It's all in Technique

[Stephen]

 

[Scogg]

The mihaba on that last one is wiiiiide 

 

Is that one of those swords designed specifically for tameshigiri?

Edited December 30, 2023 by GeorgeLuucas
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[Stephen]

What I was thinking Sam, following for our cutters on board.

[Katsujinken]

The last fellow is from Fukushima. He’s fantastically skilled, including with a sword that is not a ridiculous abomination like the one he’s using here. 
 

This cutting challenge is called yoko narabi. 
 

It’s an impressive feat to develop, but it is not budo (especially with a sword like that).

[Stephen]

First off I don't dislike like anyone on board, didn't mean to have anything deleted. I ve been around Nihonto for some time, and have seen a beast of a sword at shows, also ducked a sword at Tampa show when a new student let his sword fly out of his hands doing his kata.

I figured the weight of the blade helped in sensei success. 

The clip is biased, highly edited to show fail after fail, then success with more matts. 

 

Thanks for your explanation  Michael. 

 

Was hoping for swingers to chime in is all..

 

Peace be with you all in what may be a very interesting New Year.

 

 

[Katsujinken]

It’s true a top heavy / tip heavy sword makes cutting easier. However such a blade is difficult to move and fight with, especially if there are multiple targets. Extra wide and thin blades are also easier to cut with, but are equally unrealistic. 
 

Over time as tameshigiri has grown in popularity and taken on more aspects of “sport” the same has happened to the equipment: in other words “optimizations” have appeared that have little to do with the true principles underlying the practice. In my personal opinion most tameshigiri practice today has more in common with golf or juggling than with budo, which is unfortunate. In my dojo we try to develop our skills without losing that connection.  
 

Nakamura Taisaburo, who should be well known to any practitioner, wrote about this extensively, and that was decades ago.