tamesu: test, experiment
kiri: cut, kill
The heart pulls.
Trust the work of the blade.
Indeed, one is a living thing.
tamesu: test, experiment
kiri: cut, kill
Until the Meiji Period, tameshigiri was carried out by specialist swordsmen to test newly forged blades and ensure that they would stand up to the demands of combat. Tests were usually carried out on the bodies of criminals. According to the Yamada family, who were sword testers for the Tokugawa shoguns, there were eighteen standard cuts ranging from the most difficult, ryoguruma (a cut across the hips that entailed cutting through the pelvic bones and spine), to the easiest, hiji-tachi, the severing of the wrist. The best blades are recorded as having cut through the waists of seven bodies placed in a vertical pile. On the battlefield, swords would be used against armored opponents, and testing was carried out on both armor and helmets.
Tameshigiri or shizan is now more frequently performed to test the technique of the practitioner rather than the quality of the blade, and the targets are usually soaked rolls of rush matting or green bamboo. The spread of this practice is due largely to the efforts of Nakamura Taisaburo Sensei, who devoted many years to research through his own training and testing, the examination of written records, and through interviews with members of the Japanese armed forces who had used swords in combat.
While training officer cadets of the Yamashita Special Assault Force in Manchuria, he was surprised to find that men who had spent years practicing Kendo and other sword arts had great difficulty in cutting through targets. Out of fifty-two candidates, only fifteen were able to cut through a target of bundled straw. Of the others,
six men made mistakes in their distance, or cutting angle, and bent their swords. Twelve men cut only one-third to one-half of the target before coming to a stop, ten men cut only one-quarter of the target before coming to a stop, and eight men cut only one-fifth of the target before coming to a stop. One man misjudged his engagement distance; his sword tip barely touched the target and flew through the air.
Moreover, because his grip was poor, the sword’s inertia caused the handle to break away from his hand, cut his left knee, and flew about thirty-five feet away. The officer cadet held a third dan rank at his university Kendo club.1
Many swordsmen and military instructors discovered a disparity between Kendo and Koryu training and their actual experiences wielding swords in combat. The Toyama Officers Academy (to which Nakamura Sensei was attached) taught a sequence of kata formulated in 1924 by a committee of koryu masters. These kata were simple enough to be taught in a short period of time and were considered suitable for close combat. Modified as a result of experiences in battle, these kata later became the syllabus of the Toyama Ryu. The most important modification made as a result of experience in the field was the replacement of kirioroshi (the vertical cut) by kesagiri (the diagonal downward cut). Nakamura Sensei found evidence to support this change in casualty statistics from the battles of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 (the last conflict in which large numbers of katanas were used on both sides). During these engagements, the majority of severe wounds caused by swords were as a result of kesagiri.
Figure 13. Gyakukesagiri (Naname Johogiri)
The creation of the Nakamura Ryu kata was the natural outcome of Nakamura Sensei’s decades of training and research. These kata include all eight basic cuts (happo giri) and utilize the spiraling movements that arise naturally from the cutting trajectories and the momentum of the moving sword. Regular tameshigiri is an important part of this school’s syllabus and helps to ensure that kata are performed in a realistic manner.
The effectiveness of the cut (not to mention the safety of yourself, bystanders, and your blade) depends on five elements—correct targeting, correct grip, correct trajectory, integrated use of the body, and correct blade angle. The first four of these should have been mastered through kihon and uchikomi. However, hassuji (blade angle) can only be learned through tameshigiri. Correct hassuji means that the blade is set in the angle of the cutting action. This alignment is difficult to judge in uchikomi and can rarely be discerned from the sound produced when a sword is swung. Many swords have a deep groove (hi) and consequently produce a loud sound when swung (some bokken are also made with this addition). Such swords are popular with practitioners of Iaido, but they will produce a sound even when the hassuji is awry. Even when technical skills have been acquired, to cut effectively the mind and body must be united in a moment of complete focus and relaxation. Any tension, hesitation, or fluctuation can easily distort the grip and trajectory so that the cut fails.
Thanks to the growing popularity of tameshigiri, many swordsmen are now acquainted with the practicalities of cutting. However, as competitions involving tameshigiri have proliferated, the role of this practice within complete swordsmanship has increasingly been forgotten. In attempting to make competitions more attractive to spectators or as a result of efforts of participants to gain competitive advantage, it is easy to deviate from the realities of combat and the principles of budo (as we shall see in the next chapter).
These unfortunate trends have resulted in competitive tests unrelated to combat, swords unsuited to combat, and in judging that fails to sufficiently value combative qualities. I once observed a tournament in which several kodansha (holders of fifth and sixth dan) marked a succession of knockout contests involving basic cuts on a single rolled mat target. The tournament overseer, an eighth dan, then showed me his own marking sheet. In many cases he had given a different result. He pointed out that the judges had looked only at the targets, while he had been watching the competitors as well. This tendency is inevitable since the results of the cut on the target are easy to distinguish, while the qualities of the cutting action itself and the degree of zanshin and kihaku are much more difficult. The most important factor is the free, full, and centered movement that indicates ability to respond on the battlefield (see chapter 6). If one is unable to break an opponent’s guard or to overcome one’s own fear, technical proficiency in cutting is meaningless. A judge who lacks such qualities will be hard put to recognize them in others.
All of the seven basic cuts should be tested against targets and in the same order as they are listed in chapter 1. Tsuki practice should also be included. The ability to thrust effectively will come easily after regular uchikomi practice, but hikinuki, the withdrawal after thrusting, can only be learned by first thrusting into and then withdrawing from a substantial target (similar to the heavy bags used in bayonet training). Hikinuki practice is at least as important as the thrust itself, since it requires considerably more power than the thrust because of the way cut tissue binds to a sharp blade. (This phenomenon also accounts for the way in which the two sides of a wound cling together for several moments after a sharp blade exits and before the blood begins to flow).
The basic cuts should first be practiced standing still and then while stepping in and stepping back. As soon as these actions are performed competently, targets should be set up for test cutting while performing kata. This will quickly reveal that the key to tameshigiri is ashisabaki. The current emphasis on cutting one target many times at great speed is unrelated to combat, where one may well need to deal with more than one mobile opponent. Arm speed is largely irrelevant, whereas integrated and free body movement is essential to responding successfully. A similar enthusiasm for thicker and thicker targets is also misplaced as it encourages excessive force and favors those of heavy body weight who would be severely disadvantaged in actual combat. Although genuine tatami omote2 makes the best targets, the lightweight and much cheaper beach mat will test most aspects of cutting skill (see figure 13).
Figure 14. Multiple targets. The sword is swinging through in preparation for cutting the target behind.
When the basic kata can all be accomplished with successful cuts, multiple targets should then be placed at various heights, angles, and intervals. One must be able to use half steps, cross steps (turning in and turning out), and syncopated steps to quickly and efficiently move into a cutting position while maintaining one’s center. Only then can one learn to use the momentum of the cutting sword between targets. In totsugeki (an advanced practice in Nakamura Ryu) the swordsman must run through a series of targets arranged to the left and right of a center line, cutting each one while passing. Sato Sensei, the current Shihan of Nakamura Ryu, says that with the exception of Nakamura Sensei, he has never seen anyone able to do this without stopping at each target.
Another realistic test is for a swordsman to stand in the center of a number of varied targets marked with numbers or different colors and for an observer to call the order of targets to be cut. In a real situation one might have to respond immediately and appropriately to a number of attacks or threats from different directions. This would require skills never tested in the conventional taikai (tournament) format. Similar deficiencies in the traditional firing range led to the creation of the “Killing House” for the close-quarters training of special forces.
A skill not required with firearms is the ability to use body weight and leverage to complete a cut or free the sword from disentanglement when the target moves during a cut. I had the chance to talk with a retired British cavalryman who was instructed in his youth by veterans of cavalry battles. These instructors stressed the vital importance of knowing when to release a trapped sword to avoid ones arm being ripped out of its socket (the saber was attached to the arm by a retaining cord so it could be recovered).3 Even without the added complication of a galloping horse, the clash of forces between two swordsmen might be considerable. The ability to cut through moving targets without bending, breaking, or losing one’s sword requires a phenomenal tenouchi, nimble footwork, and some grappling skills. Heavy swinging targets give some idea of these demands, but this practice should first be attempted by striking with a bokken because of the obvious dangers to sword and person.
Performing tameshigiri when one is rested and composed does not reproduce the demands of combat. Tameshigiri carried out immediately after several minutes of kumitachi or kirikaeshi is an altogether different challenge.4 As we shall see in the next chapter, technical abilities rapidly disintegrate with fatigue as well as fear.
These advanced practices are as dangerous as they are instructive, and they require great skill and confidence. The key to safety, especially with the practice of tameshigiri, is never to practice techniques beyond one’s competence but to proceed systematically, step by step, through the syllabus (see appendix V).
One should be able to use the same sword effectively in kata and tameshigiri; where this is not possible, the swords used should be similar in weight, length, and balance. Many of the swords used in tameshigiri competitions are too heavy, long-handled, and poorly balanced to use in combat. Although it may be possible to cut through huge targets with such weapons, they have nothing to do with budo, where one must be able to maneuver, parry, and avoid the blows of an opponent. Heavy swords also encourage incorrect use of upper-body strength and excessive body weight. If one chooses to fight with a heavy sword, one should study a school of armored swordsmanship (where its use would be appropriate) and master the deep stances, body weight utilization, and grappling techniques common to such schools. At the other extreme, some use excessively light swords that facilitate fast cutting combinations through soft targets but would be useless against bone and flesh.
Although tameshigiri can easily foster greed and excitement, done well it achieves very different ends. The Zen adept Takuan’s treatise on Fudochi (immovable wisdom), which was composed for the benefit of the sword master Yagyu Munenori, describes Right Mind as “Mind that stretches throughout the entire body and self, whereas Confused Mind congeals and sticks to one place.”
The act of cutting, executed and conceived correctly, releases the mind from such congealment. If the action is less than wholehearted or if the action is emotionally driven, this result is not achieved. Pure awareness and pure energy are the required constituents. The ability to cut freely in any direction and to move effortlessly from one cut to another, from one target to another, and most importantly from one opponent to another, is a demonstration of jiyujizai (the state of complete freedom without restriction; literally “freely free”). This quality, implicit in the act of cutting, is utilized in the meditative ritual of kujigiri or nine-character cutting (which we will examine in the last chapter).
1. From Nakamura Taisaburo, Nihonto Tameshigiri no Shinzui (The Essence of Japanese Sword Test Cutting), extract translated by Guy Power and Takako Funaya.
2. This is the top layer of the tatami matting used in traditional Japanese rooms. Over time this becomes soiled and damaged and must be replaced. This discarded material is free and readily available in Japan, and it is commonly used for targets. Outside Japan the same material must be purchased new and at considerable cost.
3. The equivalent cord for the katana is termed udenuki and is attached through holes in the tsuba (sword guard), indicating similar concerns.
4. Similar considerations prompted European armies to create the modern pentathlon, in which competitors combine shooting with running and swimming.