View Single Post
Old 09-25-2002, 10:17 AM   #4
akiy
 
akiy's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 6,049
Offline
My experience in koryu is extremely limited, so please take what I know about this sort of thing with at least a few large grains of sand. Maybe someone who has access to a big group of "qualified" swordspeople (ie Iaido-L) can pose this question (if it isn't already a frequently asked question). Paging Mr. Karl Friday... Paging Mr. Meik Skoss...

I like the reasoning that the article presents in why we all use the sword right-handedly. Another reason why I heard (from an aikido person) why we are right-handed in kenjutsu is when we're in seigan, the left side of our body becomes a bit canted away from our opponent; therefore, our heart, a vital organ, is away from our partner. Of course, I don't know about this since 1) there are a lot of other targets that are just about that critical (eg wrist, stomach, etc) which aren't as covered and 2) the heart is actually pretty close to the middle of our torso.

I'm wondering if it just may be a "cultural" thing. As has been said here on these forums, one of the aphorisms in the Japanese culture that displays one definition of "harmony" is "If a nail sticks up, pound it back in." As left-handed people were rarer than right-handed people, perhaps they were just forced to conform? I personally know people who were forced when they were small to use their writing and eating instruments in their right hand when they were dominantly left-handed...

Any other thoughts on this article?

-- Jun

Please help support AikiWeb -- become an AikiWeb Contributing Member!
  Reply With Quote