Tameshigiri
試し斬りTesting a sword's sharpness by actually cutting an object or a body. In the Edo period it was the hereditary trade of the Yamada Asaemon family, who tested the shogun's swords.
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Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Tameshigiri
According to Japanese dictionaries, tameshigiri is the act of testing a sword's sharpness by actually cutting an object or a person, not a school or an art with its own tradition. The Heibonsha Sekai daihyakka jiten links it with the Edo period and gives the term tameshimono, which the Nihon kokugo daijiten attests as early as around 1532. We have not found a founder or year of origin in the sources. In the Edo period, according to the Sekai daihyakka, the shogun's swords were tested in the prison on the bodies of the executed, by a cut into a body laid on a clay mound (suemonogiri), in the presence of officials. Nipponica states that the first Yamada Asaemon, Sadatake, became a pupil of the suemonogiri master Yamano Kanjuro around the middle of the Kanbun era (1661–1673), and that from the second generation the family was the official tester of the shogun's swords. According to it, the family carried out executions by beheading until they were abolished in 1881. The V&A museum states that the results of test cuts were recorded on the nakago of the sword, a practice established in the Edo period. The 1944 manual of the Army Toyama School made tameshigiri a compulsory part of training with the military sword. Japanese Wikipedia presents battodo as an art focused on the test cut, and according to English Wikipedia the most common target today is the tatami omote mat.
History
The Nihon kokugo daijiten attests the word tameshimono, an object or a condemned person for test cutting, already in the collection Shinsen Inu Tsukubashu around 1532, but this evidences the word, not necessarily the practice. Japanese Wikipedia states that Luís Fróis already noted in the Sengoku period that the Japanese trusted only the human body when testing swords. Sekai daihyakka describes the shogun's swords being tested at a testing ground (tameshiba) inside the prison in the presence of koshimono-bugyo officials. The V&A museum adds that condemned prisoners or their corpses were used, sometimes bound together. According to Nipponica, the Yamada tested swords at the Denmacho prison on the bodies of executed commoners, and unofficially also the swords of daimyo and hatamoto. Sekai daihyakka states that the Yamada were ronin based in Edo in Kojimachi Hirakawacho and had pupils. Nipponica gives the succession of family heads as Sadatake, Yoshitoki, Yoshitsugu, Yoshihiro, Yoshimutsu, Yoshimasa and Yoshitoshi. According to the Nihon jinmei daijiten, the seventh Yamada Asaemon Yoshitoshi (1813–1884) beheaded, among others, Yoshida Shoin and Rai Mikisaburo during the Ansei purges.
Technique
The 1944 manual of the Army Toyama School gives as the aims of tameshigiri aligning the direction of force with the path of the blade, gripping the handle, correct guidance and the angle of the blade. English Wikipedia lists the basic cuts kesa-giri, kiri-age, gyaku-kesa, yoko, jodan-giri, makko-giri, shinchoku-giri and dotan-giri, and an order of difficulty on a vertical target from the diagonal downward cut to the horizontal. Japanese Wikipedia states that the standard cut into tatami is kesa-giri at about 40 to 45 degrees and that the horizontal cut is the hardest. Japanese Wikipedia also notes historical names of cutting positions on the body, for example suritsuke, kenashi, ichi no do, ni no do, hachimaime and ryoguruma. According to it, a cut through several bodies was called mitsudo, that is three bodies, and records survive up to nanatsudo, seven bodies.
Training
The 1944 manual of the Army Toyama School defines tameshigiri as a real cut and thrust with a military sword at an object. It prescribes first learning to draw and hold the sword and then practising the cut and thrust in place and diagonally down, the rest following, according to it, the regulations of kenjutsu and gunto no soho. Japanese Wikipedia distinguishes test cutting (shitojutsu) from battodo and iaido, which assume an opponent. According to it, tatami mats are soaked for one to several days before cutting and set on a stake. The same Wikipedia says that straw makiwara were replaced by tatami mats and that the word makiwara today usually means tatami.
Competition
Japanese Wikipedia describes a battodo competition as follows: in the individual event, opponents from the red and white sides cut a tatami mat, and judges assess etiquette, stance and cut. In the team event, three members cut one mat in turn. The Kobe branch of the Zen Nihon Battodo Renmei states that certified judges assess etiquette, stance, prescribed forms and the cut of the mat according to the federation's criteria table. The Czech Toyama Ryu Federation states that in 2025 in Tokyo Petr Donátek was the first non-Japanese medallist in the power cutting discipline. English Wikipedia lists Isao Machii's Guinness records in mat cutting, among them 1,000 cuts in 36 minutes and 4 seconds.
Today
The Zen Nihon Battodo Renmei, founded by its own account in 1977, today brings together battodo practitioners across schools. Japanese Wikipedia describes battodo as an art centered on test cutting, and tameshigiri is today part of both Toyama-ryu and battodo. We have not found a separate organization for tameshigiri alone in the sources. According to English Wikipedia, the most common target is a tatami omote mat, often soaked, and green bamboo imitates bone. The Zen Nihon Toyama-ryu Iaido Renmei states that since 2013 it has arranged for foreign members the export of tatami omote mats for test cutting.
Did you know
Nihon kokugo daijiten states that dodan meant a clay platform for cutting with a pit in front, hence today's term dotanba. Nipponica states that among the distant ancestors of the Yamada family is Acha no Tsubone, a concubine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and that the Yamada house sold a tuberculosis remedy for two bu of silver. According to English Wikipedia, test fees were high, but the recorded result raised the value of the sword. Japanese Wikipedia states that in 1887, during a kabuto-wari before the emperor at the Fushimi-no-miya residence, Sakakibara Kenkichi split a helmet with the sword Dotanuki. The 1944 manual of the Army Toyama School contains an anatomical diagram of cutting and thrusting points on the human body.
Frequently asked questions
Is tameshigiri a martial art in its own right?
Japanese dictionaries describe tameshigiri as the act of testing a sword, not as a school. Japanese Wikipedia presents battodo as an art focused on the test cut.
Who tested the shogun's swords in the Edo period?
According to the Nipponica encyclopedia, from the second generation it was the Yamada Asaemon family, the official tester of the shogun's swords, which carried out executions by beheading until they were abolished in 1881.
What is cut in tameshigiri today?
According to English Wikipedia, the most common target is the tatami omote mat, often soaked, and green bamboo imitates bone. The Czech Toyama Ryu Federation also gives tatami omote mats.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.