Tameshigiri and other ways of testing the Japanese swords

Text Pavel Bolf
Foto Zdenek Balzer
Translation Jan Beneš

Tameshigiri is a good way to test the blades quality. But it is good to realize that well experienced swordsman is necessary to test it.
In a history there were specialists in sword testing. According to its making process, which is quite difficult, Japanese sword is a really expensive thing. Neither his owner nor his producer would be glad to see their sword being damaged or destroyed while testing.
Swordsman beginner should pay enough attention to cut practising and study the techniques in some Iaido (Iaijutsu etc.) school before trying to cut makiwara.
For cutting practice you can use boken - wooden sword (good for cutting woods). Vertical cuts in a different level (head, hips, torso.) into a post (fixed in the ground) or dry tree improves sword holding and accuracy and strength of a cut.
You can use suburito (sword for suburi practice) for working out your muscles, especially forearms. It is very similar to boken (bokuto) but much bigger and often also longer, which makes it heavier. It is hard to buy suburito here. Chinese producers which supply most of our wooden-weapons market might not realize the importance of suburito. They only copied its profile shape but have forgotten on its robustness and mass of the material. That makes suburito often lighter than bokens from the same producers. I use piece of beam as suburito.
It is 15x15x130cm adapted to this use (about 30cm of a handle). It doesn´t look that good but serve well to its purpose. You will feel the difference on your forearms already after the first week of practising.
It is also good for cutting woods we mentioned before and it is also easily replaceable.
The market disposes of a good bokuto selection. I always choose Japanese production. It is more expensive but bigger and stronger which make it more secure for contact practising (breaking). You don´t have to buy a new one so often so the money comes back. Good quality bokens are also heavier that makes the feeling more similar to practising with steel swords.
In case you own a steel sword, use that one for suburi practice.

Sword choosing

There is a large selection of swords on todays market. There are the emporium swords, big companies with swords of a different prices and qualities, small producers with special orders and Japanese sword-cutters. Those are the best but also the most expensive. The lowest price level is about 200 000CZK while the cheapest usable swords are for approximately 9000CZK. Future owner should know the purpose he is buying the sword for and what he expects from that weapon. The price guaranties the quality rule pays here more than anywhere else. Let´s start with the construction of the blade. Most of the beginners want light, sharp and also resistant sword. But that is really in contradiction with reality. The blades used in battles were a very robust frame, especially arching of the planes that make the edge (hiraniku). These planes have a lens shape. The more the edge is bulging up the more resistant to chipping it is. Nevertheless it doesn´t seem to be as sharp as a sword with small hiraniku. Such sword is razor sharp but irresistible to chipping. And of course the weights of these two variants are much different.

The quality of the blade

It is important to know that it is possible to break, bend, or somehow else damage every sword, no matter what the quality and price is. Cutting stone lamps (Zato-Ichi), iron tubes (highlander) or using the blade against another blade (most of the movies) and all that would lead to damage the sword. Those are just tricks with no connection to reality. The blades are designated for cutting flash and bones, not for wood chopping. The blades made in a traditional way are hard to break (not impossible). Inexperienced cuts more likely crook the blade (it can also crack in the line of hamon). Crooked blades could be repaired.
Sunobe blades are much easier to break and there always is the risk of breaking them. This risk is higher with whole-blade-hardened blades while blades hardened on hamon are more resistible. But it also depends on every single piece. The hardening process is very difficult and also further tempering is very important. It depends on the producer and what quality is he able to achieve. Sunobe blades are better thicker because they are much resistible than thin blades.

Sharpness of the blade

The sharper the blade is, the better it shears. So the smaller hiraniku it has, the sharper it is. The sharpness itself is unnecessarily overestimated question. In my opinion technique is more important. But of course, blunt sword is no good either (for tameshigiri)

Materials for tameshigiri

The list of materials suitable for tameshigiri is short. Wet straw is the best (as tied sheaves, beach mats tied into cylinder, or tatami). Its firmness gives the feeling similar to cutting human body (I have read that) and it doesn´t harm the sword (the edge). Dry straw can harm the swords with small hiraniku (little chips).
It is also possible to cut paper tubes. But these are very difficult to cut thank to its resistance, so the blade can be easily crooked or broken. Bamboo is also suitable but it must be fresh (green). Dried bamboo is too hard.
Any other materials such as wood, iron, plastic bottles filled with water and so are not suitable for cutting. Not even fruits and vegetables. Machete would do. They also content some aggressive liquids that can harm the blade.
The blade must be cleaned very carefully after every use. Do not put the blade inside the scabbard when cutting the wet straw. Wet condition inside saya is hard to remove and the blade will get rusty.

Finally

Mind your safety and watch out for the others around while practising with sharp blade. Nobody should stay in direction you are cutting tameshigiri. It could be very dangerous in case the blade breaks. Those who had practissed with iaito should thing about bad habits. You should slow down especially while drawing and noto (putting the sword back to the saya). Jokes with the sword pointed out on others are not relevant. If somebody hurts himself it is his fault not the swords. Talking about practising with sharp sword being dangerous is groundless.

How to make makiwara