Upcoming Samurai Episode on Warriors with Terry Schappert

[Toshiro Mifune]

Warriors with Terry Schappert on the History Channel

Alex Bennett mentioned this show I think during the post talking about the Japan episode of No Reservations which featured Toda Sensei. I saw Mr. Bennett breifly (1/10th of a second around 1:30 in this video):

http://www.history.com/content/warriors/warriors-video

Warriors : Samurai Showdown
Airs on Friday April 10 02:00 AM


Japan, 1612: Legendary samurai Musashi meets archrival Kojiro in climactic duel. What does it take to be a warrior? Travel the globe alongside modern-day warrior, SFC Terry Schappert, and go inside the culture of some of the most famous warriors of all time to explore their weaponry, tactics and, ultimately, their psyche

[Wookiesmurf]

I think it was OK. I've seen an earlier episode of the show as well (the viking one), and I like how they attempt to approach the subject from different angles. That being said, I feel like they were a bit fuzzy when it came to defining their subject in this episode. Samurai in general (during which time period?) or Musashi?
Also, I wish they would have gotten some SMR guys to show jo techniques instead of Bujinkan (I presume) practicioners. And I wish that Mr. Schappert would give the people he's talking to a bit more time to respond before he answers his own question. Oh well, at least they stayed away from the "zen warriors" myth. No Hagakure quotes either. Kudos.

[Bruce Mitchell]

I also thought it was just okay, I had higher hopes for it. The Yabusame stuff was nice, and the fact that when they were discussing Musashi, they actually bothered to track down the Hyoho Niten Ichiryu rather than just talking to kendoka who extrapolate about Musashi was nice. But then they had to go and through in the F'ing ninjas. Maybe it is that ninjas have infiltrated the media to the point that this is always going to happen, but it is disappointing, because as Kenneth pointed out, it would have been easy enough to find some Shindo Muso Ryu folks to demonstrate and talk about jyo. The bits with the tosho were okay, but they really would have done better to let someone else talk (other than Schappert) about the process of making a sword. Overall, the show should focus more on the guest and less on the host and "dramatic scene splices and graphics", as well as showing SFC Terry Schappert (who I think is doing a great job) interacting with the teachers/experts.

[ScottUK]

they actually bothered to track down the Hyoho Niten Ichiryu

A minor point - this is a breakaway group of HNIR that call themselves Gosho-ha (Gosho-branch) who are quite prevalent on the internet - but not HNIR themselves.

[Wookiesmurf]

... Overall, the show should focus more on the guest and less on the host and "dramatic scene splices and graphics", as well as showing SFC Terry Schappert (who I think is doing a great job) interacting with the teachers/experts.

I agree. When seen as a whole, though, I think the show does a decent job of educating the masses. I feel like I gained some insight from the one about vikings as well as the one on knights I saw earlier today. You're never going to please the experts with a programme such as this.

One thing's for sure, the viking episode made me want to get a dane-axe!