Tachi versus katana in horseback fighting

[Chris Evans]

Hi Carlo,

Originally Posted by tsubame1

No more Musashi and 2 hands cuts with Tachi from horseback ? Enough for me. Thanks for the interesing link to the already stated unreliable wikipedia and the nice pictures of almost 7 centuries later then the pictures I asked for.

Oh, come on - I seems to me that you not only disliked what I wrote, but also Musashi and now Wikipedia - Hey, that link I gave was to a thread and not an article. - Peace Brothe!

I re-read our exchange and it seems to me that we were having what the Japanese sometimes call a parallel conversation, but alas parallel lines never meet.

I am, sorry for being tardy with the pics. Our broadband is down and I can only post at the moment with a 56K modem. Will scan in the pics as soon as I can. They are fairly large, because originally they were painted I believe on screens or walls and I only have an A4 scanner.

My original interest in illustrations was that in the ones that were painted in the Kamakura era, and which I have seen, the horsemen are not depicted with sword in hand - Only bows or pole weapons. This led me to speculate as to how often they used their swords when mounted - Of course they used swords, but how often?. Also foot soldiers are depicted with tachis. Looks like I'll have to re read the Tales of the Heike to refresh my memory.

Regards
Chris