Once upon a time
, a Katana
was tested on a live human
being. The test, called "Tameshigiri
", was both a test of the blade
and a first blooding
of the weapon
, kind of a sacrifice to the spirit of the blade
. The test subject was usually a condemned criminal
, although useless slave
s were sometimes also used. After a time, corpse
s became the test subjects, then bundles of bamboo
, as it became less politically correct
to test swords on people.
The need for a Samurai to have the confidence that his sword will perform as promised, coupled with the desire to "blood" the weapon, started the practice known as the "crossroads cut". The young samurai would go to a crossroads and wait for the next person to come down the road, then kill them with a hip-to-shoulder cut, the primary katana test cut.
Needless to say, this practice also fell out of favor. In World War II, Nakamura Taizaburo, who eventually became the head of the Toyama Ryu school (www.toyama-ryu.com), performed Tameshigiri on living cattle.
Today Tameshigiri is performed on rolled tatami mats, in bunches or with wood or metal cores.