answer your original question: I'm sure there was a
range of attitude towards guns among the samurai when they were first
introduced, and there were probably a few grognards among them who
though of guns as unworthy weapons for a true warrior. However, they
were probably a minority -- on the whole, samurai tended to be quite
pragmatic.
Phil