There's an interesing book by Serge Mol: "Classical weaponry of Japan", about the weapons of Edo period, when owning of battle weapon, that is sword, bow, spear and firearms was forbidden to everyone but samurai. Out of over hundred different weapons and their variations presented in the book, 90% are hidden weapons, that is weapons easy to conceal and hide, weapons not even looking as weapons, or weapons masqueraded as items you could openly carry (like very long Japanese pipe, but made completely out of metal). Most of those even had dedicated combat techniques which were taught more or less officially at various dojos.
YES its wild how many people think you could just walk around with a sword in the past or just buy them at a shop like in D&D or video games, it varied place to place but a lot of places restricted the open carrying of weapons in towns
There's an interesing book by Serge Mol: "Classical weaponry of Japan", about the weapons of Edo period, when owning of battle weapon, that is sword, bow, spear and firearms was forbidden to everyone but samurai. Out of over hundred different weapons and their variations presented in the book, 90% are hidden weapons, that is weapons easy to conceal and hide, weapons not even looking as weapons, or weapons masqueraded as items you could openly carry (like very long Japanese pipe, but made completely out of metal). Most of those even had dedicated combat techniques which were taught more or less officially at various dojos.
YES its wild how many people think you could just walk around with a sword in the past or just buy them at a shop like in D&D or video games, it varied place to place but a lot of places restricted the open carrying of weapons in towns