Japanese Katana = Chinese Slim Saber?

[Eddie]

Recently At a local CMA tournament, a very prominent, very well respected Chinese Master’s son was walking around with a whole bunch of Katana swords. Later the evening, he also demonstrated a non choreographed two person fighting set which, in my opinion at the time, very much resembled Japanese Kendo / Iaido fighting method (both hands on sword, raised above the head, with short attacks to the top of the opponent’s body).

After the event, I had some time to chat to the master’s son about this, and he told me that the Katana originated from the song dynasty (called slim saber or Mieh Dao), and that it was very much a Chinese weapon. The Japanese thereafter took the weapon, and adapted in to their life style (with very little changes to form and style of fighting). They also told me, because of the problems with Japanese pirates, many Southern Masters practiced this style of fighting. One student mentioned that Fong Sai Yuk was very well skilled in this method, but I always thought that Fong Sai Yuk was just a fictional character. They said that there were some “older” southern styles which still use this weapon in this way.

If anyone has any relevant info on this matter, please post this here. I also posted this topic at both southern and Shaolin forums in hopes to get more feedback.

[k-no]

This is not true.

The Japanese katana was derived from an early Chinese design, albeit with two cutting edges. The Japanese katana as it appears today in no way resembles any of the Chinese swords that it was borne from. Chokuto, straight bladed Japanese swords are the closest thing you'll have to Chinese styles, and even ancient Chokuto only have a cutting edge on one side of the blade. Tachis, ceremonial Katana with fancy hardware, do capture the look and feel of the fancy Chinese Jian of that era. However, the modern look of Japanese swords have their own style.

It is possible that Japanese katana were seized in war by Chinese martial artists, or was given as a gift from a Japanese Daimyo to a Chinese Emperor, and in this way a style may have originated applying the katana to Chinese MA. However, the katana did NOT come from China. It seems like someone got carried away and improvised their style's origin.

k

[Lisa]

According to "Ancient Chinese Weapons: A Martial Artist's Guide" by Dr. Yang Jwing Ming...

"...the precursor to the katana was imported to Japan from China during the Chinese Song Dynasty (960-1280 A.D.). This was called the "Chopping the Horse Saber" (Zhan Ma Dao)... The "Chopping the Horse Saber" is also known in modern times as the "Simple Saber" (Pu Dao)."

There is a drawing of this sword in the book. It looks a lot like a katana.

[k-no]

POST THE PICTURE.


k

[Eddie]

thanx k-no,
i noticed from your profile you sell swords.please pm me your site url.

wish u well
eddie

[toi]

fong sai yuk was a real person who was involved in the shaolin/wudang conflict (yes even though the shaolin vs. wudang movies blew it out of proportion it did happen) he challenged and killed li lao hu. li's father in law was a bodygaurd to one of the people who burned down the song shan temple. there was a fight by friends of the family of the man fong killed and and some monks fong recruited (and fong himself).:cool: