This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Samurai were men of war, loyal to a single shogun and bound by oath to slice their bowels out with a dagger should their honor be besmirched. And that was on dry land. During the Sengoku or Warring States period, samurai also did battle on boats and those who fell overboard were expected, at best, to continue fighting or, at worst, to save themselves from drowning and live to fight another day. Since a typical samurai suit of armor could weigh as much as 44 pounds, suijutsu “water technique” was an important part of their training. The samurai are gone but the suijutsu tradition lives on as nihon eiho, an aquatic martial art form. Here in Japan, 13 schools of nihon eiho compete in techniques such as full-armor swimming, the flying mullet and standing swimming. Clearly, when it came to water fights, the samurai were all wet…in a good way, of course.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.