TEST CUTTING | TAMESHIGIRI | Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu

TEST CUTTING | TAMESHIGIRI | Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu

#yoshindojo #tameshigiri #iaido

Very nice cutting from Sekiguchi sensei of Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu. This short clip is from a BAB video showing kata of this school along with a demonstration of cutting practice.

What is Tameshigiri: Wiki says

Tameshigiri (試し斬り, 試し切り, 試斬, 試切) is the Japanese art of target test cutting. The kanji literally mean "test cut" (kun'yomi: ためし ぎり tameshi giri). This practice was popularized in the Edo period (17th century) for testing the quality of Japanese swords. It continues to the present day, but has evolved into a martial art which focuses on demonstrating the practitioner's skill with a sword.

Origins

During the Edo period, only the most skilled swordsmen were chosen to test swords, so that the swordsman's skill was not questionable in determining how well the sword cut. The materials used to test swords varied greatly. Some substances were wara (藁; rice straw), goza (茣蓙; woven rush mats) or tatami-omote (畳表; the top layer of tatami mats), bamboo, and thin steel sheets.

In addition, there was a wide variety of cuts used on cadavers and occasionally convicted criminals, from tabi-gata (ankle cut) to O-kesa (diagonal cut from shoulder to opposite hip). The names of the types of cuts on cadavers show exactly where on the body the cut was made. Older swords can still be found which have inscriptions on their nakago (中心) (tang) that say such things as "5 bodies with Ryu Guruma (hip cut)". Such an inscription, known as a tameshi-mei (試し銘) or saidan-mei (裁断銘) (cutting signature) would add greatly to a sword's value, compensating the owner somewhat for the large sums of money typically charged for the test.

Aside from specific cuts made on cadavers, there were the normal cuts of Japanese swordsmanship, i.e. downward diagonal Kesa-giri (袈裟斬り), upward diagonal (Kiri-age (切り上げ) or Gyaku-kesa (逆袈裟)), horizontal (Yoko (横) or Tsuihei), and straight downward (Jōdan-giri (上段斬り), Happonme (八本目), Makkō-giri (真向斬り), Shinchoku-giri (真直切り), or Dotan-giri (土壇切り)).