Anonymous commented at 2014-01-02 00:03:44 » #1463703

Fun fact: This picture actually resembles a legit guard position with the sword.

For Kenjutsu it loosely resembles Chu-dan No Kamae(中段の構え) or Seigan No Kamae(正眼の構え).

His form actually resembles more of a European style of how they wielded longswords (which were similar in weight, length, and balance to katana). For the German school of fencing, his stance would be called "Pflug", specifically Left Pflug in this case.

In the Italian school of fencing, we see it represented again in the form of "Posta breve" which translates to "short guard". Master Fiore taught that the guard is very dangerous without armour on, and it becomes obvious why.

In Kenjutsu, the only stances resembling these have the arms completely outstretched, that is because if you have the sword especially close to your body in this position, it's much easier for your opponent to hit you, so this is a risky guard in unarmoured sword fighting.

The Italian school also had a separate guard position called "Posta di Bicorno" (two horned guard) which was specifically similar to Seigan No Kamae(正眼の構え) in Kenjutsu.

It's fun to draw parallels between foreign martial systems, what can I say.

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