Formosa Neijia

I’m in the market for a sword (jian) and I have to say, it’s a frustrating process so far. My intended field of study is the long fist sword forms of san cai jian, kun wu jian, and qi men jian, evertually to be followed by taiji jian. My only sword background is in the Japanese art of iaido, a very different art I’m thinking.

My iaido teacher was adamant right from the beginning: no fake sword. I studied this art in Japan from a man who had mastered the 18 martial arts passed down as his family art. One of the 18 arts was blade making. Another was handle wrapping and another was guard making. Yes, in Japan they take these things so seriously that there is an art to each part of swordmaking. I showed up for class in the traditional hakama (it took quite a while to tie that thing) and my wooden bokken. The first thing he did was take the bokken away from me and hand me a real sword, albeit of lesser quality. That was all he would let me train with.

His point was that if you want to be a swordsman, then you MUST train with a live blade from day one. He said that if you don’t, you will never respect the blade or develop any real skill with it. I have to admit that I had a LOT of respect for the four-foot razor blade that I was practicing with from then on. With the live blade, I was very conscious from day one just where the blade was at all times. I was very aware of where the tip was pointing and I never took studying the sword lightly. Practicing with that thing was a matter of life and death (mine!).

Having studied a little XYQ later, I came to realize after I left Japan that the teacher was using the sword training to develop what the Chinese call YI, or intent. Using a real sword gave me the ability to focus in a way I’ve never experienced before. Every time I drew the sword, I was “on” and paying attention to every last detail. Failing to do so would have resulted in injury.

From that background, I am very dissappointed to see the type of swords and training that people have here in Taiwan. In Japan, swords are honored and respected. No one would dare practice their art with a collapsable kenjutsu sword. The notion of such a thing is blasphemy. Seriously. But collapsable taiji swords are the norm here. And the training shows it.

Most Chinese sword training appears sloppy to me. There is little respect for the sword edge, mainly because the swords don’t have one. There’s no attention paid to where the tip is pointing; especially when a little tap would send the sword back into its collapsable form. In iaido, both actual cutting with the sword and sheathing it are practiced over and over again. Many Chinese practice swords don’t even have a sheath and sword cutting is never done.

In this context, I’m having a hell of a time trying to find a decent sword to learn with here in Taiwan. I have two options: cheap knock-offs from China and handmade collector’s items worth thousands of US dollars. These two options satisfy almost 100% of the market. “Practicioners” (I’m struggling to use that word here and there is a sneer on my face as I write it) want cheap toys that they can swing around. Rich businessmen and politicians love to keep hand-made wall-hangers that they can showoff to their friends.

I went into a MA store a while back and compared prices. It went like this: US$60, US$100, US$3,500, US$4,000. Talk about a gap! I had picked up the next sword in line and was thinking this looked much better. I was admiring the blade and thinking maybe I had found something finally. Then I saw the price tag and had a heart attack. I almost fumbled the blade trying to sheath the damn thing so I could quicky put it back on the shelf. The owner did not seem amused.

Through much detective work, I have managed to find a few options worth taking a longer look at. In my next post, I will describe those swords and give some preliminary thoughts.