Angel Sword Tatami Mat Cutting Competition at TRF 2004

The mats used in this video were purchased from the Bugei Trading Company and soaked in water 24-36 hours. A cup of Pinesol was added to the water only to minimize the odor of the "tatami tea". Each roll is approximately 4.5" when tightly rolled and is supposedly equal in difficulty of cut to severing a man's upper thigh -- which option I hope no one has ever to take! This is not intended to be a tamashigiri demonstration as can be seen from the techniques shown but the guys doing the cutting paid for the privilege to see who could cut the most mats. I took this video at the Texas Renaissance Festival in 2004.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• swords
• tatami
• tameshigiri
• cutting
• angel
• sword

[TuahShinguru]

That kind of sword is a Naginata.

[PegasusRider2]

A naginata is less blade and more handle. (See an example here... mtholyoke dot edu/ org /naginata/naginata1 dot gif

or here...

angelfire dot com /dragon/swords/naginata dot html

or here...

simple dot wikipedia dot org/wiki/Naginata

[NoodleFarmer8697]

Does anyone know what type of sword that is?

It looks Japanese but I've never come across one like that before..

[PegasusRider2]

It is commonly called a no-dachi. Think of it as a larger version of the katana.

[magneticskull]

This isn't a nagamaki, a naginata or a nodachi, it's a Tatami Cutter. (is this Harbinger or some other blade?)

It's not designed to be historical, or for fighting, it's a purpose designed multiple mat cutting tool.

Might as well have a John Deere logo on it. :)

[Zrazys]

No, cutting with a sword is not like swinging a bat. Swing a sword like a bat against a tatami mat and, you'll likely knock the target over. The same with pool noodles. You are cutting with a sword, not bashing with a sword.

[samuraichuck87]

the last guy looked like he bent his sword a bit.... also pinesol dosnt seem like

a good thing for a sword.... seeing how it has corrosive agents that will marr the blade.... although last time i soaked tattami in my bathtub it smelled like a stable :( also not good.

[102611ful]

angel sword reminds me of sepiroth sword but bruce seemed on his game he had a karate kid moment lol.

[TexasRenaissance]

I think we have a winner.

[BlackSwordSaint]

They didn't to familiar with handling greatswords/nodachis. And that's the case they might of done better if they had something they were more use to mabye.

[artiepoore]

the third one succeeded

[tathtath]

good one XD

[whop9]

Users 1, 2, and 4 looked as if they were just attempting to hack at the mats instead of using a pulling motion seem in the third attempt.

[GTFORDMAN]

there impressive looking swords in any case

[ytacc0]

They all failed. But that looks to be some dense mats!

[Garrison64]

Baldwin's cut was impressive. 23 and he made it look easy.