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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ledded" data-source="post: 1512059" data-attributes="member: 12744">Being curved, there is a slight difference in the way that slashing type attacks are made IMO.  While I'm no expert with bastard swords, most of the techinique I've seen differs slightly in the way the grip is executed and the swing arc, but from watching grips and kata with either they are very similar at times.  The differences I'm talking about are really hard to visualize (and therefore, hard for me to describe) but come more from feel.  In Shinkendo (which is an amalgamation of kenjutsu techniques and aikijutsu movements) students are first taught to block without too much regard to sword edge (taking it on the edge in a static block, just stopping the sword).   Later you are taught how to block and move with the momentum to deliver devatingly quick counterattacks (or riposte, in fencing terms).  These have a very fluid feel to them when done right, with little of that 'jarring' impact that you see in the movies, more like you were describing as 'sliding off' and using the momentum to accelerate your own kesa-giri strike or 'sliding forward' to deliver a thrust to chest/abdomen or draw-cut against the kote/wrists. Advanced students are then taught how to position the sword for strikes so that the impact doesnt go *directly* against the honed edge, as not only can that chip or break your sword more easily, but will dull one quickly with too much contact.  It's kind of like a slight pronation towards the angle of cut that allows the blade to impact extremely close to the edge, but turned just slightly enough so that you take advantage of both the edge's hardness and the pronation to take *all* of the jarring effect out of it while maximizing the amount of force you absorb to use for your own momentum.  It's hard to explain really. I have seen a sword used by several students in a row performing tameshigiri against rolled tatami mats and green bamboo become dull enough that Sensei will take it away for a quick sharpening or get another sword to use, basically for the lesser experienced test cutter's protection (a slight deviation in technique or concentration during test cutting can turn a very hard swing into an unexpectedly stuck or glancing blow, a dull sword can compound that with people more prone to make mistakes).  Of course, I've seen him take a sword that someone complained was too dull to cut properly and not only cut kiri-age (upwards) through a piece of green bamboo as thick as your arm but cut the severed piece in half on the downstroke (kesa-giri) before it can fall to the floor.  That's step cut-cut-chiburi and halfway through re-sheathing in less than 2 seconds, and is frightening to behold. One note here though is that his teachings are often very conservative towards sword damage, not so much out of love of the sword as necessity.  A lot of the things he has incorporated came from old training texts, some of which he translated himself, and it's more of a pre-tokugawa jutsu, soldier-samurai feel instead of a more individual or duelling form.  Basically, you have to be careful to not damage the sword, because even if you cut down your immediate opponent, there may be many more right after him before your work is done, and armor is hard enough on a sword by itself. Of course, he has often stated (with a smile) when teaching us these things that a chipped sword is much better than a severed arm. Of course, he also taught us some movement drills that, I cant remember the japanese phrase for, but were loosely translated as 'missing by the width of rice paper'.  For 6 hours one day during one of his seminars we learned how to use economy of movement to step just enough for someone to miss you entirely and be in position for a devastating attack.  It felt very aikido-like to me, and was interesting in practice.  Oh, one of my favorite maneuvers that we learned is where you make a quick kesa-giri or overhead strike, drawing an upwards block from your opponent, but as soon as you start to make contact you quickly pull your sword down and in towards you and deliver a vicious thrust with the tip, all in one movement.  Pulling across his sword allows you to manage where he goes with his blade and also often causes him to try to oppose you, opening him up for the quick thrust as your sword pulls free and there you are, stepping in with your sword ready to put a foot of it through him <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Oh, there definitely is, and it's always better to block with the edge than to be hit.  Mainly we were taught as advanced students how to block with the edge without ruining the sharpness.  But to block by swinging with the edge *into* an incoming swing Kill Bill-style is, IMO, katana suicide. The Bride's hasso stance would have earned her a rap on the back of the thigh or under her bicep with a waxwood stick in my sensei's sword seminar <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.  Really, Uma just did not look like she knew what the heck she was doing, and she was so slow with her swings it was obvious that the 88's where literally having trouble matching her speed at points.  It was like "ok, I'm here, hit me... yup, here it comes... <yawn> alrighty then, I'm not supposed to counter that? <looks at watch, tapping foot>...  You here yet?... <reds a magazine>... hey Tarantino can I go pee while she finishes cutting my torso in half?" to me.  Put it this way... if you can distinctly see the sword well enough to read the inscription during a kesa-giri strike with the film at normal speed, she's too friggin slow to be the master of all things katana.  It looked like she was performing a slow kata with no effort to me.  I have 35mm photos of my sensei performing test cutting and while every part of his body is captured in really good detail, the sword itself is still a tracered blur. I have done some reading on older sword-and-shield techniques, and have a documentary that shows a decent example of a viking sword-and-shield duel.  Very little edge-to-edge contact, and because of the shields a large majority of the wounds inflicted were to the upper cranium, the legs/feet, and sword arm.    <Turns green with envy>  Oh man, I just *love* a sword with some mystery or some kind of history to it.  I bet it's a nice piece indeed.  My sensei in Birmingham has some very nice swords and weapons, he has a collection of various niiiice swords, some naginata and yari, and some very old Japanese flintlocks that are some of the coolest things I've ever seen.  But he's close to 60 now and has been collecting for 45 years.  I'd love to see Sensei Obata's collection, he has brought a few to town during seminars that are just wonderful, functioning pieces of art.  I shall.  Me too... when I was practicing regularly, our session would be warm-up, then normal bokken practice, then kumite practice with the heavy jigen bokken.  Those were so heavy, and you spent so much energy holding them aloft for blocks and practicing the kumite kata that by the time we got to 'live sword' tameshigiri the katana just seemed to zip around in your hands.  It's also amazing how a real katana feels, weight and balance, versus even a decent modern knock-off.  I could be blindfolded, and if you put my katana in my hand and the pretty good carbon steel knock-off I have in the other, in just a few seconds I could tell you which was which.</blockquote>

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