Originally Posted by zraver

Fighting up close and personal with edged or blunt weapons in addiction to kicks and punches is martial arts.

Personally, I think the samurai would be trying to figure how to get past the kite shield when he would suddenly lose several teeth from it followed by a plunging thrust through the gut while he was on the ground spitting blood and bits of teeth. The Japanese did not fight with them so conceiving of the shield as an offensive tool and not just protection is to much of a leap for me to buy.