The Ultimate Weapon: The Katana

Today we are at the second last chapter in this series about weapons with which I regularly practice.

Of all weapons that I have collected I respect the katana the most. I almost never practice with it, rather using the bokken that I have.

I am sure that what I have to say here can be said for some other weapons as well, but this is what I have learnt from studying the Japanese sword:

Movies tend to show off weapons with a lot of twirling and excessive movement. With the katana, however, I have come to appreciate the value of being able to get the job done with as little movement as possible.

Few weapons teaches one the value of timing and distance like the katana.

Lastly- I find it the easiest weapon to wield in a Zen state of mind. Being a fairly simple weapon that does not have any chains, moving parts, extra handles or such it gives you very little to think about while fighting.

Still- it is what I call a Final Weapon. Before the advent of firearms this was the one weapon in Japan with which a person knew that the day on which he faces its wielder is very likely to be his last.

Imagine if you will- Standing face to face with your opponent, knowing that from the next moment on you might not know anything further...

Now- imagine a man who has done that 60 times and came out undefeated- only to die of old age later on...

If you are a Samurai fanatic like me, you would know that Musashi Miyamoto is such a man.

A background like his gives a lot of weight to his writings on strategy and swordsmanship.

As you can imagine- I despise movies that treat a Samurai sword as a mere prop to be twirled around in fancy displays- and I also do not care for katas in which katanas are twirled, swung around and (cringe) thrown into the air!

I guess I could make this blog post longer and tell you about how many times the steel is folded in the forging process and so forth, but such things have already been written. I just hope to make it clear why this particular weapon is revered so much in martial arts circles.

That is it for today. Next week we will look at the most obvious weapon of all...