How about them swords?

[Tar Elenion]

Thank you Bill Ferny.
Another book by Mr. Oakeshott (who recently passed away) to be recommended is:
Records of the Medieval Sword, Boydell & Brewer LTD (1991) (expensive)
also:
The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe, by Professor Sydney Anglo, Yale University Press (2000)

Bill Ferny wrote:
To search for a distinctive style of combat that one can universally apply to medieval Europe would be impossible. For example, the fighting methods of the Anglo-Saxon warrior of AD 900 would be considerably different from those employed by a French knight on crusade in the 13th century.

Quite, even in the same general time periods, though similarities naturally existed various European fighting styles were distinct from each other (German from Italian from English from Spanish).

One Axe wrote:
so let's say a feudal japanese warrior with a Katana, a Wakizashi, and a suit if splint mail vs. a 15th century german warrior with a suit of full plate mail, a medium kite shield, and a long sword or flanged mace

NOI, but 'plate mail' does not exist (except in some roleplaying games), similarly for 'splint mail'.
If what you are asking above is 'who would win', then the best answer is which ever one was better trained and more experienced (or less unlucky [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]).