Following upon another conversation elsewhere, if I said that traditional Japanese swordsmanship was crude and clumsy, and offered a standard wager of a thousand dollars cash for the winner of a duel with sharps to first blood...
How many perspectiveless nihonjutsu-wannabes would feel honor-bound to give me their money, and how long would I have to stay in jail?
Perhaps the real question is, how many of them would hang around for beer afterwards...
22 comments:
Can I watch? Please?
Sure...
YAY! I dib the cherry stuff you made..
probably not many... the few who really know their stuff wouldn't rise to the bait... the rest are all paper tigers.
Paper tigers with too much pride?
Man, it's a pity there's not a circuit or something... as bad as their footwork is, I could pay off the house in a year...
Of course... we all know spears aren't for fighting with...
Techno: I wouldn't play w/ you w/ anything less than an fn-p90 or CAWS-8 (yes, they made an 8-gauge version). Oh, and you have to be blindfolded and chained at both wrists to Dolly Parton.
So you're saying that the Master has no control? OBVIOUSLY, he will now have to kill you in order to save face... :)
Actually, Jim, you'd be better off with the sharp stuff. It'd hurt a lot less than playing guns with a man who spikes deer at 400 yards.
::sigh:: I really gotta get that shotgun. I got a patched roof instead....
Seriously, though... has anybody you know who's even vaguely competent EVER lost to a Japanese-style swordsman?
I'm trying real hard to remember even getting hit...
Weren't you there when John tried to do Japanese sword against Kevin? It was wildly entertaining, but not very pretty. His shirt had holes in it, hehe. Then again, that was one sword against spear. If he had had TWO swords surely he would have done better since everyone knows you can't fight with a spear..
"Actually, Jim, you..." <-- don't forget I said blindfolded! Of course he has control: that's what I'd be worried about.
You guys obviously aren't masters of Sword Chucks (tm). :)
Hey, Russ, why don't smileys work?
I think it is because it is blogger instead of haloscan and blogger isn't as nice. I think you can get it to do smileys, but I don't recall how right off the top of my head. I think I did it when I first made mine, but I've slept since then and would have to go look at it again.
Yeah, it's blogger. I haven't had a good sit-down with the blog since my machine went weird and won't let me log in via Mozilla.
I swear I have to do a full clean on that machine... but I just puke at the thought of spending an entire day on something like that.
I think part of it has to do with the number of poseurs compared to the number of competent JSA practitioners.. Koryu JSA are still pretty rare in the States, and very often those guys have no desire to come out and play. Many of the Iai schools no longer do even paired forms, being about self-improvment rather than combat... real kenjutsu is even more rare than real iaido, and kendo post WWII is more artificial than sport fencing. However, there are some very competent JSA practitioners around. I wish I could get you up here to play with some of the guys in our dojo.
Post test, it's theoretically possible. I still owe you a visit, anyway... actually two at this point.
Onthe other hand, Chris, you took down your whole school with just yoru wakizashi...
yeah... it didnt last though. :( still, it was something like twice through the group. I couldnt do it consistently... we're more of a spear school in some respects.
I do think the JSA mindset is sometimes to marginalize anybody else - id imagine because they simply aren't used to anybody from other systems having any real training. Why they'd do that with me, I don't know. I supposed it could have something to do with the fact that most of them have never seen my sabre stuff, and i'm not terribly good at the kenjutsu stuff - being rather afraid of breaking my training partners. oh well. :D
That would certainly explain the arrogance and general amazement-with-themselves... as if using the back of one's blade for a deflection were somehow a mystic secret, as opposed to simply parry type 8 of 14...
I've got some of Lance Chan's sabres coming. The best of all worlds where practice weapons are concerned: you can go full=out like a boffer, but with a handling that's closer to a real blade than most bokkens and blunts.
Yeah..it explains a lot, and it doesn't surprise me, because on the whole, the "WMA" movement is so damn dumb that it isn't even half funny.. arguing over absolutely everything, cutting like chopping firewood, etc.. It only serves to reinforce how goofy they are, and prop up the position of the JSA people - especially the vocal beginners who sort of know stuff.
The advanced stuff from my dojo's curriculum is stuff that we as sabre guys would be VERY comfortable with in general. Can't wait to see the weapons from Lance. should be interesting.
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