Isao Machii split a stone

[DoTanuki yokai]

What’s next ? 

[PNSSHOGUN]

Impressive, so perhaps some of the myths and legends around great swords cutting through stone lanterns have some validity? You can see the sword he used is bent, there would also likely be many Hakobore.

[Bugyotsuji]

Some kind of soft stone? Strike along a fault line?

 

I posted a stone lantern cut through with a wakizashi about a year ago. 

[ROKUJURO]

Why should anyone try this? What can be proved by such a test other than you have to choose your stone very carefully?

I can use a toothbrush in a drillpress to show that frozen butter can be damaged! 

[Matsunoki]

You can see the stone is a very soft friable material. Something akin to a chalk or soft limestone?I doubt granite would yield the same result!!. Pointless in my view.

[Guest Simon R]

Forgive my bluntness but, personally, I consider this sensei to be first and foremost a showman rather than a martial artist. He appears more concerned with breaking speed cutting records in the Guinness Book of Records and in stunts like this than in promoting classical swordsmanship.

[OceanoNox]

4 minutes ago, SRDRowson said:

Forgive my bluntness but, personally, I consider this sensei to be first and foremost a showman rather than a martial artist. He appears more concerned with breaking speed cutting records in the Guinness Book of Records and in stunts like this than in promoting classical swordsmanship.

As far as I know, he did quit his old dojo to make his own school. He IS good and I will certainly never reach his cutting ability. At the same time, tameshigiri itself has been described by Nakayama Hakudo in particular as a means to an end, not the end itself.

[DoTanuki yokai]

1 hour ago, SRDRowson said:

Forgive my bluntness but, personally, I consider this sensei to be first and foremost a showman rather than a martial artist…

He can’t run around and kill people like Miyamoto Musashi did, so he took a route that is more acceptable in todays world.

[raynor]

One of my students did the same thing to a stone with his hand, it swelled up to double the size overnight and he was sheepish when I told him to go buy a hammer if he wants to keep breaking stones not use his hands.. not why we train, he was lucky he did not break his bones and no one has had to defend themselves against a stationary rock ever. Means to an end indeed!

[Guest Simon R]

30 minutes ago, DoTanuki yokai said:

He can’t run around and kill people like Miyamoto Musashi did, so he took a route that is more acceptable in todays world.

Yeah - and bent his sword. 🤣🤣🤣

[Larason2]

It's true, I want to see the sword after! I hope he did it with a reproduction, and not a nihonto.

[Fuuten]

Quote

Folklore in Japan tells of a meeting between Yagyu Sekishusai and a tengu. A fight ensued and is said to be have been concluded by Sekishusai killing the tengu with a downwards cut that coincidentally split a large boulder in two, near Amanotateiwa Shrine in Yagyu.

 

 

I knew it!

 

Now if only Tengu turn out real too👺

[Bruce Pennington]

Pure theatrics.  You can see the fault-line in the rock protrusion that he cuts off.  I could have done the same thing with a small chisel and a hammer.

 

 

[Guest Simon R]

6 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Pure theatrics.  You can see the fault-line in the rock protrusion that he cuts off.  I could have done the same thing with a small chisel and a hammer.

 

 

Good spot there, Bruce!

 

And he STILL bent the sword. 🤣

[Bugyotsuji]

Tsurugata Yama Jinja, Kurashiki, April 2022.

 

 

 

[1kinko]

Yeah Bruce- but could you have hit the mark with a sword? I could chisel it too, but it’s really unlikely I’d hit that fault line with a swing of the sword. More likely to cut my own leg on the bounce back.

[Bruce Pennington]

Oh, I agree, I don’t question his skill. But on the topic of slicing a rock with a sword, I don’t think it would’ve worked as well if he had hit the rock anywhere else.

[Bugyotsuji]

The guy was wearing body armo(u)r.

[mecox]

I agree with Bruce and also Colin earlier.  Difficult to say what the rock is, but it does look like a fine grain sedimentary rock with a prominent bedding plane, that he hit on the top (we don't see that view).  The colour, texture and the dull sound of the sword strike suggest maybe a chalky (carbonate) material (Colins comment).  Also the rock mass appears to be weathered, which can also produce a clay mineral content.  Certainly if it was an igneous rock like granite it would be a completely different story...maybe with a broken blade.   But the whole exercise seems pointless......be of some value if the details of the blade were known and some before/after pics.

[Bruce Pennington]

Looks like Machii-san was sneaking around our neighborhood last night!!!  Saw this walking the dogs:

 

 

OOPS, I take that back!  I'm claiming that I split this rock with my Mantetsu!!!  Didn't even scratch the blade, either!

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Last month.

 

[Shuko]

On 3/10/2023 at 3:52 PM, mecox said:

I agree with Bruce and also Colin earlier.  Difficult to say what the rock is, but it does look like a fine grain sedimentary rock with a prominent bedding plane, that he hit on the top (we don't see that view).  The colour, texture and the dull sound of the sword strike suggest maybe a chalky (carbonate) material (Colins comment).  Also the rock mass appears to be weathered, which can also produce a clay mineral content.  Certainly if it was an igneous rock like granite it would be a completely different story...maybe with a broken blade.   But the whole exercise seems pointless......be of some value if the details of the blade were known and some before/after pics.

 

the broken blade will be up on eBay soon ...........................