In short, practising in good posture on the ground will not only improve your swordplay, it will improve your riding as well. But without your legs beneath you, you are vulnerable to sudden movements, you sit more heavily on your horse’s back, and you lose the ability to generate power from the waist. You won’t immediately fall, because the horse is holding you up. With a horse underneath you, it’s easy to get sloppy and let your legs drift back, or more commonly, forward. Discover premium-quality katanas at TrueKatana - your go-to destination for authentic Japanese samurai swords, including Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto, Ninjato, Ninja swords, Naginata and Anime replica blades. When you’re on the ground, if your torso tips too far forward or backward, you will lose your balance and have to step or fall. Of course when you are riding a horse, your lower body is doing something completely different (more on that in other posts), but the upright torso, and sense of weighted groundedness is extraodinarily important in the saddle. Does your posture fall apart as you step, or can you maintain it as you move? But how does this relate to mounted combat? When you’ve established your stance, practise moving one or two steps forward and back to change your lead foot. Check in a mirror whenever possible, or ask a friend to critique and correct your posture. When you’re in line at the grocery store, standing in class listening to the instructor, or even watching tv, sink into a correct, balanced stance and train your muscles to remember it. To improve your stance, simply practise standing in it every day. Note the wide and balanced stances of the players in these illustrations from Fiore dei Liberi’s Il Fior di Battaglia However, you should maintain the balanced, grounded feeling of your stance throughout all your movements. As you deliver a cut or thrust your feet, hips and shoulders will all move to control direction and generate power. Torso: upright, with your weight distributed more or less equally, chest lifted, shoulders relaxed and back. Think of your pelvis as a bucket full of water you don’t want to spill by tipping either forward (swaying the back) or back (tucking in the tailbone). Knees: both bent, lowering your centre of gravity, making sure the knees bend in the same direction as the toes point. If you’re right-handed, the most natural starting stance will have your left foot forward. Imagine a square, with your front foot in one corner, toes pointing straight forward, and your back foot in the opposite corner, toes pointing slightly outward, heel lifted slightly. Tsukurikomi & Sunobe – combining the hard steel for the outer layer and softer steel for the core.Feet: a comfortable width apart, so that you could roll at least a 10-pin bowling ball between them. Tanren – Forging the raw steel into workable blocks Preparation – Preparation of raw materials (charcoal and metals) and equipment (making necessary tools, heating the furnace) The process of making a katana differs depending on the style of the sword and the swordsmith's individual preferences, but certain steps are necessary for the forging of all swords. At that time, two well-known swordsmiths were appointed as imperial household artists, thus preserving the skills of the swordsmiths, a cultural legacy that has been passed on to the present day. Many of the swordsmiths were required to close their businesses, leading to the near extinction of katana sworesdsmithing until 1906. The use of the katana in Japanese daily life came to an end at almost the same time with the Haitōrei (sword prohibition) Edict of 1876, which allowed only police and military personnel to carry them. Regarding the military, the weapons shifted from sword to firearm. With the end of the Edo period and the beginning of Meiji period, Japan began a rapid process of industrialization and westernization. Ideally, samurai could draw the sword and cut the enemy in a single motion. The katana was worn thrust through a belt-like sash (obi) with the sharpened edge facing up. The quicker draw of this sword was well suited to combat where victory depended heavily on fast response times. The increased popularity of the katana among samurai came about because of the changing nature of close-combat warfare. Katana were mainly used by the samurai, the military nobility of feudal Japan (1185-1600) up through the Edo period (1603–1868). The first original Japanese swords that are considered the precursor of the 'modern' katana began to appear during the early Heian period (around 700 CE). The first use of the term katana to describe a sword occurs as early as the Kamakura period (1185–1333), but the actual history of bladed weapon craftsmanship in Japan stretches back over twenty centuries. At first, Japanese swords were simple variations of the Chinese swords that were straight, double-edged iron blades.
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