From A Brief History of the Samurai, by Jonathan Clements — out now in the UK, and in the US in May. I love this passage because nobody knows what an ōyumi was. The historian in me says "crossbow". The science fiction author says "giant robot."

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One casualty of Japanese warfare [in the 9th century AD:] was the ōyumi or crossbow. Seemingly imported from China, the crossbow existed in several variant forms, and was in use as both an infantry weapon and as an artillery piece. In this latter...