The sword rules II-To cut or not to cut

It is a good thing to listen without arguing. I can’t say this in a more direct and simple way. It is good to listen to someone’s point and remain calm, passive, both internally and externally, and try to understand what it is one says… All that, without thinking of your “gun in your holster” all the time, the moment will come to declare your own point, it always comes…
In any way and for whatever reason, it is a weak thing to argue about anything. Not to mention that this applies even if you absolutely know, and you are certain in the most of scientific ways, that “right is on your side”. There is no point in entering a talk that is lost before it even starts. If one needs to get verbally into a fight he might as well “talk to the hand” as they say.
It is well known among diplomats that those who enter a negotiation by argument, protest and jabber, are on the loser’s side.

Respecting a choice which I do not agree with
The somehow dramatic title (to cut or not to cut) has to do with the practice of tameshigiri, which is the most known word in use for the practice of target cutting with a sword, in our case with a Katana.
I have paid every attention possible into the direction that says we should not practice tameshigiri. And while I do not agree with them I still understand and respect them.
So, here are the reasons as found by a number of Iaido schools, which are as official as they can get, in every respect! For practical purposes I state my thoughts and observations right beside them.
Please note the following: I like to think what I say (to the extent of my own capacity of thinking) and say what I mean (no compromise to that). As sincerely as I can put it, if someone reads this and is convinced for the opposite of my reasoning, I would think it as a success all the same… This is not an argument and one should be free to treat his sword as he prefers to. This is a rare case where two different directions of thinking can land even.
I perfectly understand that buying a Japanese sword with the sole purpose to chop down objects is of no point at all. In fact, in my own personal view, Iaido with a live blade should be practiced on a regular basis, while tameshigiri can be a supplemental practice done on occasion every now and then… I know this does not sound specific, but why put a number here?
If your feeling is that you would like to keep your Katana intact go ahead and keep it that way… If you have room for a piece of advice, always practice with a live blade…

So, here we have, one by one, the official objections against tameshigiri:
The Katana is not a tool of some sort
No, this is not so! The Katana is a weapon of the past which today has become a tool of practice… Tameshigiri is part of that practice. It takes skill in order to do this and it takes knowledge of how to do this. Different kinds of targets create different challenges to both, the sword and the practitioner. It takes security measures, which are additional and supplemental, to the ones needed when practicing standard Iaido (the Art of drawing the sword) with a Shinken (live blade).
The Japanese sword is one of the three treasures of the Imperial family and thus it is considered sacred
The Emperor Meiji took one of Japan’s most difficult decisions in its entire history, back in 1872. It was clear, it was immediate and it was full of blood. Specifically: No more carrying swords, no more hair top knot, no more Samurai class!
Can we please leave it at that?!
The Katana is considered as the soul of the Samurai
Yes, indeed… Regardless of the fact that I am closer to being a Jedi knight (or a Sith warrior) than a Samurai, let me ask the following. If memory serves Samurai used real bodies, both living and dead, in order to do some cutting. On which part would a Samurai’s soul, body or mind be displeased or insulted, if I am to perform cutting tatami omote for instance?!
Cutting objects with a Katana is a disrespectful act
…not if you do this with a serious mind and with respect!
It is pointless to cut objects that do not fight back
...but cutting the empty air in front of you on imaginary enemies, like in hundreds of Iaido systems, is not?!
The act of tameshigiri builds an aggressive mind
I was a teenager in the ‘70s my man. So those kinds of statements don’t work on me much, because I can take this and upgrade it until it collapses…
So, re-think the following: Building a sword in the first place is an aggressive mind!!! Under this thought pattern, why not skip the entire sword business at its roots?! After that, we could stick… to the stick (Jo) for our weapons practice… Wait a minute! Now that I think of this, this would be an excellent idea for an imaginary peaceful Hippy-Samurai that could have existed in the Kamakura period, tossing his sword for a Jo. My point is, today nobody dies by the sword… Remember?! It is a tool of practice…
To practice tameshigiri is disrespectful towards the sword smith
We are actually doing him a favor by letting him build more swords… and we are giving re-polish craftsmen a bowl of rise on their table…
A sword which is not used in tameshigi can “live” for hundreds of years
When I die please toss my sword into a deep sea… A weapon is maybe the most of personal artifact in life, and outliving its owner is a kind of shame…

Insult vise versa
Ironic as it may sound, it is the malpractice of cutting stuff in backyards, which is mainly responsible for the existence of the Katana nowadays. Those “disrespectful” people who buy Japanese swords and hack down in their backyard anything they come at, have created a need for cutting swords, once more (…and as we all know the internet contributed big –time as well!). Before that, before 1989, it was near to impossible to find a decent live blade… without selling your car!

It is historically proven (even in the land of the rising Sun and at the times of the Samurai) that when swords are not put in actual use, sword smiths start gradually to build them light, weak and unable to perform the tasks created for. And as a result they have proven to be dangerous as well, since if such a sword is put in use, for one reason or another, it will fail to perform, bend or break, injuring its own user.

Nowadays the options are telling us something more all by themselves…
The market is blooming and you can find sword producers that have a great variety of collections. Of course, since their business is to sell, they are promoting all swords equally… But if one is careful in his research he will surely notice the swords which stand out for the purpose of practicing also tameshigiri with them. And they usually are, robust, simple in their blade design, with a longer tsuka and without any needless for the practitioner decoration…

My rule: The greatest of insults towards the Katana

Iaito
Once, when I was yet an apprentice, I joined an Aikido Summer seminar in Great Britain. The head instructor was one of O’Sensei’s uchi deshi and at one point someone of his senior Iaido instructors came to realize that my sword was sharp to shave… He then asked me full of surprise THE question: Why is your blade live?!
I was so overthrown and flabbergasted I did not know what to reply, so I just whispered “Because it’s alive…” I did not join this particular seminar alone, and those with me were talking about it for weeks, repeating this small incident, laughing and imitating the face I made, when I had to explain myself about my sword…

It always was and still remains for me very difficult to understand the purpose of an Iaito. A sword should be real, with all the risks that this involves, otherwise one can seek other forms of practice…
There are Boken coming with a Saya (sheath) which can be used for a long time by a beginner practitioner, until he becomes fully accustomed to the difficulties and dangers of specific Iai-jutsu styles, but that is as far as I would go.
The ability of actually fighting with a sword lies within the practice of Kumitachi, one does not need to go any further than that. The use of an actual sword (Shinken) for practice, should serve as an extension of the Kumitachi and as an opportunity for solitary practice. I would like, for the purpose of being politically correct, to squeeze the Iaito somewhere between the practice of Kumitachi and before having a real sword to practice, but I have no heart to do so…

Creating a sword that does not have the ability to cut is like creating a mirror which does not reflect back its user’s face…
Technically speaking it is like building a car in every detail but in the end this car will never run…

I really try to make the purpose of an Iaito stick somewhere… I would like to prove me wrong (no typo here!) but without any trace of egoism I am forced to use the most egoistic of phrases. “I know best” why an Iaito is wrong because I have had a few of those for far too long, damn it!!!
When I started practicing there were no “real” swords on the market, there actually was no market for them. On top of that, even if there were any, there simply was no money to afford them, for crying out loud.
So, what we did, was the “the stupid thing to do” and so we did! Meaning buying Iaito and try to sharpen them as best as we could… and I would do so today again if I had to. Of course we did never use them for any kind of Tameshigiri, we would only test them against paper to see if our honing was good enough. We were stupid out of need, we were not “THAT stupid”.

When times changed and it was possible to have a Shinken of my own, my first impression, comparing it to the tin-thing I had so far, was the following: If I had to go back and have an Iaito again I swear I would build me my own Katana even if it took me two years with a hammer and a piece of iron in order to do so…
Warning: If you practice with a live sword it is a question of time that you will cut yourself… The Katana was, is and remains a weapon. One must be careful as hell in order to minimize the danger, so it becomes an acceptable risk with the minimum possible effect…
  
Museums
I need a good example for what I am about to tell and as I sit here it came to me… This morning I went to a company which is called Miele. Nothing to do with swords, Miele creates washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, that kind of stuff… So, they had a small exhibition stand with the first of Miele’s wooden hand maneuvered washing machine… I did sit there with a smile on my face trying to figure out how this thing worked, with little success I must admit!
This kind of museums I am fond off.
I don’t like any kind of weapons museums, whether they are swords, guns etc.
They make me think of those who might have died in combat, they make me think of those who had to use them and spilled blood…
I never have “fun” when I practice with my sword. I must be careful not to injure myself in the process or anybody else. And when I finish my dangerous practice I put my sword away, always serious, always respectful, and then I go about my business and my peaceful acts.
I despise weapon museums because I think that a weapon should die with its warrior or stay along with his family, his descendents, hidden from exhibition or the public eye…  

Investment collectors
The worse of fates that a sword can have is to land in the hands of an investment collector! Along with many cunning sword craftsmen, collectors have practically created a spiral of death for the sword… Specifically, sword craftsmen hiding behind the excuse of being “officially recognized” are still creating swords “traditionally” in every way, making it totally impossible for a normal person to buy them for their normal use… Very convenient for investment collectors who buy them with their fat money, look at them with their magnifying glasses and then stash them away in some private collection… On top of it both the craftsmen and the collectors, having fulfilled each other’s need, pose proudly for magazines, “art” exhibitions, books, documentaries and all kinds of “authentic recognitions” with the excuse of preserving the tradition of the art! But in fact nothing is further from the truth…

There are endless ways of being wrong, but regarding the sword this is as far from the warrior’s spirit as it can get…

July 21, 2012