[MR] Shinai combat in this kingdom

[Donald Wagner]

Greetings!!

The answer is simple.  Absolutely not.

I remember fighting with shinai in the early days of the Outlands, and 
it was quite fun.  There have been kingdoms that have allowed it and 
even organized tourneys and such, but that is mostly all gone today. 
 The reasoning behind it was focus on the medieval stage of Western 
Europe, and the fact that there are plenty of Kendo Dojos around that 
your art can be practiced and taught there.  Regardless of how cool 
feudal Japan was in the medieval period, and there is some amazing stuff 
during that time, shinai and kendo doesn't fit well with what we are doing.

This doesn't mean I don't like to see someone in full Japanese take an 
oversized rattan kitana or naginata to my buddy's head, ribs, waist or 
knees.  I really do and have even fought with my kitana in 12th c 
spanish garb whilst trying to focus my chi.  Yet, traditional shinai 
combat focuses on parts of the body that are not legal target areas(ie. 
wrist and hands) and is no fit in an organized SCA event.

By all means, find some SCAers close to you and have your own backyard 
bamboo brawl somewhere.  It's a cool art and a tradition that otherwise 
may have been lost.

Falcone

rujoking99 at mac.com wrote:

> Unto the good folk of Atlantia does Kinoshita Yoshimori of Black 
> Diamond send his greetings.
>
> I have a Japanese persona, and I really want to do combat.  However, 
> I'm irked at the amount of money I would have to spend getting myself 
> combat ready.  (You can get a 14th-century bascinet for $120, but a 
> Sengoku-era kabuto is going to hurt the purse a lot more.)  Buying the 
> material for light combat armour would be much less expensive than 
> heavy armour.  So, I'm wondering if this kingdom has rules set up for 
> using shinai (mock swords made out of strips of bamboo) on the light 
> field.  If not, it would be cool to discuss this, and either set up 
> rules for use, or outline why they shouldn't be allowed.
>
> Please, if you send a response to the list, CC it to me as well, since 
> I don't think my listserve setup is working properly now.
>
> Thank you,
> Kinoshita Yoshimori
>
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