Nihonto in Koryu Bujutsu Today

[rikoseishin]

This is a thread started after this conversation began in another section.

Please post your thoughts and ideas about the practicality of Nihonto, and how you define Nohonto, and their application in the current practice of koryu bujutsu in general, or your particular ryu.
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"The end of our Way of the sword is to be fearless when confronting our inner enemies and our outer enemies."
-Yamaoka Tesshu

Jonah Matheson

[pgsmith]

[rikoseishin]

Paul,

This is just a continuation of the Hanwei Katana thread. I started this thread so that people could continue their conversation form that thread, and still have it in the right section of the forum.
_________________
"The end of our Way of the sword is to be fearless when confronting our inner enemies and our outer enemies."
-Yamaoka Tesshu

Jonah Matheson

[pgsmith]

Ahhh ... I see!

Thanks, I was a bit lost there for a minute!
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Paul

[JLBadgley]

To continue the thread from a previous post:

Regarding Iaito--I shouldn't automatically characterize any sword by its materials alone; there's a lot more that goes into it. And a non-steel sword is essential if you want to get through customs without any problems (I've been through the magnet test). That said, the ratio of metals and the weight is, imho, an issue. I've used Nihonto, Japanese iaito, Chinese shinken, and others. In my opinion, many iaito are too light. Frankly, many shin-shinto are too light, imo. I would contend that later period the swords were more decorative than functional for *most people*. There is a similar trend in Europe where you see the court dress swords getting smaller and smaller, till some are hardly bigger than a dagger and maybe as big around as a pencil.

That said, I don't think we need to go back to the huge Nambokucho swords--some of the tameshigiri competition community really likes these monsters because they usually have a lot of niku and thus both take the punishment and dish it out (even if you aren't very good yourself).

These are my preferences for the arts I practices--ymmv.

-Josh

[shin no sen]

As to the link to iaito I posted earlier.


Hi Moses, I am curious about the iaito you have for sale. It came up in a forum where I had posted a link to your site. Are they made in the USA? or somewhere else? Thanks, John Here is the link if interested.http://forums.samurai-archives.com/viewtopic.php?t=2944


i am a disributer for a japanese company


A matter of what you prefer after all. John
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知恵は時間及びエネルギーである

[pgsmith]

[JLBadgley]

You know, I have used production Chinese swords--and some of them felt much closer to the Nihonto I've handled than some of the Japanese iaito I've purchased, so it isn't always true. Still, they didn't feel like a good custom sword, and I believed they all retailed close to $1k, so they weren't the cheaper swords.

To me, it is more about the smith than 'Nihonto', really. Is the smith a good smith who takes pride in his work and is creating an individual sword? Or is it coming off of a production line? There is definitely a different feel between the two.

Cheap swords out of any country are going to be cheap swords, though.

-Josh

[Lord Ruin]

Interesting. Thank you all for your posts. So I guess the best idea would be to buy the blade first. I'm going to post my other questions about Nihonto in Arms and Armor.