Battle damage

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Sancar

Tokugawa shogunate samurai katanas are used mostly to cut down armless poor peasents for even tiniest hints of perceived insolance."

Yes, Samurai had the right to do this. But in reality it was an exceptional case if this happened. First, Samurai were also just human beings and secondly, a katana is much too valuable to risk its sharpness in the body of a peasant.
In the Edo-Period Samurai katana were used mostly for duels and wakizashi for seppuku.
It is similar to a european knight, a proud knight only fight against another knight.

Roland