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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vigilance" data-source="post: 1658377" data-attributes="member: 4275">Right, that concurs with the reading I have done. One reason why iaijutsu became such a force in Japanese kenjutsu was that the best survival chance you had in a duel was to strike first.In fact many times a Samurai who wasnt quite ready to die would just concede if his opponent drew his sword first, and bloodless duels were fought in the later Tokugawa where the first sword out was declared the victor. While this process became steeped in ritual, it was based on the combat reality that the first blade out was the most likely to walk away. According to a Sensei I read often, this high risk/high reward combat strategy reveals more about Japanese psychology than sound tactical strategy. Many HTH combat styles are structured *exactly* like this (Shotokan springs to mind here) where both fighters would often cripple each other when they attacked, which led to, like Kenjutsu duels, an often long period of studying and watching your opponent, circling him, seeking a weakness in his footwork that would allow you to sieze the advantage.This aspect of the Japanese martial arts is not more evident in the modern world, according to this Sensei, because most fights in the street are conducted between one trained individual and one untrained individual. This affords the martial artist more safety and "self defense" than he would have were his opponent equally well trained. Another example of this psychology showing itself to be quintessentially Japanese is Pearl Harbor. The Japanese leaders at the time were aware that they could not defeat the United States in a protracted struggle. However they were willing to take that chance with a high risk/high reward attack.Pearl Harbor then can be seen as a decapitation attack that failed (barely).Chuck</blockquote>

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