Video: Chinese Sword Tameshigiri!

[Jack Chen]

http://www.filecabi.net/v.php?file=1120820706.wmv

[Chris McLean]

Enjoyed that thanks

[R A Sosnowski]

http://www.filecabi.net/v.php?file=1120820706.wmv

Interesting. I cannot recall seeing a Jian wielded like a Katana. :rolleyes:

Makes for some "interesting" footage.

[WaterSword]

I have a new respect for chinese swords.

[John J. Montes]

very cool...thanx

[Ren Blade]

Is another way to view this video? It's not playing for me.

If the Jian in the video is being wielded like a Katana, then the use of the Jian in the video would be wrong. Jian is more of a weapon to attack joints/tendons/ligaments and pressure points/cavities. Emphasis is to mainly use the tip for offensive. A Jian's use requires surgical precision.

But I'm interested in seeing this video to see how they demonstrated Jian for tameshigiri. Jian is not typically designed to sever limbs and body parts. Chinese Broadsword/Sabre/Dao would be the more appropriate Chinese blade for that as that blade uses more sweeping cuts.

[Matt Wolfson]

I watched the video. And wanted to know the quaility of the swords. In other words, are these swords worth the price they are asking for them? Anyone own one of these blades?
Matt Wolfson

[Lane Haygood]

Interesting. I cannot recall seeing a Jian wielded like a Katana. :rolleyes:

Makes for some "interesting" footage.

If you can get ahold of it, watch Hatsumi-sensei's DVD "Ken, Tachi, Katana." Essentially, the "ken" of Japanese swordsmanship is a two-handed jian.

[gendzwil]

Gotta watch the terms, "ken" is used both to refer to the old chinese swords and as a generic sword. The "ken" in kendo refers to swords in general, for example. If you use "chokuto" you've got a less confusing specific term for the same thing.

Anyways, chokuto are very old, I don't think there are any ryu extant that teach their use. And they are essentially Chinese straight swords. The Japense style swords evolved from them.

[yen]

I loved the video of the blade being quenched, that was really neat.

One thing I noticed - the gentleman cutting the Tatami seems to be getting very close to his left arm with the blade after making the cut, it's sharp on both sides, correct?

[Lane Haygood]

Gotta watch the terms, "ken" is used both to refer to the old chinese swords and as a generic sword. The "ken" in kendo refers to swords in general, for example. If you use "chokuto" you've got a less confusing specific term for the same thing.

Anyways, chokuto are very old, I don't think there are any ryu extant that teach their use. And they are essentially Chinese straight swords. The Japense style swords evolved from them.

Not a chokuto, though. A chokuto is single-edged (and the Bujinkan teaches this sword). The kanji for "ken" in this case can also be read "tsurugi," which is the name for a Chinese sword (in Chinese, the word for sword (jian) only applies to double-edged swords. Dao, or the equivalent of the Japanese tou, means single-edged sword).

I realize that ken can also mean sword in general (as well as clock hand, or fist) but in the case of a jian, ken or tsurugi works just as well.

[gendzwil]

Whoops, my mistake - tsurugi is correct.

[Risto R]

What I found a bit stupid was the part where they hit who swords together. The other one was raw from the forge, just quenched (and maybe tempered) but not sharpened and the other was sharpened (does anyone know what it was made of? Stainless?). It's very obvious that the unsharpened sword gets no damage as opposed to the sharpened with thinner edge. Duh.

[Jack Chen]

What I found a bit stupid was the part where they hit who swords together. The other one was raw from the forge, just quenched (and maybe tempered) but not sharpened and the other was sharpened (does anyone know what it was made of? Stainless?). It's very obvious that the unsharpened sword gets no damage as opposed to the sharpened with thinner edge. Duh.

I could be one of the few Chinese (or at least, knows Chinese language) here in this board, so I'll just explain what they said in the video.

Though I'm not very good with Chinese sword forging terms, but here goes:

What the swordsmith was saying when he clashed the 2 swords together was, one sword was properly treated (cool the iron with intensive cold, when it is heated to at a certain extent - this is to enhance the hardness), the other one was not.

The one that was properly treated suffered no nicks, while the other one which was not well-treated suffered a nick.

[Icewind]

Thanks Jack.

I am at work so i was unable to translate it. :)

[Jason H.P. Yoo]

I've never done any Chinese arts, but it'd be interesting to see how the use of a shuang-shou-dao differs from the use of a katana (I'm sure iai would definitely be different given the blade configuration, but suburi I wonder about.)