photo by Asian Art Museum
On blade sharpening
Practitioners of the art of cutting, no matter what their style, background, or type of blade they’re using, will eventually find...
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photo by Okinawa Soba
An academic look at the history of Tameshigiri
Dr. S. Alexander Takeuchi of the University of South Carolina is a leading research scholar on the history and culture of the nihonto...
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photo by The Ewan
Cutting the flame from a candle
Many arts practice the specialty art of drawing and cutting with the blade as a single movement. These include the Japanese arts of Iaido...
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photo by Alpha Geek
Tameshigiri safety and etiquette
Rules for conducting a safe test cutting exercise vary widely between different schools and styles. Some provide extensive lists of rules...
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photo by Wendy James
Shi Zhan, Mandarin for test cutting
The practice of test cutting isn’t limited to the Japanese arts. Shi zhan is the Mandarin word for “test cutting”, as...
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photo by Luminitsa
Historical European Martial Arts and test cutting
The last decade has seen an upsurge in what is being called Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), or the Western Martial Arts. ...
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