Samurai with crossbows?

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Was this a thing? (I've never encountered it before.)

I'm thinking that if "yes" the source must be pretty obscure. I don't mean Ninja, with stealthy little hand/wrist crossbows - was even that a thing? - I mean mounted Samurai.

I've seen some Russian plastics sculpted with crossbows and I'm wondering if the sculptor was just making things up or not. Or maybe its from a Samurai computer game or Anime/Manga/etc?

[mikos khan]

A few hand held crossbows (shudo) were used mainly in the 9 & 10th century.  As far as I know they were not used by cavalry and were mainly imported from the various Chinese and Korean states.  This is in addition to the large "siege" crossbows know as oyumi. 

[Yuber Okami]

I remember reading that Ainu did use them, and there is a very obscure reference of samurai on foot helding crossbows in the XIXth century, but that's all about it. I guess it's similar to pistol-armed samurai cavalry: according to one army manual of the XIXth century they existed, but there is no mention to them in any battle account.

[Patrice]

It probably depends what we mean by small hand-held crossbows...(?) I don't have difficulty to imagine light, hunting crossbows, perhaps same size than the Pictish crossbow for example. I don't believe much (but that's me  ) that very small wrist crossbows, Dark Elf -style, could be made with historical medieval technology, before very modern steel alloys were recently invented.