Japanese Fencing: Style and Comparisons, 1890s
To go into details over all the cuts, guards, and points of a Japanese fencer's repertoire is not the object of this article
From: 1888 C.E. To: 1909 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From “Kenjutsu, or Japanese Fencing” in The Fighting Man of Japan by F. J. Norman, 1905.
Two men agreeing to have a bout will, after donning their kit, step into the arena, and squatting down in front of each other, at about eight feet apart, will then proceed to salute one another by a bow. Rising slowly they will put themselves into position with shinai crossing at engage, as shown in the illustration.
To go into details over all the cuts, guards, and points of a Japanese fencer's repertoire is not the object of this article, but it is well to point out here that during a fifteen years' experience of kenjutsu I remember seeing only one man make use of a real back-handed stroke, and he—though one of the best swordsmen in Japan—took the idea, I fancy, from seeing me use it.
Another remarkable point about the Japanese system of swordsmanship is that its votaries never deliver a point except at the throat; but this is, perhaps, to be explained by the fact that until the seventies armour was largely used by them. This point even is more of a job than a lunging thrust, and is delivered from below upwards, with the very evident object of getting in between the gorget and the upper part of the breastplate.
Though highly scientific, kenjutsu is a very rough-and-tumble sort of sword-play, absolutely free from parade and all theatrical touches, but wonderfully practical withal. As Japanese chivalry is most uncompromisingly based upon the idea that all is fair in war, so Japanese swordsmen resort to certain methods which are highly reprehensible from our point of view. Such a thing as giving another man a chance never appears to enter their heads; and so, should a fencer lose his shinai, or fail in any way, his adversary immediately takes advantage of this to push home his attack with all the greater vigour.
The cuts most in favour with Japanese swordsmen are mainly of the chopping order, and mostly delivered at the head and right wrist. Some few, however, pay particular attention to their adversary's stomach, and, if skilful swordsmen, these are the most difficult to tackle.
The cuts at the head and wrist can be delivered from the engage position, and in the case of the former this is done by slightly raising the shinai, stepping sharply forward, and as sharply bringing the shinai down upon the adversary's head with a chop that carries on.
The wrist cut is made by a disengaging cut-over, with, if necessary, a sharp side tap against the adversary's shinai to throw it out of line. Both these cuts can be parried by a slight raising of the shinai and an outward twist of the wrist, and from both parries return cuts can be made at either head or wrist.
Ordinarily Japanese fencers stand much closer to each other than do those of Europe, and it is truly remarkable what little space a couple of good native swordsmen require for a fight to the death. Some on the contrary are very fond of keeping well away, and, if not followed up and brought to close quarters, resort to a widely different mode of attack, consisting mainly of slashing cuts, first with one hand and then with the other, the changes being carried out with wonderful rapidity.
The principal swinging cut can be delivered for either side of an opponent's head, but if he is a good swordsman it is a somewhat risky one to resort to, for he can reply to it by either a stop thrust or a stop cut at the head. The guard for it is a mere raising of the sword to a sufficient height and in the right line. There is only one form of hanging guard known to Japanese swordsmen, and it is seldom resorted to, for it makes a smart return a matter of great difficulty.
The Japanese inhabiting a mountainous country have from time immemorial accustomed themselves to fight more on foot than on horseback, while our knights of old, being differently situated, never fought on foot except and only when absolutely obliged by circumstances to do so. That the western systems of swordsmanship of the present day are relics of the old knightly days there can be no manner of doubt. The sword then was the weapon of the mounted man, of a one-handed swordsman, and to be of real use to him it was necessary it should be of a goodly length, but while a mounted man can use a fairly heavy sword with considerable effect and advantage, a dismounted man is distinctly handicapped by being armed with such a weapon.
Courtly ways succeeding knightly ways, men then took to wearing lighter made swords, but as it was still considered more honourable to fight on horseback than on foot, and as men could not for ever be changing their swords, and as a thrusting sword was just as effective under the newer conditions ruling the non-wearing of armour, so the rapier eventually came more and more into use in the West. With the rapier came the great reliance the European swordsman puts on the point, and with it also came the necessity for fighting on strictly straight lines in contradistinction to lines which enable and permit the breaking of ground by a rougher style of swordsmanship. To use the point to the best advantage a lunging thrust is required, and to deliver a lunging thrust aright it is essential that the ground underfoot should be free of impedimenta, and also on a plane. The existence of such conditions cannot, however, be relied upon, and the consequence is the more the sword approaches the rapier in construction the less suitable it is for use on rough ground.
Now the katana can be used as well on rough as on smooth and level ground, but though a wonderfully effective weapon it is by no means a perfect one, nor is katana-play alone—pure and simple—a perfect system of swordsmanship. Such can only be arrived at by making a new style of sword and instituting a new style of sword-play, combining in them all that is best in the swords of the West and the swords of the Far East, and in the methods employed in their use.
Some of the best points about kenjutsu are, that from every guard or parry some two or more different returns can be made, and that such guards or parries are more of a fending-off order than strictly stopping ones, thus allowing the returns to be made more quickly find the guards with less exertion. Again, neither strength nor length of reach are of such great advantage in kenjutsu as they are in our Western systems of sword-play, and so men of varying sizes and degrees of strength are brought on footings of greater equality when practising it than they would be with us. And then again, while just as scientific as our systems of sword-play, the Japanese system is a much less artificial one, and so with the majority of men less time would be required for picking up a knowledge of it.
Very naturally a good swordsman is held in high repute among the Japanese, but curiously enough a good sword smith is perhaps more so: and the names of such men as Amakune, Kamige, Shinsoku, and Amaza of the very olden days, and Munechika, Yasutsuna, Sanemori, Yukihira, and Yoshimitsu of the middle ages, are known to all educated subjects of the Mikado; and then as for Masamune, Yoshihiro, and Muramasa, their names are household words in every homestead of the land.
The two best swordsmen I have met in Japan were Sakakibara and Henmi. The first was a tall, rather slightly built man. but though a grand swordsman, somewhat inclined to play to the gallery, Henmi-san, on the other hand, was a most unobtrusive individual, standing about five-feet-one, and quite the most graceful moving man I have ever seen: but though Sakakibara had a greater following among the general public of Tokyo, there is little doubt Heumi was the better swordsman of the two. I have seen him, while fencing with a first-class swordsman, stop all of a sudden, drop his shinai, and then invite the other to attack him. But try as this other might, he could seldom get a cut into him, for where Henmi was the fraction of a second before, the spot would be vacant.
The Japanese have always been very fond of giving names to their swords, such names being usually derived from some circumstance connected with their career. The "Grass-mowing sword," for instance, the most highly prized of all the swords of Japan, was so called because, when a brush-wood fire threatened to destroy his army, Yamato Take mowed down the intervening brushwood with it, and so stopped the flames and saved his troops. Yamato Take, it may here be mentioned, was the son of the Emperor Keiko, 71—131 A.D. The "Hige Kiri" and "Hizamaru" were two famous swords belonging to the Minamoto family, and owe their names to the fact that when they were tested on a couple of criminals sentenced to decapitation, one cut through the hige or beard of the victim after severing the head from the body, while the second cut through the hiza or knee of the other luckless wretch as he sat or squatted to receive his death blow.
The following among other mottoes are sometimes found engraved on the hilt of Japanese swords:—
"There's nought 'twixt heaven and earth that man need fear who carries at his belt this single blade."
"One's fate is in the hands of heaven, but a skilful fighter does not meet with death."
"In one's last days one's sword becomes the wealth of sone's posterity,”
Norman, F. J. The Fighting Man of Japan. Archibald Constable & Co., 1905.
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