Quote:
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Originally Posted by Chris Evans
(quoting Montino)
And yet at the same time we are told by no less than Musashi that it is not the way to go - Why? He tells us that because it is encumbering. Nor did any modern and evolved cavalry that I am aware of advocate a two handed sword, though all their military raiding schools tried to instill in their raiders the ability to control a horse without hands.
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Musashi is very renowned for his skillfullness by martial artists but he was a painter, a writer, a poet too. His scripts and figure are highly misinterpreted by western non-specialized people.
Go-Rin-no-Sho, Hagakure, Kojiki, NihonShoki, in so many years I've found almost all the japanese literature used to sustain a misconception of some sort. Samurai didn't use a sword with both hands from horseback. Period.
The lenght of the nakago is misleading here. A tang lenght has purpose of balance and armony too. Most of the curvature of many Tachi was in the tang, for example. I can' say that in the heat of a fight once on a while Tachi could have been used with both hands in very close combat between two mounted Samurai. I say that this is so hard and unlikely that such exceptions shouldn't be take in account in a scholar discussion, if we want to consider this disussion of any scholar usefulness.
There are pictures in which a Samurai cuts a rain of arrows remaining safe.
There is a Koryu that teaches the cutting of a *single* arrow fired to
the swordman. Does this mean that is possible to use the Tachi/Katana as a shield against a rain of arrows in the heat of a Sengoku battlefield ? NO, it's impossible. Phisically impossible. The same way it's impossible to sustain that
Tachi was designed to be used with both hands from horseback.
Striking to left is, per sè, a difficult task already with a sigle (right) hand only,
go figure with two together. Striking to right means to shorten the reach of the arm/blade at about half the possible with a single hand/arm. This without any gain in power in both cases. On the contrary the left arm would slow the action of the right one. IMHO is this what Musashi meant in saying that to hold a sword with both hands by horse is "encumbering". The others are your assuptions from this statement, and worth for what they are, assumptions.
I attach a couple pictures of historical correct use of Tachi from horseback.
I'm asking Samurai Archives for more ancient ones and I reserve the right to add them later. if you want better and more insightful feedback about the matter by english-born experts feel free to move the discussion here :
http://forums.samurai-archives.com/index.php
I'll be glad to open one if you want. You need to register, but it's not neccessary to give a real name.