Tameshigiri

Tameshigiri Bundle

Tameshigiri Cutting mats made from rice straw, essential for cutting practice with samurai sword.

Bundle of 12

38 x 4 x 4

Ships only to USA mainland. No international orders or contact us for special shipping conditions!

Tameshigiri history

Tameshigiri is the Japanese art of target test cutting. The kanji literally mean "test cut".

This practice was popularized in the Edo period (17th century) for testing the quality of swords and continues through the present day.

During the Edo period, only the most skilled swordsmen were chosen to test swords, so that the swordsman's skill was not a variable in how well the sword cut. The materials used to test swords varied greatly. Some substances were wara (rice straw), goza (the top layer of tatami mats), bamboo, and thin steel sheets.

In modern times, the practice of tameshigiri has come to focus on testing the swordsman's abilities, rather than the sword's.