Swords, or, Want to See My Scar?

I'm just back from a visit to Arao's very own swordmaker's house. It was my second trip to see (Genrokuro) Matsunaga-san, who is nationally renowned for his katana-making skills, but locally, a virtual unknown. I found him because I happened to noticed a small cartoon character of a man forging a katana on a tourist map when I first arrived, and I kept pushing someone to tell me if a katanamaker really existed here, and if so, to help me meet the guy. Finally, I was informed that someone in my very office at the Board of Education was friends with him, and he called him up and arranged a time for me and a fellow martial artist to go over to his house.
When we arrived on that night, we were greeted by a good ten-man crew of Japanese guests, and one wide-eyed young foreigner from Switzerland who spoke no Japanese. The Japanese guests were Iaido(the art of drawing/cutting with a sword)practitioners, part of the katanamaker's regular gang, I imagined, and the Swiss fellow was doing a one-week homestay with a friend of Matsunaga's, so he was joining them by pure luck that night.
We arrived and were invited to join in the feast. My friend speaks Japanese, so he was able to follow most of the conversation, but I sat in silence, and took in the sight of over twenty katanas in their hilts and wrappings, accompanied by a full set of samurai armor, comfortably resting in the room across the way.
Midway through, Matsunaga started a video that showed cutting demonstrations in several different locations. The Iaidoka made dynamic cuts through the tightly wrapped straw 'heads', for lack of the proper Japanese word, and many cut through the head three times. Some others cut as many as three heads it one continous movement. They all looked accomplished and impressive to me, but the pride and joy of Matsunaga seemed to be the one woman present, who also happened to be a foreigner. We learned that her name was Eliza, she lives in Washington D.C., and currently holds a 6th dan in Iaido. (We learned tonight that she is 3rd dan in Kendo, sings traditional Japanese music exquisitely, does traditional dance, and has a green belt in Aikijujitsu. I'm sure she must be well known in the U.S.) Matsunaga talked of her like she was his daughter--I think either he was her teacher, or they studied Iaido together for many years. She really stuck out in the videos because of being so different, even her kiai was a scream as opposed to the mens' more earthy yells, but they all seemed to take pride in demonstrating together, and she seemed as if she was entirely engrossed. We enjoyed watching the video very much, and noticed that several of the men on the tape were present at the table.
Tonight, I went back with my friend, and one more friend, of course hoping Matsunaga was going to forge a katana and we could watch. It turned out he wasn't forging tonight, but since we were the only guests this time, and both of my friends spoke Japanese, Matsunaga wasn't shy about bringing out several katanas, a tanto(knife) and two shotguns from the Edo period(1600's?) with sanskrit written on them. I wish I could've understood eveything he was saying about them, but luckily for me, one of my friends graciously attempted to translate what was being said whenever it was possible. No translation was needed, however, when he brought out the BIG sword. This was the longest sword any of us had ever seen(and my one friend actually practices Iaido). Matsunaga told us it was the original size of samurai swords from long ago. In order to draw the sword, he had to take a very wide stance, and twist his body as he pulled from the hilt. It must've been between 4 and 5 feet long--much longer than a regular sword, much heavier too, I'd assume. Love to see him forge one of those babies. He also went into a fascinating monologue on sepuku(ritual suicide), explaining with graphic gestures, the exact locations of the katana's entry and path of slicing for men and the tanto's entry for women. He explained how to tell from the blood splattering about on the walls and ceiling whether or not the samurai's second(assistant) had a good cut. He also noted that by observing the body afterward, it was possible to tell whether the samurai who was commiting sepuku was relaxed or tensed. And then he showed us the scar on his hand that he got in his schoolboy days from a mishap that occured when practicing drawing his sword left-handed.
Halfway in, he showed more tapes of the woman, Eliza, being interviewed on TV, doing Kendo, Aikijujitsu, singing, dancing, and of course, cutting. One of the few gaikokujin(foreigners/outsiders) on the inside, perhaps. She seemed totally in her element.
Matsunaga invited us back to his place to try our own hands at cutting with his swords(and probably to have fun watching us whack away with his precious, priceless beauties--I hope he gives us crappy ones in case we break them!). He also let us know when to come to observe him forging, and told us to leave the car and walk next time so we can join him in a drink afterwards!!