More saya trivia

We were once shown a move used by experienced old samurai to
avoid saya clashing.

Under peacetime Tokugaawa administration the samurai were stuck
as a solcial class with nothing to do, men of honour with no
way to prove it, so there was periodic unrest among them.

The 'punks' of the day were called kaubuki mono (deviant
persons) and characterised by bizarre and faddish dress and
unruly behaviour. They shaved their heads, or wore fanciful
hairstyles, or just let their hair flow loose, and they wore
over-long swords with bright red saya and frequently were the
cause of street fights.

So the seasoned old samurai sees one of these hotheads coming
towards him, the distinctive red saya sticking out a mile! As
they are about to pass on the saya side, the old man, who's
left hand has been resting easily on top of the saya, grips,
twists his knuckles outward, and at the same time pulls his
hand up towards his shoulder. This move ends with the sword
parallel to the body, close to the side, and has two
advantages:

1 - It avoided the saya clash (and thus a fight)
2 - Some men carried saya that were designed to split. They
would brush passed and bump their victim, twisting the body and
levering the hilt as they did so. The saya would split and the
blade would be in contact with their victim's waist as the
assasin turned, and thus deliver a debilitating wound.
If this was the hothead's intention, the old man's own sword,
carried vertically from chest to knee alongside the body's
edge, would act as a shield.

Either way the hothead, tricked by the sudden defensive move,
would lose the initiative and the old man could cut him down at
his leisure (or walk away).

Thomas