Happy Sunday everyone!
Today I want to share with you the various tools that I use to test out my battle scenes. This post will be a bit longer than normal due to the amount of content I have, but if you like sword play you may find it interesting and possibly a bit amusing. I will be talking about different types of swords, as well as kenjutsu, and have added links to the different terms in case you want to learn more.
I’ve written scenes before that seem to make sense in my head but something bothers me about it. Perhaps it’s a block that bothers me, or an angle from an attack that doesn’t seem quite right. When this happens I bring out my swords, ask a brave family member to help, and try it out. There have been many times where this method helped me sort it out. It’s kind of like a story board but with weapons.
Swords you ask? Isn’t that dangerous? Someone could get hurt. It’s true, it can happen. My shihan would often tell us, even though the wooden training sword is not sharp, you can still break bones with it. I used to practice Kenjutsu at a dojo with the best shihan ever. Of course I’m biased but he truly was amazing. We learned how to handle the swords which included katas, sparring with fukuro-shinai swords, and techniques that included tumble mats were we would tumble with our swords (wooden swords called bokken for this task) to simulate how to handle a sword when you are knocked off your feet. He also taught us of the Bushido way which fascinated me and started a passionate study of Bushido. Sadly due to injuries, unrelated to my practice there, I no longer practice at a dojo. I do however continue my practice at home.
Even with training, and the use of a dull blade, accidents can still happen. Another note about dull blades is that, even though the enactment is slow and the blade edge is dull, the tip is still very sharp and can go through tennis shoes. Luckily the tips of said shoes were too long and the toes were not involved or harmed in any way. To protect the innocent, this is where my use of water noodles came into play. This sounds funny but consider this. You can cut them to length, they even have a slight curve to them, and you can hit pretty hard with them and it doesn’t even hurt. The picture below is kind of funny, and I have no idea what part the dog is playing here, but I wanted to show you how long they are in proportion to a person.
The use of water noodles is safe, but I still needed a reference to the weight of the sword. This makes a difference during battle moves. I have a set of katanas that I keep at our little house in the woods, where there is much more room to practice, but I’m working on a new set for my in town home where I do the majority of my writing. There are many sizes of weapons that I have not worked with and will need a size and weight reference for my writing. My new healer Azaria, who first appears in book two, will be using a form of either a tanto blade or a wakizashi. I’m torn between which one and have ordered both so that I can decide. For practice with friends, that’s safe like my water noodles, I wanted something closer to the feel of an actual tanto instead of my further shortened water noodles. Trying to find a tanto of any sort, on Amazon is useless, but then somehow, kids toys came up and I thought wow that’s an idea. This next picture is pretty funny. This item comes with twelve of these little guys so I can have one partner or even more. The length of the plastic blade is not exact but similar to the length of a tanto, and they even have a sheath. They are also cheap coming in at $12.
For my actual tanto reference and practice I purchased this beauty which will be coming in soon. The tanto is a shorter blade, similar to the length of a dagger, used for close combat and penetrating armor. The blade on this tanto is dull so I can still use it in a safe manner.
To complete my practice arsenal, and to help with my decision for Azaria, I also purchased this wakizashi. The length of this blade is between the length of a katana and a tanto. It’s also used for closer combat than the katana and held in one hand instead of two. This sword is sharpened so it will not be used for the purpose of trying out moves with others. I’m still shopping for my new training katana that I can used at my in town home. I have three katanas at our house in the woods of differing quality to show interested parties the differences between a cheap blade with an etched on hamon, to a middle class blade which is better weighted but you still wouldn’t fight with it in actual battle because it could break, and that of a quality blade which is stronger and properly weighted.
To get an idea of all of these swords lengths against each other here is a picture of all three with the tanto on top, the wakizashi in the middle and the katana on the bottom.
As you can see, the part of my books that have to do with weapons, is very dear to me. I’m thankful that you made it through this really long post. I hope you found this interesting, sometimes funny, and if you chose to click on the links, educational as well. Once I have the beauties in hand I will post on my decision on which blade Azaria will be wielding.
Until next time, Write well and Prosper!