Years ago, I read the book Autumn Lightning: The Education of an American Samurai. One of the scenes I remember from the book is a description of an iaido exercise involving a simultaneous draw and strike that cuts through a falling dewdrop.
I was a lot younger then (Amazon’s listing is for the 2001 printing; there’s an earlier one from 1985), and I had difficulty imagining that such things could actually be done, or verified in a training environment. I could see hitting a raindrop, but splitting it? I thought it more an ideal to reach for, in a “the journey is the destination” sense.
Well, now I’ve seen something that removes any lingering doubt that I had. Some of what is done in this video can be verified just from the end results, but the use of a high-speed camera to provide super-slow motion shows how truly impressive a skilled practitioner can be.
Are you telling me you weren’t impressed by the skills of John Bellushi in Samurai Delicatessen? Heresy!
Not particularly – when he sliced the sandwich, it went onto the floor. I’ll go for Samurai Divorce Lawyer or Samurai Optician before Samurai Delicatessen, but my favorite has always been Samurai Night Fever.