• Discovery | Travel & Learning
• Living by the Sword

Living by the Sword

The ancient art of samurai sword wielding all but disappeared in the 1870's as the power of the samurais waned, before making a cruel comeback during WW II. One man is determined to revive its honourable traditions.

• Rating:
• 
• (0 votes)
• Rate this!
  Rate this!

  Rate this feature

Yuta Kurosawa flicks the sleeves of his black kimono out of the way as he sits formally before an altar of Bishamon, the armour-clad Buddhist defender of the Word. With a hand on his sword, which is still in its scabbard, Kurosawa rises, his eyes fixed ahead of him. Slowly, he draws and raises the tip of the weapon to the height of his forehead. He moves deliberately, his robes making a crisp sound in the cold, empty temple.

A yell pierces the air, and there is a flash of steel. In the same instant, there is a thud as a thick slice of damp tatami matting peels off and hits the wooden floor. Kurosawa steps back, his sword still drawn and his eyes still fixed. His bare feet line up, and with one fluid motion he slides his sword back into his belt. He sits. All, again, is silent.

Samurai Secrets
It is one of the great ironies of modern-day Japan that, although the samurai sword is one of the most recognisable symbols of Japanese culture and history, very few Japanese have ever seen, let alone handled, a real one. Instead, they are the stuff of legends.

Japanese schoolchildren are taught the brave adventures of the 12th century samurai Yoshitsune and the warrior monk Benkei. The Book of Five Rings, written in 1645 by the great samurai Miyamoto Musashi, has become a classic read. And one of Japan’s greatest film directors, Akira Kurosawa, made his name with such films as The Seven Samurai.

But even at the height of Japan’s feudal Tokugawa Era (1603-1868), only about ten percent of the population were samurai, the highest caste in Japan’s tightly controlled society. Additionally, many samurai were warriors in name only. They were more of a social class than anything else, with no knowledge of how to use their swords. “Many were better thought of as bureaucrats than as real warriors,’’ Kurosawa says.

Although the sword’s use had already been in steady decline, it wasn’t until the 1870s, when Emperor Meiji decreed the samurai would be abolished in favour of a conscripted army and banned the wearing of swords, that they were shoved into closets to be forgotten.

As Japan’s imperialistic ambitions grew leading up to WW II, army officers once again took to the sword as a symbol. But in 1945, Japan was forced to surrender. Kurosawa believes this defeat added dishonour to the sword, making it synonymous not with the way of the ancient samurai, but instead with the folly of Japanese militarism.

He says this is not the way people should see the samurai sword and he wants to do something about it. “The sword shouldn’t be associated with imperialism,’’ he says.