Please read the comments below. They are more informative and correct than this article may have been. It seems obvious to me that the article I quoted here is not up to snuff. -Trent
From the Guardian Newspaper:
“First, I cut off your head. Then, I cleave you in two.” Eugene, my travelling companion and a fluent Japanese speaker, translated as a 450 year old samurai sword sliced a curving arc around his body, inches away from his face and chest. The words, and the sword, belonged to Hamamoto, a 70-year-old sensei and founder of the Hamamoto fighting style. The Hamamoto style, we soon discovered, is extremely violent and quite unsporting: he beckoned Eugene to kneel opposite him and encouraged him to bow. Mid-bow he suddenly unsheathed his sword and told him: “Now I take the butt of my sword and break your chin. Then I disembowel you.”