We went for a Test Cutting, or tameshigiri last month, and here are my results:

Test Targets

And so, with apologies to Dr Robert Oppenheimer:

“I am become Death, the cutter of PET bottles.”

But seriously though, there are lots of lessons to be learned from a test cut, which are not easily apparent in routine training and cutting drills:

  • The state of mind is important; the more tense one is, the more likely the body will follow and be tensed as well. Perhaps a meditative state like that described by Miyamoto Musashi’s “No Thought-No Concept strike” (無念無想の打と云ふ事) is the key. I certainly cut better when simply concentrating on the cut, rather than the target.

    • 敵も打出さんとし我も打出さんと思ふ時、身も打身になり心も打心になって、手は何時となく空になり、唯心の命するまゝ知らず知らず打事、是れ無念無想とて一大事の折なり、此打度々出合ふ打なり、能々習ひ得て鍛錬有べき儀なり

    Or, (roughly) in English:

    In this method, when the enemy attacks and you decide to attack, hit with your body, and hit with your spirit, and hit from the Void with your hands, accelerating strongly. This is the “No Thought-No Concept strike” cut.

  • Aim to cut THROUGH, rather than AT the target. Stopping at the target simply means that ~ the cut stops there. Or in the words of fellow swordsman Yu Sarn: “G’boing” and the target goes flying…
  • Breath control may be a key. For the guys who’ve done firing before, the same exercises may be useful: breathe in, let about half out, and cut with the expulsion of the remainder of your breath. I found that it helps with my concentration and relaxes me.

    • And the road to the mastery of the sword goes ever on….