What Is Tameshigiri?

Tameshigiri is the Japanese art of test cutting (the literal translation is “test cut”).

The practice of test cutting became popular only in the 17th century, to test the quality of Japanese katana. Nowadays, tameshigiri has evolved more into a popular katana sport and martial art, focusing on demonstrating the handling and the learned skills in practice. Today, cut tests are only carried out in the field of katana sports and martial arts for demonstration purposes. Therefore, to practice the katana sport “tameshigiri,” you should purchase a suitable sports katana.

Origin of the Katana Sport Tameshigiri

During the Edo period, only the most experienced swordsmen were selected to test katana, so the skill of the swordsman was not in question to determine how good the sword cut was. The materials used to test Japanese samurai swords varied widely. Among the most popular materials were rice straw, tatami mats, bamboo, and even thin steel sheets. There were frequent cutting tests on corpses or convicted criminals at the time. Inscriptions could be found on older swords with “Nakago” inscriptions such as: “5 bodies with Ryu Guruma” (hip cut) meaning. Such an inscription, known as “Tameshi-mei” or Sayan-mei (cutting signature) would greatly increase the value of a Japanese samurai sword and compensate the owner for the large sums of money normally charged for katana cutting examination.

Aside from specialized cuts on cadavers, there were the standard cuts of Japanese swordsmanship, such as the diagonal downward cut Kesa-giri, the diagonal upward cut Kiri-age, or Gyaku-kesa, the horizontal cut (Yoko or Tsuihei), and straight downward cuts (Jodan-giri, Happonme, Makko-giri, Shinchoku-giri, or Dottan-giri).

History of Tameshigiri

During the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, Japanese officers tested their new swords on captured soldiers and Chinese civilians. They even held a contest to see who could behead 100 people the fastest with a katana. The story was circulated by only one Japanese newspaper in 1937.

A strange story tells of a convicted criminal who, after being told that he would be executed by a katana examiner with a Kesa-giri cut, joked that if he had known this would happen to him, he would have swallowed large stones to damage the blade.

Tameshigiri Today

Practitioners of tameshigiri sometimes use the terms shito (sword test) and shizan (an alternative pronunciation for tameshigiri) to distinguish between the historical practice of sword testing and the contemporary practice of cutting. The most commonly used object is the “tatami omote” a rush mat. To cut through one or more targets in succession, or to cut through several targets while moving, one must be a very skilled swordsman.

Technique in Katana Cutting Sport

The difficulty of cutting with a katana is a combination of the hardness of the target material, the direction of the target, the quality of the sword, the angle of the blade (Hasuji) upon impact, and the angle of the sword’s swing (Tachisuji). When cutting an upright object, the downward diagonal cut is the easiest.

The next degree of difficulty is the diagonal cut upward, which has the same angle but works against gravity. The third degree of difficulty is the straight down cut, not in terms of grain, but in terms of the muscle group needed. The most difficult cut of these enumerated four basic cuts is the horizontal direction (against a vertical target), which is directly perpendicular to the fiber direction of the target.

Historical martial arts reconstructors perform similar test cutting with various swords. While goza, green bamboo (though rare), and meat are the preferred cutting targets, other substances are often used as they are more cost-effective and easier to obtain. Pumpkins, water-filled plastic bottles, soaked newspaper rolls, synthetic targets, or wet clay are popular objects for katana cutting sports.

Today, the katana cutting test “tameshigiri” or “kanji” is a popular sport among martial artists to purposefully slice through tatami omote, bamboo, or filled water bottles to demonstrate technique, skill, precision, or the quality of the sword.