Thread: handle lengths
View Single Post
Old 02-25-2004, 10:26 AM   #4
Magma
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 168
Offline
I think your sensei has the right of judging the distance... but I think that this information must necessarily affect the length of the bokken, too.

While generating this an accurate distance from the end of the grip to where the tsuba should be, you might generate an inaccurate distance from the tip to the tsuba. Basically, you've shortened your blade.

Gripping the bokken in this position, the center of gravity is in the wrong place (beneath your right fist if not between your hands). Also the tip is in a signficantly different position (shorter) than it would be with a full blade length extending out from where your tsuba would be.

The obvious suggestion is to get a longer bokken to account for the longer handle. Don't just eat your "blade" up with "handle."

...and I second leaving the tsuba off. There is a certain mental acuity that develops without that sort of safety net. Your training becomes sharper without it there.

Tim
It's a sad irony: In U's satori, he forgot every technique he ever knew; since then, generations of doka have spent their whole careers trying to remember.
  Reply With Quote