Slashing with a REAL Samurai Sword - Katana Experience At Katanaba

Hi everyone, welcome back. Today we have come to Katanaba in Asakusa, where you can practice cutting real objects with a real samurai sword. Yeah, so today we're gonna be trying battle jutsu, which is a type of combative sword technique focused on cutting objects, but I'm a little bit apprehensive. I've never really used a real samurai sword before. Yeah, me neither. I used to practice kendo, which is a sword martial art, but obviously we don't use real sword to practice. Yeah, I'm excited to, you know, try cutting real objects with a sword. I've always wanted to try cutting real objects with a real sword. And I thought this was the perfect place to do it, so I suggested it to myself. That's how it all started. There aren't many people who practice battle jutsu with a real sword. That's true. So you do this. Before he shows us the basics, Matsumoto-san is going to demonstrate the basic sword striking technique of battle jutsu. This is the shoulder of my enemy. Okay. And here is the head. Slash is coming from here. And then, when you are slashing, I want you to slash at least three times. One, two, three. Four strips. As long as I left enough length. My initial first slash will be cutting. This one and this one. You may feel it may be dropped, but not. The speed of light is fast. This is one of the holds after slashing. Deep blood. And then put it back to the case. This is Shosa. This is Iai no Shosa. And then, if you put the katana into the case without doing a deep blood, then the chi blood is going to be not sticky. Yeah, so look at how smooth the cut is. And he was just explaining me that by looking at how smooth the cut is, you can judge how skillful the swordman is. How smooth is yours going to be? We'll see, right? Can't be too confident. With the basics out of the way, it's time for us to strap up and try hitting a few targets for ourselves. It's a bit stubby. Is it like a practice one? Yeah, so this is the short sword, but it's still a real katana. That's the target. Your legs are a bit narrow, so open them up a bit. Put your left foot behind you. Open them up a bit more. And soften your knees. And then, just like before, swing down diagonally from the direction of the 11 o'clock. That's it! Nice slice. It's the same angle, right? Probably. This is the neck of your enemy. Oh, it stays on there! I thought it would just fall off. I'm pretty impressed. Should we try a slow motion one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Try it. Make me look even more badass. Yeah, so now I'm holding the real katana. The long one. That's nice. That's cool, man. Looks badass, right? Oh, yakunin. So this one is even older. This should be from the 1500s. Oh, wow. This is actually used in a battle. Wow. It absorbs a lot of blood, I'm sure. It has a lot of souls inside it. This is very sharp. I mainly use this for my Shiite matches. Competition? Just for your information, I have got silver medals twice in all Japan championships in the past five years. Oh, cool. So this is your championship sword. Be careful, Yasu. You can see what kind of sword you are looking for by looking at the way you cut. You can decide the shape you prefer. But the way the collector looks at the sword is different. This one is used for a real fight. So you can see the shape by looking at the way you cut. You can choose the sword. And for the exterior, there is a craftsman I know. A craftsman. He makes about 15 pieces. When you buy a sword, you can only see You can't use it for a real fight. So, this part and this part can be used for a real fight. Yes. You can cut a little more than 1,000,000 yen. That's the level. The easiest one is about 500,000 yen. Then you can cut as much as you want. And you have a knife. I see. You can cut as much as you want. So, it's your turn. I'm ready. It's quite heavy. It looks very sharp. It is sharp. I forgot the basics already. Stance was this, right? Bend the knee. Like this. Maybe like this. Relax. Two hands. Take a shot. Like this? Yes. You can close your eyes. Can I? I can close my eyes. Feel the force. Star Wars style. How is it? Is it okay? You are the expert. Are you okay? Master says it's okay. Raise. Slash. Look at that. I'm surprised. It looks kind of smooth. Raise. Go. That one caught. It wasn't very smooth. Ideally, the angle should be close to 45 degrees. I think I caught the rubber band. It felt a bit jagged. Not bad. Still cut. My enemy is still dead. Raise. Go. That was very smooth. That one was no resistance. It was sliced through. Matsumoto-san is going to show us a demonstration of when you are fighting with multiple opponents. Assuming these two are your opponents. This guy is stronger. This guy is weaker. He is going to pretend he is going to get the weaker one first. In fact, he is going to slash the stronger one. In real fighting, he says that you always need to get rid of the stronger opponent first. Then the weaker one gets afraid. You can easily kill the remaining one. I am behind. What this guy is going to do is to cut my back when I try to attack the other one. Then, it just faints. I turn around. He raises his sword. I can cut. That's the end of our katana experience here at Katana Bar. What did you think, Yasu? I was first quite impressed by myself. I think I did a lot better than I expected. Humble as always. Well, to be fair. It was smooth. I was also impressed by the fact that those real swords are from 400 or 500 years ago. I almost couldn't believe that. Such good condition as well. So sharp and shiny. So beautiful. I was a bit apprehensive, but I thought I did okay as well. Not too bad. I enjoyed using the different types of swords as well. We started out with the short stubby one. Then a little bit thinner. Then we got to use the full real katana. The real samurai sword. Really cool. Thanks for joining us again today, guys. Make sure you subscribe to RyuTokyo for new videos every single week. See you again.