05-08-2004, 10:11 AM
Well, handle a real blade you will do in Iaido, though how much swordplay beyond the first cut is perhaps the open question. btw, my former instructor and dojo is still in town and that year (about 6 years ago) he'd found a smith in China that was making katanas to his (very exacting) standards for about 500 bucks. I could try and track him down and see if he still has the same contact (or similar ones).<br>
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Kenjitsu katas, btw, are usually fairly short, especially ones that involve a partner. The Japanese concept of swordplay involved less parrying (they liked to avoid banging blades, if possible) than most Western styles and less extraneous movement than Chinese styles. The whole switch from tachi to katana was all about the whole "fast draw" thing. (The difference between a tachi/conventional sword mount and a katana is much like the difference between a cavarlyman's secure flap holser and a gunfighter's fast-draw holster.) The samurai envisioned short and deadly encounters. So an iaido draw-cut motion is already about half as long as most of the kenjitsu katas I'd been shown.<br>
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One other aside on a minor point: it wasn't just the katana that they used in iaijitsu, but the wakisashi; the samurai generally left their katanas at the door, not just as a sign of respect, but the long katana could be awkward indoors anyway. I don't know if you've heard that old wives tale that the wakisashi was used just for seppuku, but it's not true. Some special "two-sword" styles even taught them to use both at the same time, much as western duelists sometimes trained w/ sword and parrying dagger.<br>
<br>
Aaron <p></p><i></i>
<br>
Kenjitsu katas, btw, are usually fairly short, especially ones that involve a partner. The Japanese concept of swordplay involved less parrying (they liked to avoid banging blades, if possible) than most Western styles and less extraneous movement than Chinese styles. The whole switch from tachi to katana was all about the whole "fast draw" thing. (The difference between a tachi/conventional sword mount and a katana is much like the difference between a cavarlyman's secure flap holser and a gunfighter's fast-draw holster.) The samurai envisioned short and deadly encounters. So an iaido draw-cut motion is already about half as long as most of the kenjitsu katas I'd been shown.<br>
<br>
One other aside on a minor point: it wasn't just the katana that they used in iaijitsu, but the wakisashi; the samurai generally left their katanas at the door, not just as a sign of respect, but the long katana could be awkward indoors anyway. I don't know if you've heard that old wives tale that the wakisashi was used just for seppuku, but it's not true. Some special "two-sword" styles even taught them to use both at the same time, much as western duelists sometimes trained w/ sword and parrying dagger.<br>
<br>
Aaron <p></p><i></i>
