Samurai hand-eye coordination

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Karda

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Saw this video today and thought it was amazing. Imagine having that kind of hand eye coordination and reflexes!

Samurai cuts 100mph speeding fastball in half:

[video=youtube;k5tC8k8pIeE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5tC8k8pIeE[/video]


Then I found a video of him on Superhuman, where he does the same thing to a pellet:

[video=youtube;Qzhs1Z8Rwnk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzhs1Z8Rwnk[/video]
 
This guy keeps showing up on imgur. He does pretty amazing things.

But I don't think it's a baseball. Probably tennis ball. Unless the new baseball are now empty core, in my days they were multiple layers.

This site if reliable confirms it http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Baseball.html

But who cares... That is superhuman material.

A bit like Bob Munden quick draws. I think Munden was faster :D
 
Thanks for posting that. I am a samurai nut lol. Musashi Miyamoto is a personal hero of mine. His book The Five Rings is a must read for any sword practitioners out there. The can also cut arrows out of the air mid flight.

The amazing part is the blade is actually in the saya or scabbard. He draws and cuts in one motion. Notice the saya pushed foward. He draws the sword by pulling the saya in instead of drawing the sword out. Magical!
 
snowwolf said:
This guy keeps showing up on imgur. He does pretty amazing things.

But I don't think it's a baseball. Probably tennis ball. Unless the new baseball are now empty core, in my days they were multiple layers.

This site if reliable confirms it http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Baseball.html

But who cares... That is superhuman material.

A bit like Bob Munden quick draws. I think Munden was faster :D
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It's a softball. A speeding hardball might damage the sword.
 
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Thats pretty amazing! Baseball is one thing but the BB is crazy! It is amazing what the human body can do with practice and repetitious training.
 
gurkha berserka said:
Thanks for posting that. I am a samurai nut lol. Musashi Miyamoto is a personal hero of mine. His book The Five Rings is a must read for any sword practitioners out there. The can also cut arrows out of the air mid flight.

The amazing part is the blade is actually in the saya or scabbard. He draws and cuts in one motion. Notice the saya pushed foward. He draws the sword by pulling the saya in instead of drawing the sword out. Magical!
Click to expand...

[video=youtube;-e8tMz54q2A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e8tMz54q2A[/video]

[video=youtube;KsFisscA54w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFisscA54w[/video]
 
My new kitten's name is Musashi! Just goes to show ya what a nut I am for that guy. He started life as a criminal... his name was Takezo. He was "reborn" Musashi Miyamoto after his training and rehabilitation was complete. A Buddhist priest saved him after capture, locked him away until he learned to control himself.

He was a god amongst men back then. His duel with Sasaki Kojiro is the stuff of legends. He made a long fighting stick out of an old boat oar to keep his distance for Sasaki. Sasaki was a master of the turning swallow tail cut. Sasaki used a long O type katana with a long tsuka or handle. Musashi knew to stay out of his range. Musashi had his wakizashi on his side along with the big stick lol.

Musashi is also known for fighting with two swords at once. He would use is katana and wakizashi in tandem. He defeted Sasaki by deflecting his swallow tail cut with the boat oar, and in the same motion he made a stabbing cut with his wakizashi.

Musashi and Sasaki respected each other immensely. Musashi said Sasaki was the greatest swordsman he ever met. They actually waited a year to duel so Musashi could train. There was much respect between the two. I recommend both the books and the movies series called "The Samurai".
 
Here is a picture of the newest member of the family. May I introduce Musashi Meowmoto... :D

He is a pure blood maine coone. His father weighs in at 31lbs and his mother is 25lbs. He is triple pawed, meaning he has three thumbs on each front paw. He has 14 total fingers and 12 toes! His hands are bigger than his head, he has to be the smartest kitten I have ever owned. He is only 8 weeks old but he is huge and eating shredded chicken and beef. I have fallen in love with the little guy. He comes in my bed every night and tries to nurse of my ear lobes lol.

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snowwolf said:
Ultra cute!!!!!
Makes me miss my cat though.
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I lost my little guy Mickey two months ago to bladder cancer. He was a 15 year old maine coon. I miss him and think about him every single day. I still get a tear in my eye thinking about the little guy. I walked him around on a leash just like a dog. He would stop and smell everything and he would even play fetch. I needed to get a kitten for his brother who is still going strong.

Mikey's (rip) brother Max needed company during the day while I am at work. Max hissed at Musashi for the first few days, but I am happy to say that they are best of friends now.

Get another kitty snowwolf old buddy. You wont regret it! Their energy purifies the home. A cats purring is known to reduce stress and sickness in humans. I can feel the healing energy they give off when they are loved properly.
 
The duel at Ganryu Island (though it was named Funajima at the time of the battle and is still formally named such) is considered be some to have been the act of a coward and by others a brilliant strategy. I guess the interpretation depends on who you support, though his life and starting battling with adult samurai at the age of 13 would seem to indicate he was not a coward, LOL.

I agree that the extra difficulty of performing Nukiuchi as well as just cutting it sure makes it VERY impressive with that little pellet. Not sure I could even see that thing these days and never could have hit it from the draw, heck even if I used a baseball bat I probably couldn't hit it now LOL.
 
Hey Shav! How ya been. I thought about you when I was writing about Musashi... I knew you had knowledgeable on the subject.

I think the people who consider him a "coward" are haters lol. He was a bad ass and a jerk in his early life. I think we all acted a bit reckless when we were young.

He was a unique individual with great instinct. You don't win that many duels by luck.
 
There are many kinds of bravery and many kinds of cowardice, most having nothing to do with armed combat. However, it's pretty far-fetched to call someone a coward who spent his life in swordfights where his opponents were often highly skilled and every move was life-or-death. Musashi is said to have had some sixty duels before retiring.

I don't know if details of the duel at Ganryu Island or many other facts about Musashi's life as portrayed in movies and books are entirely accurate. However, I believe that the famous duel was organized by the employers/backers of Kojiro, so it would have been common sense and smart strategy for Mushashi to arrive at an unexpected time and with the boat as an exit strategy.

As for his use of a whittled-down oar for a weapon, again that would have been a smart tactic. First, because a heavy staff is just as deadly a weapon as a sword in expert hands, and second because it might have been less familiar to Kojiro. Even the smallest advantage, such as fighting with the sun at one's back or with an unfamiliar weapon, or the psychological advantage of arriving hours late, could be important in a duel against a superlative opponent like Kojiro.
 
I was kind of hoping my follow up sentence about when he started dueling adult samurai would indicate my own feelings about his skills and "cowardice" As you say Davidf99, the story has been shaped in many years by many tongues. Seriously though if you read the 5th "book" in the Book of 5 Rings, it discusses his philosophy of fighting in such a way as to demonstrate that at that time of his life no one could reasonably call him a coward even ignoring his history of dueling. His usual viewpoint can be summed up (though VERY simplistically) as The best defense is to Attack without thought, the best offense is to attack with forethought. Bear in mind that Sasaki Kojiro himself used a unique weapon which he used specifically because it gave him the benefit of reach. So using the oar/bokken certainly was not "unfair" in any sense. I think what people refer to as the cowardly portion of the fight is that of his smashing in the side of Kojiro then immediately retreating to his boat. While I consider that he was in "enemy territory" and most likely the judges and others on the island were Kojiro supporters I don't see it as anything but smart to get out before he was overwhelmed. I have a hard time deciding which of the books the 5 Rings or Sun Tzu's Art of War OR Machiavelli's version of Art of War where he attempts to convince the Italian city states that a standing army instead of hiring mercenaries would be a good choice is my absolute favorite. I usually tend towards Sun Tzu for leadership type thoughts, Musashi for individual life lessons and Machiavelli for civil discourse with the average Seattle voter base. Though they frequently make me think of Musashi and a long bokken when dealing with them individually ;)
 
Grats on your new family member Gb. Thats a dang good looking cat! Looks like Fat Freddies cat:thumbup:
I just got about 7 new cats myself. Actually they adopted us. Dont know where they came from but the have been hanging out under the cars in the driveway. They have been driving my dogs nuts. Anybody want a cat or two? They are you average striped pussycats. Friendly tho. I think someone dropped them off at the street and they found their way over to my house. Ill have to get them fixed and adopted out soon before they start replicating. Maybe ill give them Japanese names too? What the heck.
 
GB, those top 2 are some of my favorites. But my all time favorite is actually: “A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.” ― Miyamoto Musashi.

Ndog, just don't feed Dogo for a couple days and he will deal with your cat infestation :D Just kidding. I gotta say that is one CUTE kitten.
 
ndoghouse said:
Grats on your new family member Gb. Thats a dang good looking cat! Looks like Fat Freddies cat:thumbup:
I just got about 7 new cats myself. Actually they adopted us. Dont know where they came from but the have been hanging out under the cars in the driveway. They have been driving my dogs nuts. Anybody want a cat or two? They are you average striped pussycats. Friendly tho. I think someone dropped them off at the street and they found their way over to my house. Ill have to get them fixed and adopted out soon before they start replicating. Maybe ill give them Japanese names too? What the heck.
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They knew where to go. They sensed your families energy and gravitated to it. Japanese names would be cool. My next kitty will be Zato, named after the blind swordsman Zatoichi. Ichi is also a very popular nickname as many names end in "ichi". Baiken is another good one. He lost his life to Musashi in a duel, he was a master of the chain and sickle. Any girls? Tanu, Tami, Akme. Otsu are a few good ones.

He really is a darling. I love the little guy. He is getting so big. I will post another picture in a month or two to show how big he is.
 
Shavru said:
I was kind of hoping my follow up sentence about when he started dueling adult samurai would indicate my own feelings about his skills and "cowardice" As you say Davidf99, the story has been shaped in many years by many tongues. Seriously though if you read the 5th "book" in the Book of 5 Rings, it discusses his philosophy of fighting in such a way as to demonstrate that at that time of his life no one could reasonably call him a coward even ignoring his history of dueling. His usual viewpoint can be summed up (though VERY simplistically) as The best defense is to Attack without thought, the best offense is to attack with forethought. Bear in mind that Sasaki Kojiro himself used a unique weapon which he used specifically because it gave him the benefit of reach. So using the oar/bokken certainly was not "unfair" in any sense. I think what people refer to as the cowardly portion of the fight is that of his smashing in the side of Kojiro then immediately retreating to his boat. While I consider that he was in "enemy territory" and most likely the judges and others on the island were Kojiro supporters I don't see it as anything but smart to get out before he was overwhelmed. I have a hard time deciding which of the books the 5 Rings or Sun Tzu's Art of War OR Machiavelli's version of Art of War where he attempts to convince the Italian city states that a standing army instead of hiring mercenaries would be a good choice is my absolute favorite. I usually tend towards Sun Tzu for leadership type thoughts, Musashi for individual life lessons and Machiavelli for civil discourse with the average Seattle voter base. Though they frequently make me think of Musashi and a long bokken when dealing with them individually ;)
Click to expand...

Great story! Thanks for sharing
 
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