The katana is one of the few Japanese cultural artifacts with a genuine history. As early as the Song Dynasty, Chinese literati began to admire Japanese swords.
They considered ornately decorated katanas a luxury item, and wrote numerous famous poems praising their exquisite craftsmanship and high value, such as Ouyang Xiu's "Ode to the Japanese Sword."
Katanas are categorized by shape and length, broadly into the tachi, katana, wakizashi, and taiken (also known as a short sword, used for seppuku). There's also a separate category, the naginata, also known as the glabella.
The handle alone can be between one and two meters long, with blades ranging from 30 to 60 centimeters. During the Edo period, samurai were prohibited from carrying naginatas, and thus excluded from the katana category.
Later, the naginata gradually evolved into a weapon exclusively reserved for female samurai, such as the Naginaga no Inaguchi, familiar to all X-God gamers. Of course, the most popular is the milky sword from the original Thor CV.
Furthermore, the tachi and katana are essentially the same type of sword. Distinguishing them solely by length and shape is difficult, relying on the placement of the inscriptions on the blade and the scabbard. A tachi is worn with the blade facing downward, while a katana is worn with the blade facing upward.
The reason the katana is considered a collectible item is because it isn't considered a serious battlefield weapon, much like a Western rapier or the great swords of Jianghu wuxia, or even far inferior.
After all, Western rapiers and great swords at least have armor-piercing properties, allowing them to be used for stabbing even if they can't cut through. However,
the katana's extreme pursuit of sharpness results in limited toughness. It certainly wouldn't be able to cut through plate armor, nor would it be able to penetrate lined chain mail. And if used for stabbing, the curved and brittle blade would easily break.
Therefore, among Japanese short swords, there also emerged a type of small sword popular during the Muromachi period called the katō. As the name suggests, it was a specialized armor-piercing sword. To ensure armor-piercing strength, the blade of this sword was made very thick.
To summarize, the katana, besides being partially hardened to enhance its blade's sharpness enough to pierce unarmed civilians, was primarily worn as a status symbol. Song Dynasty scholars even considered it a talisman to ward off evil spirits. The
so-called "sword masters" of Japanese history, who rose through village feuds, weren't particularly skilled with the katana, but rather with spears and muskets.
The Ashina-ryu swordsman known for his New Year's greeting technique, "One-Character Slash," in a certain game, was known for concealing a cross spear and a rapid-fire musket in his trousers. This fact has real historical basis.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a famous "monkey" in Japanese history, issued the "Sword Hunting Order" aimed at separating farmers from soldiers, the two classes of samurai and commoners were solidified, and the katana was henceforth exclusively worn by samurai.
Considering that the yakuza evolved from the declining samurai, it's understandable that Richie enjoyed wielding a katana.
Due to the time constraints, Jack didn't have the chance to acquire a broadsword, tie a piece of red silk around the handle, and perform the "Eight Blades of Blade Breaking" to give the yakuza the same fear his ancestors had endured.
However, the physics-based holy sword he now held, "meticulously crafted" with modern technology, was actually quite good. The octagonal shaft was made of T10A carbon tool steel, fully high-temperature hardened, reaching a hardness between HRC60 and 64.
Most importantly, Jack had chosen an imported sword, the label clearly stating "Made in China."
"Who the hell are you?" Perhaps because the other person wasn't Asian, the "Japanese" didn't completely infuriate Richie. He stared intently at Jack, his katana raised, gripped to his side.
"Hey, aren't you going to say something? Like, 'Enemy shame, I'll take her clothes off,'" Jack didn't answer him. But after all, he had played the "Dynasty Warriors" series before, and he had some familiarity with the "One-on-One" duel format.
"Huh?" Richie's ferocious expression froze for a moment. He hadn't grasped this cliché, a truism only Chinese gamers could grasp. It took him a while to react. "You speak Japanese? I'll tell you that after I've got you."
The other man, armed with a gun, had managed to take down over a dozen of his men. Richie knew his fate was lost, and his only hope was to capture this incomprehensible foreigner.
"Ah!"
With a roar, Richie raised his katana with both hands and slashed down diagonally, unleashing a ferocious kasaya slash.
A sharp metallic clang echoed, and Jack swung his crowbar, grasping the curved end and striking back, unleashing a beautiful counterattack.
Richie took three steps back, clacking his head sideways. A crack the size of his pinky finger had formed on the blade.
Jack let out a soft sigh, thinking he'd been mistaken. Looking at the antique scabbard, he'd assumed it was one of Richie's so-called "treasure swords," passed down from his ancestors. But inside, it was a modern Japanese sword.
If it had been made of thin, hand-forged iron, it would have shattered with the blow.
Modern, machine-forged blades are much tougher. While the edge cracked, the blade remained remarkably resilient, having withstood the blow.
"Keep going," Jack waved at Richie. His perception and reflexes now surpassed those of ordinary humans, and he didn't mind the opponent's first move.
As the saying goes, "No martial art is invincible except speed. He who wins by momentum loses momentum, and he who conquers by force loses strength." While this line comes from a movie, uttered by the villain "Fire Cloud Evil God," it can be viewed with a certain perspective.
Whether it's martial arts moves or fighting techniques, they're all built through repetition, cultivating muscle memory and achieving speed.
Either use tricks to attract the opponent's attention, or attack directly and swiftly, the goal is to break through the enemy's block and strike directly at the vital point.
Richie chose the latter. The Japanese samurai's shouting and roaring style in a fight seems to be a preemptive move, but in reality, the key to the attack is also speed. The most typical example is the so-called sword-drawing technique, which is basically a sneak attack.
With another roar, he launched into the twelve forms of Iai. The blade flashed with a sharp and whistling wind. In a flash, he launched into a dazzling series of jutsu, three-way cuts, face-face strikes, tanto strikes, and four-way cuts.
Jack held the crowbar in one hand, staring at the opponent's eyes, blocking, intercepting, and swatting, never giving an inch.
The sound of "clinking, clanging, clanging" and the continuous sound of iron rebounding gave the illusion of entering a blacksmith's shop. When Richie returned to his position, his hands holding the sword were shaking uncontrollably like a Parkinson's patient.
Looking at the katana in his hand, the once gleaming blade was now riddled with countless nicks, small and large, reduced to a tattered saw blade.
If Hannah were there, she'd probably scream with excitement. Blacksmithing fighting games like Sekiro were her favorites, and seeing Jack recreate this scene in real life would have been a real treat. "Bagaya!"
"Fuck you!" Tired of playing, Jack smacked the broken iron bar in Richie's hand with his crowbar and kicked him out.
With a clang, half the hilt fell from Richie's hand, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. He struggled to his feet and roared, "Anglo-American bastards!"
He saw him rip off his suit jacket and the silk floral shirt underneath in a few quick moves, showing no sign of giving up. Jack smiled and dropped the crowbar, adopting a boxing stance.
"Come on,I'll beat you up today. "
"Yah!" Rich was overjoyed to see that Jack had taken the initiative to throw away the crowbar again, and picked up a wooden chair and smashed it at him.
"Click!"
"Bang!"
Jack directly reproduced Shen Ma Dongxi's favorite one-punch superman style o...
(Chapter End)