Katana's are weak on the flat side. They aren't really meant to be used for parrying. In fact, most sword fights in Japan would be over after the first or second swing. It was commonplace to hold the grip of a katana but not draw it in such a way so that your enemy has trouble judging how long your katana is and what is a safe distance to be from you. Once your opponent is in range, draw it quickly and kill them in one blow, ideally.

The act of killing your opponent in a single blow is called "nukitsuke" from "nukiuchi" meaning "to cut down an opponent" and "tsuke" meaning "to stop an opponent's attack before it begins".

The Sekiro and popular media image of extended katana fights didn't really happen, but if they did, there would almost certainly be some broken katanas.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I promise you, in the real world, fights were just as much of a shield shoving match while trying to slash your opponents ankle as they were in Europe.
The idea of a one-on-one sword fight decided by individual skill is much more of a romantic idea.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

just as much of a shield shoving match while trying to slash your opponents ankle as they were in Europe

lolwut? Try that leg-targetting shit with a HEMA fighter and see how fast you'll bleed out.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

HEMA is not combat. It's tournament fighting. In combat you've got a thousand spearmen on either side looking to stick you with a sharp stick wherever they can.

[–] TriflingToad@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

I imagine it like a hockey match where when a stick breaks they just go get another one and continue on like nothing happened

[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

According to the dictionary, 抜き打ちnukiuchi and 抜き付けnukitsuke sound like synonyms. I'm a little confused.

I guess with uchi (to strike down) vs tsuke (to put, attach, etc) one sounds more like the result and the action but it's weird that the definitions from Jisho.org aren't too explicit.

[–] ShaunaTheDead@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

I think because "nukiuchi" would be pronounced like "NOO-KEE-OO-CHEE" and "nukitsuke" would be pronounced like "NOO-KEE-SOO-KEE" so kind of similar. I dunno though!