When a bushi was going to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide, he would be assisted by another bushi called the kaishaku his job was to cut off the head of the bushi performing seppuku (or almost cut it off-there were different kinds of cutting, but that’s outside the scope of this essay). 49)īushi *did* practice one kind of cutting practice called “suemonogiri”, but that had a specialized purpose. Educated or high-ranking bushi did not practice Tameshigiri, as it was purely a test of the sword’s sharpness, and in no way a measure of the samurai’s skills.” (Fumon, T., Samurai Fighting Arts: The Spirit and Practice, Kodansha Int’l., 2003, P. “Tameshigiri was used to test the sharpness and quality of a sword: often it was carried out on dead bodies, tied-up living criminals, or bamboo straw test objects that had been secured to something. “What?!” you cry, leaping to the scent of blood, “Have you never heard of Tameshigiri? Do you think we made that up?!” No, you didn’t make it up, you’ve been lead astray as to what it is. Bushi (what are know as Samurai today) didn’t do test cutting. I know, I know, that sounds heretical, but it’s true. In actuality, test cutting is not part of Japanese sword practice (well, not exactly). Vast hordes of them practice test cutting of various sorts because they believe it will help them to cut better they wax rhapsodically about it, actually, telling us that you can tell how perfect a swordsman’s cut is by how cleanly it cuts through the target while at the same time telling us that their swords are perfect razors whose merest touch will slice off a hand, apparently not seeing the inherent contradiction: If the sword is actually that sharp even a clumsy cut will kill-why do more? The idea of test cutting comes to us from Kendo and Iaido practitioners. This essay will show that test cutting has no value, no historical provenance, leads to bad swordsmanship, and confuses people about how swords work. Doing so makes them feel cool and fierce and warlike when, in fact, all it really does is to lead them astray. People love to take up their shiny, sharp swords and hack through various objects ranging from pool noodles to water bottles to rolled tatami.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |