Ken-Hawaii

Malcolm, thanks for those two links - very interesting! Is the Masakiryu link related to you in any way? I also trained at the Kodokan in the 60s, but had no idea they were training in so many esoteric weapons. The bola is an amazingly effective weapon, Curtis. I have a friend who raises emu & llamas over in upcountry Maui, & I was wondering how in the heck he could catch a bird that can run 40 mph. He pulled out a 3-ball bola & showed me how quickly it can bring a bird - or person - down. Each cord is about 2 feet long, so as it goes whirling, it covers a wide area. The trick is to not use your wrist to twirl the bola, but rather use your whole arm to keep the cords from tangling. Fairly easy once you've seen it done, & it worked well on my manrikigusari, too. Our jodo Sensei trains our Senior Student in kusarigama & jutte, but my wife & I have a long road ahead of us before we'll be that experienced! Ken

Ruber, I've been training in MJER for decades, & don't think I've ever seen a blade as long as what you are using. My own iaito is considered fairly long at 2.55 shaku, so your blade qualifies as a tachi (defined as 30-inch nagasa or longer)! I would be very interested in seeing how you do sayabiki & noto. I've heard of martial artists who use nodachi (take a look at http://koryu.com/photos/aj1042.html for an example), but that's sure not how I learned MJER! Ken

The chain is too large to make an effective garrote, Curtis; piano wire works much better. Slices & dices as well as strangles. I've been playing with the manrikigusari today & have found a couple of interesting ways to use it. It makes a fairly good bola, & I was able to hit a 2x4 at 10 feet 8 times out of 10, with the chain wrapping around it every time but one. I've had some practice throwing a 3-ball bola to catch emu, & this wasn't much different. The fundo are pretty good size on mine, & my hand isn't quite big enough to completely hide it. Snapping it out sidearm (the way I throw a baseball), I wasn't always able to hold onto one of the fundo, & I think that losing the weapon doesn't make for a good tactic. I'm looking forward to receiving the book that Curran recommended, but rather expect that Sensei will be able to show me a few practical ways to use it. Ken

I'm curious, Joey - how much have you spent on Nihonto reference materials (books, DVDs, etc.)? Ken

Ed, I got caught up with drumming 'way back in grade school, & have been collecting them ever since. Last count was 102 of them on top of nearly every flat surface that's out of reach of our cats. Actually, the cats like to sleep on top of my tympani, & use the congas to jump from place to place. I hadn't set my new chu-daiko drum on the floor for 10 seconds before a cat claimed it (yes, she's a very large cat!): If I can ever teach them to keep rhythm, I'll be able to make one hell of a YouTube video! Ken

Ko-daiko & shime-daiko are the most fun to play, but my huge o-daiko sure wakes up the neighborhood! Here's what I'm playing these days: Ken

Thanks, Curran - I just got my copy on order. I'm bringing the weapon to jodo training on Sunday. I've brought about 6 different weapons so far to see if I could stump Sensei, but each time he's been able to not only identify it, but also to demonstrate how to use it. I have the pleasure of training under Quintin Chambers, Menkyo Kaiden, who wrote quite a number of books, including http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Fighting-Te ... -1-catcorr. I'll let you know if the manrikigusari stumps him. Ken

Edward, your drum is almost certainly made from a single piece of wood. I can't tell the size from your photo, but if the head diameter is 12-18", it is called a ko-daiko; if it's 18-33", it's a chu-daiko; & if it's larger than that, you probably have a hernia moving the o-daiko into your house! I have an o-daiko that took four of us to bring inside, not including removing the door frame! Ken

I'm not sure if any of you are looking for digitized copies of sword books, but if you browse to http://ebooklink.net/g/search?q=Japanese+sword you will find a bunch of possibly useful material. I own all of the books I downloaded, but it's nice to have them in PDF format - saves a lot of back aches dragging them to our sword society! Ken

Yeah, that's pretty darn illogical.... You can probably carry your .45 pistol down the street, eh? Ken

Ruben, I'm not sure which "straight sword" you're talking about. Other than shinai, we use standard bokken/bokuto in our kendo dojo.

{Brian, thanks for moving this to the right spot!} John & Curran, thanks for the identification! I tried to search for Japanese bola, & of course nothing came up except bolo ties.... There was nothing in the package except a note than said "Ken-san, fore yu" & I recognized the address. Why are they illegal in Canada? Looks like you could do the same thing with a couple of lug nuts & a rope of light chain? Ken

I know this is a Nihonto discussion board, but I this afternoon received the following object from the estate of a former Japanese Sensei, & I'm at a loss as to what it is: http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o52 ... sebola.jpg Did the Japanese use bola or something similar? The length is 32 inches, & each weight is about 1.5", & total weight is around a pound. I doubt he would have willed anything to me that wasn't a weapon.... Any ideas? Ken

Brian, I strongly suggest that you delete this thread completely! If this kid does buy a sword, & proceeds to chop off a few body parts, I don't think you want any of our recommendations to be blamed for his stupidity! Ken

Lev, you're asking us to give you buying advice based on very little information, & some guesses on your part, even at that. Get some good photos & ask again. Ken

Hope you didn't buy this Chinese junk blade, Alan. Ken

Marcello, it may be the angle of your shot, but it looks like much of the niku is gone from the kissaki. I agree it looks strange, but I can't think of any way to reshape that part of the blade. Hopefully, one of our togishi will have a better idea, but in the meantime, could you take another photo showing the entire boshi directly from the side? I think that would make things clearer. Ken

Same here, Dimitri. Check your browser & delete the cache. Ken

James, that's a wonderful chunk of advice! As much time as I've spent on that Web-site, I've managed to miss Richard's post. Great find! Ken

Mark, the small knife is called a ko-gatana. Ken

Well, with three grandkids, I'm not exactly young, either, Mike. The problem with impulsiveness is that you almost always end up spending more $$ on things than you would if you had spent time time & effort to research what you want, & to then talk to more-experienced collectors to find a great deal. I'm sure you're discovering that a Nihonto collection is not the cheapest thing you'll ever buy, so this applies here in particular. I'm lucky in that my wife & I have both been swinging swords for many years - we both hold black belts in Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu iaido - & so we both love Japanese blades to begin with. Linda comes up with a budget, & then we both start looking around to add to our collection. After comparing notes & often asking the real experts in our local sword society (I'm its VP), we're fairly confident when we do buy a blade. If you insist on buying a blade without doing your learning & research, Mike, save some bucks & buy an iaito to start; that's the practice blade for iaido; check out http://www.tozando.com. You'll get the feel of having a Japanese blade without the high cost of a Nihonto, which will then hopefully give you time to learn enough to spend your money wisely. Ken P.S. Please sign your posts with your name, per Brian's rules - thanks!

Welcome to the forum, Mike. You're right that there are a lot of experts hiding in the wings here, & they will often pop up & give you some free golden advice. The first advice for you is to take 9/10 of your $4000 & put it somewhere safe. Take the rest of the money & invest in a number of good books so you can figure out what you want &, possibly, why you want it. Everyone who gets into Nihonto wants their first blade instantly - I was certainly no different - but a fellow iaidoka convinced me to take the path of learning before buying, & I'm eternally grateful to him! Your first book should be "The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords" by Kokan Nagayama, $51.97 on Amazon with free shipping. The second book I'd recommend is John Yumoto's "The Samurai Sword," $18.35 in hardcover at Amazon. I also like Nobuo Nakahara's "Facts & Fundamentals of Japanese Swords, A Collector's Guide," $26.37 on Amazon. You can see, Mike, that it won't cost you a fortune to get some excellent study guides so that when you DO buy your first Nihonto, you'll have lot more knowledge & background. I'm sure that other NMB members will have other suggestions, too. Good luck! Ken

Rob, in case you still don't understand, the marks on the nakago (tang) don't mean ANYTHING. They are faked by some Chinese shop that wanted you to think you were getting a real Japanese blade. You didn't. Go chop down a tree or two, & then at least you'll get something useful from that blade. Ken

Adam, you don't think that some daimyo would stoop to cut & gather heads, would you? He had lots of vassals to handle those chores. Just think of them as "accountants" of a sort.... Ken

Yitzy, I seem to be missing something on the "reverse" you mentioned. Do you mean that the mune is sharpened? Doesn't look like that from the photos. And I'm not sure how one would do noto (resheathing the blade) if the mune was sharp.... Counting your fingers would be a must! The smaller blade is a wakizashi, right? I just measured my two shinken, & one is about the same thickness as yours is mune-to-ha, & the other one is a bit thicker than that. I've used both of mine for tameshigiri for many years, & neither feels particularly heavy or off-balance. To my knowledge, no blades were made specifically for kaishaku (helping your friend die by beheading him during seppuku/harakiri), & it wouldn't make much sense to have a thicker blade made for that as any decent blade can easily cut through the neck area if wielded correctly. Ken