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Comments
And of course the katana broke- I'm fairly sure they're cutting weapons, not slashing/hacking weapons.
With longsword, your strike is your parry. If you must parry defensively, then the flat is better (you might notice a nick in the blade of the longsword in that gif), but ideally you meet a strike with another strike. Edge-to-edge combat and contact is a fundamental element of European fencing.
That isn't any kind of shit a Samurai would wear. Nor is that how...
wow, just, fuck that video.
But some myths need to be purged with steel.
KATANAS CAN CUT GLASS AND METAL GAIZ THE SAMURAI SHARK IS PROOF OF THATTHE WORLD IS DOOMED
Gun vs Sword. But splitting the bullet would mean the wielder of the sword could be hit twice by one shot.
Against more modern military weapons a sword user wouldn't stand a chance.
Although it's far from a done match. I'd say the knight has a bit of an advantage, given that the gaps in samurai armour are generally easier to get to; the knight has the option of wielding his weapons as per normal while the samurai has to win by submission and then finish the knight while he's down.
I don't know what kind of teachings there are for the kanabo, but a flipped longsword held along the blade is a pretty awesome blunt weapon. It has range, power, control, hooking ability and all the standard longsword teachings apply to it.
EDIT: Shield combat is actually never taught in the combat manuals, as far as my experience goes. There's plenty of buckler teachings and then there's some much later Scottish teachings for round shields, but full-sized shields in the context of war disappear when the longsword becomes more standard-issue for knights. I think some editions of the Talhoffer combat manual might include shield teachings, but those are strictly for judicial combat.
Since the earliest manual is dated around the 1380s, which comes directly from a student of Liechtenauer, we can tell that shields fell out of favour for German knights at the very least by the mid 14th century at the latest. This is also a time when "transition plate" became a type of armour, which was essentially chainmail reinforced by plates at strategic locations. Transition plate armour had become proper early plate armour by the latter part of the 14th century. Between the protective power of this plate and the offensive might that two-handed weapons such as the longsword could contribute, shields were mostly phased out of knightly combat.
All the same rules, conventions and systems apply. You simply deal a different kind of damage and can hook objects (and, in turn, are vulnerable to having your sword hooked). The longsword's versatility means it's based on a system that resembles staff just as much as it resembles sword. That works wonders for everything, including blunt weapons.