Is it true that samurais would break arrows with their swords?

no all samauris had autism, thus why evreyone thought they has special sword powers

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>>2630041

Probably, the last headmaster of Maniwa nen ryu practiced it.

the founder of Ten ryu was said to be a master of it, after winning a duel he was ambushed by the guys followers who shot at him with bows. Using a kama yari (sickle spear) he knocked down many of them but they kept firing and he died "As full of arrows as a hedgehog has quills" according to Amdur's "Old School" book.

That said it seems to be something of a rare skill, only one school today is said to practice it,and only as a adjunct to regular training

>>2630092
Its probably possible but not exactly worthwhile.
Best case scenario youve knocked aside his arrow and youre 2 steps closer to him while he notches another. And another. And another.

>>2630041
They'd try. The casualty rates of samurai era warfare really debunk the notion that these guys were all grizzled master swordsmen.

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>>2630101
I imagine it was a skill that looked really cool--then and now-- I also imagine if you saw an arrow coming at you and you were really good you would try to knock it down and if you could do so consistently people around you would be pretty damn impressed, but people dont strap on thirty to fifty pounds of armor and run around all day in it because its fun.

>>2630109
The grizzled master swordsmen idea only flourished towards the tail end of the Sengoku Jidai and the beginning of the Edo period, when sword school started to pop up when there were no more wars to fight.

>>2630163
Bit more complicated than that. There were stories of amazing swordsmen in Japan at least as far back as the Konjaku Monogatari, and while There are few if any public sword schools in Japan prior to the 1400's We know for a fact there were many familial and in group traditions that preceded it, going back to the nara period or before.

Kashima shinto ryu is a good example, even though the school was "founded" in the sengoku, much of the material was derived from practice going on at the shrine for centuries prior.

Of course few of these were solely sword traditions but usually involved all the standard weapons of war.