15/05/2026
"Some general points about training that Otake Sensei did want to explain to us. He told us that while wooden weapons clash together during training, this is an intentional deception. Making the weapons bang together is said to improve the hands by conditioning them to shock, but if two sharp swords clashed in this manner both blades would be damaged or even broken.
In a real fight the two opponents would stand half a pace closer to each other than they do during kata practice. From this position the same blows would result, not in a clash of blades, but in cuts, slashes and chops to the opponents' bodies, arms and legs, as well as deflecting incoming attacks.
In training, where the swords men are redirecting the movements, it is also very difficult for an observer to see the real intention of the strike. This is a traditional aspect of the secrecy of the Katori Shinto Ryu. Spies or casual observers see only two wooden swords clashing, when the swordsmen know that in fact each would have delivered a cut to the other if it had been a real encounter.
In Katori Shinto Ryu, then, attack and defence are simultaneous and each move in each kata is designed to prove that principle."
Source: Howard Reid & Michael Croucher, The way of the warrior, New York, Simon & Schuster, Inc (1987)
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06/05/2026