Why Policemen Used Non-Curved Katana (The History of Katana Swordsmanship)

why these non-curved Katana existed during the major restoration because of that they wanted to use a katana that doesn't have a curve let's quickly take a look at the history of Japanese katar [Music] [Music] shorts and welcome to Let's Ask Sho one of Ja katana's biggest characteristic is that it's curved right however there are some Katana that aren't oh yeah you're talking about this ancient Japanese swords right nope I'm not this straight Katana was used by a group of Swordsmen who fought in the mai period who were they why they use these Katana by unraveling this mystery we can see why Katana and budha wash Arts are still important in Japan today so today I will explain the purpose of curvature an a gatana next I will explain the historical process the L to the creation of the straight Katana finally I will explain how history was changed by the Straight Sword and the men who handled it be sure to watch this video till the end as it will incredibly deepen your knowledge of the history of the katana and the martial arts if you have any other questions about Katana after watching this video please let me know in the comments in this channel you can take a closer look at Japes culture tips on traving kyotto and social problems in Japan so Learners and lovers of Japanese language and culture be sure to subscribe to enjoy more content [Music] first of all let's talk about why Japanese K are curved in the first place one easier to draw two makes the feeling of the blade lighter three becomes sharper the sword the origin of the katana was introduced from the continent in ancient times and was not curved in the heon period Sami warriors were born and began to fight on Horseback which led to the demand for swords that could be drawn stably even on Horseback as a result curves were added to the katana in yitsu and other forms of katana fighting how quickly you draw Katana determines whether you win or lose however Katana use in actual combat were quite long and if they were curved you might not be able to draw them out so smoothly that's why Tachi which are generally longer than Uchi Katana tend to be more curved second the curvature changes the weight of the katana when you hold it for example if you have a 1,200 G Katana and a 900 G katana you may not always feel that the 1,200 G Katana is heavier this is because the curvature allows the center of gravity of the katana to be shifted closer to the hand however supposed to center of gravity is pleased completely toward the hand in that case disadvantages such as reduced cutting and striking power and Disturbed bleed line easily are likely to occur so the balance is important finally curvature increases sharpness swords without curvature are weapons for striking and thrusting rather than for cutting in contrast the gatana is a weapon specialized for cutting so a drawing motion is always required this is the same as when cutting food with a kitchen knife therefore the curvature of the katana is designed so when the blade is swung the sword's tip naturally forms an arc however on the other hand a thrusting attack with a katana is weaker than with a straight sword thus it can be said that the evolution of the katana to its present form resulted from pursuing the most efficient form over the more than 1,000 year history of the katana then why were Japanese Katana without a curvature used during the mai period then let's finally move on to today's leading topic why or gatana without curves suddenly used on a battlefield at the end of the 20th century it was specially assembled police force known as the B that used the non- curvature Katana they were the men who were recruited to win the handan combat during the Sena war against Takami hold on you have to explain the history cuz I don't get a thing of course leave it to me then let's quickly review the history of the bakas era the end of the Edo period at the end of 19th century after more than 200 years of very limited trade with foreign countries Japan finally opened its doors to the rest of the world this was because the us at that time in search of whale oil that could be obtained from whales cotton near Japan wanted to use Japanese ports as Supply points for water and food Japan opened its borders as orders in the face of the overwhelming military power of the United States but this was the beginning of the great confusion this satisfication with the shogunate which had followed American orders without a fight exploded in many parts of the country many Samurai Clans gradually United and finally overthrew the shunet after many wars they founded the Maia government and created a new nation utilizing Western technology and knowledge one of their leaders was Sao Takami as an army General he was an important contributor to the establishment of the mai government still he gradually began to argue with the other leaders about how new government should be run he eventually left the new government he helped build and went home to kagoshima prefecture to stablish a school young people who were dissatisfied with the new government gathered under C takoni and tried to start a war the major government was aware of saigo takamore's strength and was cautious of him finally the anger of the young people who gather around saigo exploded leading to war this was the final domestic war in Japanese history the Sean War the major government had the advantage over the Sao forces because of its overwhelming military power but what we must not forget is that Sao takoni was the formal Army General his men were very strong in close quarters Combat on land and the major government continued to lose a newly organized group of men was gathered to win the closed quarters combat these men were called the Bai they were men who were especially strong in Kendo among the police and it is said that thanks their efforts the major government was able to win the San War that's right the Shai bamboo swords used in Kendo are not curved because of that they wanted to use a katana that doesn't have a curve in fact the reason why Kendo still has the largest number of competitors today and why has become the most popular Marshall among police officers is because of the success of the Bai if the Bai had not existed Japanese budo could have disappeared as an outdated culture during the changes of the major restoration now we have finally solved the mystery of why these non curve Katana existed during the major restoration however I'm sure there's a question you still have in mind why were men training Kendo assembled and not kutu which was actually used in Warfare The Mystery of the non-curved katana has not been fully solved yet let's move on to the next chapter the next let's quickly take a look at the history of Japanese Katana marshal arts the first Katana related martialart that was born was kutsu kinjutsu is the art of fighting with the katana drawn in war new sort techniques were developed from there as the soku period ended and the peaceful Edo period began Yu for example began as a technique for fighting in emergency situations where the katana is often held at the waist in sheath rather than drawn in times of Peace the osnet then forbat Samurai to fight each other except under certain conditions for the country's peace in other words by law a samurai always walk around with tatana at his waist but rarely use them in actual combat anymore Kendo was created by people who are concerned that this situation might lead to the loss of the Samurai Spirit Kendo is practiced wearing protective gear and using Shai for safety so it didn't violate any of the Samurai government's laws and it gave the samurai a great opportunity to train the sword's path however this opportunity was not only for the samurai a blade shorter than a wakashi could be carried by anyone for self-defense the samurai were privileged to carry both the long Uchi Katana and short wagashi simultaneously this means yutu batutu could only be trained by Samurai who are allowed to own these Katana in the first place but again in Kendo you train with Shai so regardless of social class anyone was able to train Kendo for example the famous shinen Gumi the meu Wolves were originally a group of peasants but the reason formal peasants were suddenly able to become the special police of kodo was because they trained Kendo the battle time was the same people with excellent Kendo skills were selected by the mai Griffin police regardless of their status during the ETO period we learned so much about Japanese history just by unraveling the history of this non-curved Katana please let me know if you still have any other questions in the comments then lastly today's conclusion in this video we discuss the history and why non-curved Katana exist why are gatana generally curved one easier to draw two makes the feeling of the blade lighter three it becomes sharper the especially assembled police force talented training Kendo the B used the non- curvature Katana they were the men who were recruited to win the hand toand combat during the Sena war against s Takami Kendo was a katana martialart that anyone regardless of social class trained during the Edo period people with excellent Kendo skills were selected by the major government police regardless of their status during the Edo period so that's it for today thank you very much for watching if this video helped you to deepen your understanding towards the Japanese Katana please hit the like button to help me boost this video to more people and my goal is to achieve 2 million subscribers at the end of 2024 so your help would mean a lot and by the way all the other activities that I do are in the description box so please don't forget to check that out too and I'll see you in my next video interested in training Katana skills from anywhere worldwide with let's ask shogo join the yinu online lesson to learn how to perform the cool and unique EI techniques from Modern Day Masashi Yi Sensei I Sho a third on training of the style myself will be your interpreter to explain everything perfectly in English for you every lesson will be recorded for you to rewatch anytime an official Don ranks will be provided to prove your progress check out the description box or pin comment to sign up now and for more information so when we talk about straight you know non curb Katana I think the first thing that would come to mind well at least for for me are the ancient swords that originally came from China I in the main part of the video I I mentioned that it came from continent that's of course China back at that time so that was that would be the first thing that would be that would come to my mind but I think for many people also the ninja sword might come to their minds too but the thing is is that I've also explained this in my videos too in the past but ninja swords technically we don't really know if they actually existed in the time when the the ninjas were really um working in spies or fighting and such it's many people point out that it's just a creation that was made when ninjas became more of a a character basically for stories yeah so there AR what should I say aren't actual you know old you know ninja stars that came out of the ground or something like that you know so maybe straight swords did exist um before the B taiu yeah I mean the this non curve Katana that the Bai used are probably the most famous yeah but before that to I'm pretty sure non-curved T already did exist maybe it was it could have been the ninjas that used it it could have been for example the um the which are you know the the sword canes you call them in English you know the swords are hitting inside the canes like the one that Z uses those were probably used by some spies and such too so those were actually straight as well yeah but do you like refer to them as a katana that's the difficult part yeah exactly exactly so I focus talking about the botaurus today but if you have any other ideas for non- curvature Katana and such I've been asking you so many requests for uh leaving comments and such but it' be great if you can share your knowledge about um if you know about any other non-curved Katana in Japanese history

Channel: Let's ask Shogo | Your Japanese friend in Kyoto

Views: 402,474

Keywords: japan, japanese, kyoto, history, culture, let's ask shogo

Id: r8Jm_6yXiaU

Length: 12min 13sec (733 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024