question for Hyaku (the forum Senior Member)

[shotoblogger]

Hyaku,

On your Hyoho.com website, I notice the very long swords in the Choken Battojutsu Kageryu section. I was wondering if you could make some comments on tsuka length. There is a short article at http://www.bugei.com/LongTsuka.html suggesting that, historically, tsukas may have been longer than what is normally thought. I was going to dismiss the photos in this article as late-Edo anomalies until I noticed in Kanzan Sato's "The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide" a photo of a sword mounting from the Warring States period that has a very long tsuka.

What are the factors in tsuka length? Is it determined by ryu? by practitioner's preference? By a relationship to another measurement in the sword?

How was the tsuka length for modern swords and iaito determined?

Finally, are the bokken used in Hyoho Niten Ichiryu really as long as they look? Are your bokken design all simply based on the heirloom sword or is there a specification that is followed?

Sorry this is so long. Thank you very much for your time.

Yours,
Chris M.

[Hai_hai]

the forum Senior Member? There are a ton of Senior Members.

[Lloromannic]

Maybe it is to differentiate from bizarro-Hyaku

[Nishi]

the forum Senior Member? There are a ton of Senior Members.

Hai Hai is senior Therapist.

[Hyaku]

shottoblogger was just being polite and maybe he was looking at my age?

Maybe some of you kiddies have not heard that word yet?

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.

[Nanbanjin]

shottoblogger was just being polite and maybe he was looking at my age?

Maybe some of you kiddies have not heard that word yet?

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.

Lloromannic is a gifted linguist for a 16 year old, but he does have weird lover Wilde on his side.

[Hyaku]

Hyaku,

What are the factors in tsuka length? Is it determined by ryu? by practitioner's preference? By a relationship to another measurement in the sword?

Bit like a tailored suit. Its best usually make mock-up first.

The tsuka needs to be around a third of the length of the blade for balance. One handed cuts like kiriage are hard if the tsuka is too short. I would have said big tsuka help but as a lot dont do tameshigiri regularly not being part of a curriculum it's not so obvious.

At a battojutsu yudansha level small things like this matter. Sometimes at the end of a taikai we all attempt around ten mats using one chosen weapon for all with a short tsuka. Few do well.

There is a ryu factor too. Some insist that the bottom of the tsuka is gripped with the left hand. This makes sense from a point of view of leverage. Then again some insist that you should hold the tsuka in a way that you feel the nakago inside. As this does not come anywhere near the bottom of the tsuka this grip also makes sense considering good hasuji on a cut. It's not all competition but one millimeter nearer a decided 45 degree cut will win.

Also a bigger sori upsets the kensaki balance.

Finally, are the bokken used in Hyoho Niten Ichiryu really as long as they look? Are your bokken design all simply based on the heirloom sword or is there a specification that is followed?

Sorry this is so long. Thank you very much for your time.

Yours, Chris M.

We use the bokuto as new members initially then go straight to shinken.

But each waza has many permutations. I bit like kendo one could judge every situation to be different: In rising to cut kiriage with a fundamental cut has the opponent started to cut and how far advanced is that cut? Should we cut in between the legs, above the hip or just under the arm?

Its like a constant kae waza in Iai. So we are required to constantly practice technique variation. Also my Shihan had instructed me never to do basic fundamentals for embu (demo). Always use a variation as its Mongai fushutsu (Not to be taught outside). So for this reason I always use a longer bokuto to work on new variations. Mine is Yon shaku (2 metres)

[Lloromannic]

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.

Sorry. I'll do suburi as punishment.

Lloromannic is a gifted linguist for a 16 year old, but he does have weird lover Wilde on his side.

Wilde < Keats, Yeats, Shakespeare, Milton, Anne Rice, Danielle Steele, R.L. Stine, Tolkien, Musashi, bloke-who-wrote-the-Hagakure, J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy and bizarro-Wilde. All at the same time.

[Kaoru]

Wilde < Keats, Yeats, Shakespeare, Milton, Anne Rice, Danielle Steele, R.L. Stine, Tolkien, Musashi, bloke-who-wrote-the-Hagakure, J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy and bizarro-Wilde. All at the same time.

Que? I don't get it... What does this mean, and who the heck is bizzaro-Wilde? I didn't understand what you meant when you wrote "bizzaro-Hyaku" either.

Kaoru

[Lloromannic]

Que? I don't get it... What does this mean, and who the heck is bizzaro-Wilde? I didn't understand what you meant when you wrote "bizzaro-Hyaku" either.

Bizarro is not really a word (in English, in Spanish it means bizarre). However it is used as an adjective in books. The definition varies a lot depending on the writer. Some use it meaning a completely opposite version of something (such as for example a bad superman who wore red tights and blue underwear). Others use it as an eerily similar thing with fundamental differences. Often used to describe alternate worlds or universes like a world in which the sky was red and fish flew). I like the second one more. I used it in this way in both accounts. First to jokingly suggest there was an evil hyaku. Later to mean an also evil Oscar Wilde.
VBut you are a girl. So you probably thik Danielle Steele is better.
So I express that in my opinion Oscar Wilde < (is greater than) all the other authors I mentioned at the same time. Even against evil Wilde.

[Hyaku]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind.

[Nanbanjin]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind.

I think that strictly speaking Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, not buggery.

The tragedy is that Wilde was only convicted and incarcerated after he took legal action to clear his good name.

I'm steering off thread again.

[Kaoru]

Bizarro is not really a word (in English, in Spanish it means bizarre). However it is used as an adjective in books. The definition varies a lot depending on the writer. Some use it meaning a completely opposite version of something (such as for example a bad superman who wore red tights and blue underwear). Others use it as an eerily similar thing with fundamental differences. Often used to describe alternate worlds or universes like a world in which the sky was red and fish flew). I like the second one more. I used it in this way in both accounts. First to jokingly suggest there was an evil hyaku. Later to mean an also evil Oscar Wilde.

Ohhhh... I get it now! Yeah, I knew it was Spanish for "bizzare." The hyphen threw me totally off, and I didn't know how to read it.

hahaha, an evil Hyaku huh? Maybe if he made you do a million suburi he might be. I don't know anything about Oscar Wilde other than his literary works.

VBut you are a girl. So you probably thik Danielle Steele is better.
So I express that in my opinion Oscar Wilde < (is greater than) all the other authors I mentioned at the same time. Even against evil Wilde.[/QUOTE]
Oh, ok. I see. Actually, hehe, I don't like Danielle Steele... Harry Potter rules! MUCH better than Wilde... hehehe, I got bored with his stuff. Anyway, Charlotte Bronte beats him by a mile if you wanna talk good literature! So does Steinbeck and Pearl S. Buck. Oh, and then there is Kawabata's stuff, which I love... Ok, I'll shut up now. I'm just a hopeless bookworm... I eat books. (So my parents think!)

Kaoru

[Kaoru]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

Buggery?? What's that?

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind.

Oooo... That's evil! Owww...

Kaoru

[Kaoru]

I think that strictly speaking Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, not buggery.

The tragedy is that Wilde was only convicted and incarcerated after he took legal action to clear his good name.

I'm steering off thread again.

Yeah, you sure are. Ugh... I don't think I wanted to know that. Unfortunately, I know what that is.

Kaoru