Hehe!

To be honest, I doubt he'll respond to them all. More likely Shogo will show clips of the videos he noticed. Shogo gives off the energy that he doesn't watch as much as he makes videos. Seki-sensei doesn't seem like an internet guy at all lol. I really do hope that they watch them though.

@@Primalintent I would be surprised if they answer, it would be extremely cool, but in the KZfaq environment it’s rare to see someone bigger than you creating a dialogue between channels, generally speaking.

@@FedericoMalagutti True, response videos used to be a thing but the algorithm killed it. Now someone can make a response video and not get seen by the source video uploader unless they get tagged directly, linked in the response video description, or mutual viewership points it out. As far as Shogo and Seki-sensei not being internet guys, I mean, they're busy training. They make content during their free time. Hopefully we get more cross discussions for various blade systems around the world. For sometime now it's just been HEMA and FMA, Kenjutsu entering the fray is like opening the floodgates for other systems to follow the discussion and create a better community for us all. At least, way better than fanboys with gear, takes a few lessons, feel like an expert and never train again just shitposting and thinking their system is the be all and end all of swordsmanship.

@@FedericoMalaguttiyes KZfaq made a mistake getting rid of tags years ago.

Thank you very much, the Algorithm doesn't really like me, but I'll keep going, for sure!

@@FedericoMalagutti Well fortunately Seki Sensei's video seems to have helped in that regard, as after having seen a few replies to his original video your channel now seems to be popping up in the recommended column more often. Obviously it's anecdotal since I can't see any analytics, but maybe there'll be an uptick in new subscribers like myself in the coming weeks.

@@GiveMeBackMyUsernameKZfaq I hope so ^_^

​@@GiveMeBackMyUsernameKZfaq Same here. YT never suggested Federico's channel, despite being subscribed to several HEMA channels.

Thanks ;-)

Couldn't agree more! I'm pretty new to the sword arts community but I was getting a lot of toxic vibes from many comment sections. I'm pleased that Seki sensei is very open minded and curious, and that they approached the long sword from that mindset of pure curiosity. It primed this wave of discussion and reactions to be open, polite and informative rather than combative or hostile. No one is claiming one is superior to the other, just talking about differences, downsides and benefits. Most practitioners know that in the end, regardless of the weapon or school, it comes down to the individual, and don't waste time squabbling about what's superior to what. This is how the topic should be approached, and I'm loving seeing all these big HEMA guys reacting so positively to their video!

The whole debate with longswords vs katanas pretty much stems from backlash after weebs mindlessly gushed over the katana and exaggerated it's effectiveness as a sword. We've now reached the other side of the skepticism hill where we acknowledge the katana as an impressive sword for a continent with very impure iron. Even when there were more effective weapons on the battlefield at the time, the katana is an iconic weapon in Asian media similar to how the revolver is an iconic gun in Wild West media.

I think the sword/weapon community is doing what the unarmed community did 30ish years ago = which started with silly arguing, then some academic style analysis.. followed by actual meetups and sparing, then cross style competition and now we have MMA. I truly look forward to seeing fencers VS kendo VS longsword VS some big Scot with a claymore in a legitimate competition - with all the appropriate safety gear of course!

It’s always cool to fight other people fighting and training in other styles!

Thanks!!

Thanks! I hope it will continue too, I really enjoy Kenjutsu and, broadly speaking, JMA. I wish you good practice!

While I do believe you have a point, I think it is worth to add more context to the topic of edge brittleness. The issue you mention is a feature of some swords of the Edo period belonging to the shintō group (新刀) that were made from the mid 17th century onward. These blades favoured high carbon steel with extensive wide hamon that increased the artistic value of the blade at the cost of its durability. This problem was actually tackled by Japanese smiths during the late 18th and 19th century with a movement known as fukkotō (復古刀) by Suishinshi Masahide and the development of the shinshintō sword tradition (新々刀). His whole take was to restore the swords of the past (kotō, 古刀) due to their better functionality. His tests were extremely harsh and you can read online what was expected to be done (there is an article translated known as extreme aratameshi - few swords managed to achieve quite impressive stuff). When looking at these kotō era blades, we can apprecciate carbon content of less %, monosteel structure or simple lamination and less hard edges, paired with more stout edge geometry (known as niku, 肉) that prevent significant edge damage. These blades were after all forged into a period in which armor was prevalent in the battlefield. In that sense, while ideally you want to preserve the edge, you will not risk such catastrophic failure. In fact, the argument of preserving the edge is sound up until you consider that once you are swinging the blade against your opponent, you will meet his edge or his flat and the blade could still chip if it would be very hard. Another point is that longsword forged in the European tradition are not immune to dramatic failure if the edge is struck. Being of monosteel structure in some cases, if there is a crack on the edge it will propagate within the whole blade and cause breaking. This is less common with Japanese sword as there are multiple phases of the steel that react differently to the crack, stopping its propagation. The guys at the Arms & Armor channel did some test on sharp edge to edge contact and the sword got damaged, with further swinging leading to snapping. Mind you we are talking 3-4 hits edge to edge and less than 10 general hits to targets and the blade failed. This was a modern made blade, much more consistent than their medieval counterpart. To conclude, there are edge to edge actions within some kenjutsu schools although flat parries are favoured (this has to do also with the shinogi, the thickness of the blade and its balance, not only preserving the edge). And at the same time, you do have actions with the flat in longsword tradition and the use of side rings as well in the guard. Cheers!

@@lucanic4328 that was a good history lesson. Thank you 😄 of course european swords weren't immune to catastrophic failure, probably as much or even more so depending on the maker and steel quality. Even with today's steel i have seen several blades break in sparring sessions. About 2 longsword broken at the middle point and about 4 rapiers breaking at the middle, just over the tang, at the pommel and one had the cup in the crossguard broken, but blade was fine. I even saw two blades snap within the same class 😅 keep in mind these are heavily abused

@@badrequest5596 you are welcome - I think it is always good to share info on the world of Japanese swords as it is a topic that is both heavily "mystified" or dismissed entirely. As a note I think many modern manufacturers produce full hardened tangs which are not found on historical European swords, as they were often made of softer steel and not hardened. This is quite substantial as you can have blade failure at the tang resulting in the whole blade flying away - quite dangerous! I'd recommend to always check if the tang is hardened if possible and anneal it (heating it to temperature and let it cool by air). This will increase the durability of the sword! But I think modern manufacturers are also slowly changing their practice

I wonder whether that difference in tradition isnt due more to economics, esp in early modern times, when those traditions were formalized in Japan. Swords were soo much more expensive in Japan, as getting good iron and then steel (as well as plenty of charcoal) always was easier and cheaper in central Europe, with the 2 'Ore Mountains' (Erzberg) in Austria and Salzburg providing high quantities of high quality ore (with very little sulfur but quite a bit of manganese in some locations) since Roman times (ferum noricum). After 1550, that difference went through the roof as water powered furnaces in Austria could produce ever larger pieces of iron blooms in one go (up from 50-100kg in 1500 to >2t by the 1620s, though average size was more around 800kg, as that was easier to handle), and the downstream industry upsized in tandem with that development. Before Ferdinand 1 embargoed exports of steel products to the Ottomans, Austria alone exported > 2 million knifes per year in that direction, and makers of simple swords / kriegsmesser were using the same water powered processes to upscale production. Sure there were also swords that were works of art in Europe after 1550. But in the general thinking swords became rather mundane.

​@@positroll7870check about +Ulfber+T Swords , they're a masterpiece, their Iron was comparable with out modern Iron

And some two-handed jian as well, please. Roaring Dragon, maybe? 😅

Generally speaking is true, we have a lot of deflections too though, but there's not too much care for the edge, the concept of binding (edge on edge contact) is quite important in HEMA, especially among Germans, italians shares slightly more similarities with Japanese styles.

My speculation is since the longsword tapers a lot more at the tip, blocking with the flat causes the sword to wobble more as it’s not as stable. The katana, having a thicker blade, is more rigid which encourages deflections with the flat. On the flip side, the katana has a really hard edge which is nice for cutting but also makes it more brittle while the longsword having a tougher edge (and is structurally more rigid when hitting that way) encourages more edge deflection.

@@gameragodzilla well, you anyway parry with the strong part of the blade, being the blade wobbly or not at the tip in all honesty doesn’t change a lot ^^

@@FedericoMalagutti Fair, though I would figure if you were some distance away, you’d have to parry with the upper end of the blade anyways, where the wobbliness would be the most prominent with a flat deflection. The katana being thicker and more rigid is the only thing I can think of for the difference between the two styles.

@@gameragodzilla we in Europe had plenty of iron an coal, while swords were pricy if compared to other simpler tools, such as axes, they were anyway far, far more accessible and easy to substitute when broken or damaged compared to the same for Katanas in Japan, were resources were few and, on average, of lower quality, compared to Europe. Plus humidity was harsh on steel. This truly helped developing sn utmost obsessive care for weapons, especially the most complex to make, such as the sword. Most probably that’s why most Japanese sword styles have such an obsessive care for their edge.

Thanks!

Side-rings are really obtrusive.

​@@nevisysbryd7450that would actually explain why rings and the nagel are over the knuckle more than over the thumb and fingers. I always wonderes, cause I would wamt it on the other side. The amount of incidental thumb hits I get is annoying as fuck.

It’s not that uncommon! Eheheh ;-)

Thanks!

I rarely respect the one who brags, hehe

Thanks!

So swords? LoL

@@FedericoMalagutti Yes at the end of the day people seem to forget that they really aren't all that different. A lot of the techniques are similar.

Scopriremo se ho detto tavanate o no!

@@FedericoMalagutti Tavanate direi proprio di no. Anzi potresti fare un video "inverso" in cui provi a tirare in sparring con il bokken con qualcuno dei tuoi che mangeggia una due mani in sintetico e vedere cosa ne viene fuori.

@@scassoniostrarompi1691 bella idea ;-)

Notably, a lot of longswords are far less optimal for quickdrawing than katanas. blade curvature appears to have a negligible significance; rather, it is largely a factor of the blade length, handle length, and the flexibility and positioning of the suspension method. Katana are about the longest blade length possible before the blade length begins to seriously obstruct and slow the draw and the suspension system is about as optimized for quickdrawing as possible. You can do most of this with a European hand-and-a-half sword, though, which has similar dimensions and comparable handling, although you would want to pick a suitable suspension system.

I mean, it's a matter of preference and tradition in the end. Katanas basically were subject to size limitation laws after a certain period, so swords and styles from that point on would generally involve similarly sized swords, whereas earlier samples that were more based on Chinese curved war swords usually had wildly varying blade lengths, curvature, hilt length.

The few people who could afford a custom-made sword would probably give prefered mesurements and thus the sword would be tailored to their height, but for most people the sword they'd buy would be from a variety of already forged swords made with the mindset "a sword is about this long", as they weren't that focussed on exact and consistent mesurements. So if you were tall, either have the bladesmith forge you a bigger sword but that will cost you more, or hope for one of the swords aviable for purchase to be longer than the others.

JSA prefer oral transmission rather than written on manuscripts.

It's not super-easy to find sources. Also they are most of the times had been wrote by people following the Zen way of Buddhism, so the text are, in general, more useful to let you understand if you already know something, rather than actually teaching you something (most of the times). Anyway, you can easily find on the web this three books: Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi The Sword that gives life - Yagyu Munenori The Twelve rules of the sword - Ito Ittosai But I consider them reads more useful to the experienced swordsman, so, based to your experience, they could be very useful or not useful at all.

@@FedericoMalagutti ah ok awesome thank you so much! I already study Longsword and sabre so I already have a little knowledge so I'll give these books ago I'm sure I'll be able to get something from it haha!

@@jaketheasianguy3307 yeah I've noticed that but I can't find a club that's local that teaches it unfortunately

@@wonkyketchup997 good!

Mmmmmhhh, I don’t know, the Longsword in war is far from being a main weapon, it’s a side weapon which you rely on only when you lose the main one. I think drawing techniques are simply not there because of how social violence was carried out in general, the filters Japanese and, say, Italian nobility had while talking about violence in peace times were extremely different.

@@FedericoMalagutti true. But when i said battlefield i meant that it was more likely to carry it around while going to war, than for regular strolls around the city.

European swords were not much specialized for civil or military purpose until the 16th century; a sword was a sword. And then, civil swords generally meant rapiers (or later, smallswords). Longswords were already largely gone from both civilian and military use by the time that either Europe or Japan began emphasizing quickdrawing much. While I agree that the quickdrawing technique was less of a military practice (most of the Japanese development of it was during a period of relatively little open warfare and instead law enforcement and assassination), that does not really explain the comparative dearth of it in Europe. Katanas are optimal for defending from sudden close attacks with a held weapon-attacked in confined spaces, ambushes or assassinations. Besides the difference in political stability in Europe at the time, other weapons were popular for assassinations-crossbows, or famously, wheellock pistols. We also do have some material covering sword quickdraw techniques from this time-if far less of it and a much more rudimentary approach.

@@FedericoMalagutti I think @lucaf5255 makes a good point, since most Ryua were developed in the 400 years of peace following the togukawa unification of japan, something no european nation ever experienced. I could see one technique, were Seki Sensei was cutting to the inside of the kote, which is actually meant to fight an armored opponent but I would assume that most of the drawing techniques are aiming specificly to civil or courdial setting. I don´t think fechtbücher/manuals are a representation of all fencing techniques of that period, since they often refer to judicial combat, but I would guess that european techniques couldn´t be as refined because they had to be aplicable in many situations including warfare.

I would argue that the focus on draw-cuts is closer related to pistol quick draw than historical sword techniques, where I imagine there would have been some degree of honor associated with striking a man down before he can even draw his sword to face you outside of a battlefield. Samurai movies transitioned into Western movies transitioned into action movies like John Wick.

We parry with the edge because it’s stronger, edge is stronger than flat as for a human it is stronger to push forward with the hands rather than sideways. Plus, having a sideways cross guard would limit the motions in an unbelievable way. As every movement close to the head and shoulders would hit you, safe for perfectly vertical ones in front of the body.

Maybe European not ready Mongolians attack or strategy, Ottoman can answer maybe