Real Samurai vs 160 MPH fastball!
There are some things that simply need to be seen to be believed. And yet, there remain some things that still seem impossible even when you have video evidence staring you right back in the face.
Case in point: this incredible video depicting a man slicing a baseball clean in half with a samurai sword. What makes the video so remarkable is that the baseball is travelling at 101 mph, about as fast, if not faster in most cases, than most fastballs thrown in the major leagues.
Even more astounding is that man in the video, a fellow named Isao Machii, is standing just 30 feet away. By way of comparison, batters in the major leagues stand 60 feet away from the pitcher’s mound.
Now the normal time it takes a major leaguer to react to a pitched ball thrown at 100 mph is .380 seconds. And along comes Machii who can react even quicker to a ball coming at him from half the distance.
Sure, it all sounds incredulous, and your first instinct might be to decry the video a fake. But before you do so, we should point out that Machii is reportedly a master of Iaido, a modern martial arts application of traditional Japanese swordplay that emphasizes the movements associated with the form. He also just so happens to hold the Guinness World Record for the fastest 1,000 martial arts sword cuts.
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10 crazy facts about the Samurai:
1. Female Samurai
While samurai is a strictly masculine term, the Japanese bushi class (the social class samurai came from) did feature women who received similar training in martial arts and strategy. These women were called Onna-Bugeisha, and they were known to participate in combat along with their male counterparts. Their weapon of choice was usually the naginata, a spear with a curved, sword-like blade that was versatile, yet relatively light.
2. Fashion
Samurai were the rock stars of their time and their style of clothing massively influenced the fashion of the era. However, save for the most formal occasions, samurai themselves didn’t dress to impress. Although their clothing was elaborate, every aspect of it was designed to fit their needs as warriors.
3. The weapons
As soldiers, samurai employed a number of different weapons. They originally carried a sword called a chokuto, which was essentially a slimmer, smaller version of the straight swords later used by medieval knights.
4. Physical characteristics
The imposing armor and weaponry makes samurai seem gigantic, and they’re often depicted as quite large and well-built in pop culture. This could not be farther from the truth. In reality, most samurai were quite tiny—a 16th century samurai was usually very slim and ranging from 160 to 165 centimeters in height.
5. Suicide rituals
One of the most terrifying things about the way of the samurai is seppuku (also known as hara-kiri). It is the gruesome suicide a samurai must perform if he fails to follow bushido or is likely to be captured by enemy. Seppuku can be either a voluntary act or a punishment. [source : listverse.com]
