This article is a response to the recent article The truth about the Japanese sword. (Incident in Otsu) by author bammbuss. I'm not usually one to critically respond to articles written by others, but in this case I feel compelled.

The article by bammbuss essentially covers the incident Otsu Japan in which an attempt was made on the life of Nicholas II of Russia by a fanatic police officer, in which Nicholas was struck on the head with a sword. The thesis is this: that the Japanese katana is a poor weapon as the assassination attempt on Nicholas not only failed, but he remained lucid and even standing despite it.

There are problems, however, with that conclusion, as it's based upon assumptions and baseless information presented as fact. I'm sure it was never bammbuss's intent to mislead anyone, but it highlights the importance of researching and citing information. English appears to be a second language to bammbuss. I applaude the effort behind the article for this reason, but it does leave some points rather unclear and inconsistent between statements, futher necessitating the need for sources and citations. Nevertheless, the article is quite lengthy and attempts to be in-depth, providing information such as medical reports, though these, too, lack a source. The only source given is that of the image of an armed and armoured samurai only vaguely relevant to the article.

Sabre, not katana

So where to begin? Perhaps at the most pertinent point, for everything else besides it pales; that point being that bammbuss assumes the weapon used was a Japanese katana, as bammbuss supports with the following:

"The term "sword" in Europe by that time was thoroughly forgotten, but sabers were familiar to both the military and the police. Therefore, in the newspapers and wrote that the blows were "saber"."

The English is a little hard to interpret, but I've taken this to mean that the use of the word sabre was simply to be more relateable to readers. The problem with this is that this point is critical to bammbuss's entire argument, yet has no grounding. Let us consider.

First, in his translation of Nicholas II's own memoirs, Edvard Radzinsky's The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II, the word 'saber' (as translated) is quite intentionally used. If the decision to use the word 'saber' was specifically for newsprint, why would the future Tsar himself pen it as such? It's of course possible the author took liberty here, and that a Russian word better expressing katana was used, such as perhaps shashka (a Russian sabre that lacks a guard) that better resembles a katana. Unfortunately my Russian is all but non-existant, so I cannot confirm either way, so let's examine other evidence.

The incident took place in 1891, well into the Meiji Restoration period. This is significant as it does not predate the 1876 military reform that banned samurai carrying katana accompanied by a sword hunt in which the government took katana away. This reform led to the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877, which was put down in the same year. This, too, matters, as it saw Kawaji Toshiyoshi travel Europe to learn of their ways, and eventually structure Japan's new police force with himself as its chief. The new force was modeled after the French and Prussian models, with police geared as in the image below (source). As you can see, their uniform and equipment is entirely European in design, down to the curved, guarded sabres called kyu gunto.

Further backing this are secondary source articles such as this article, How the last czar shaped Japan's courts, by professor Colin P. A. Jones, published in The Japan Times. Jones writes:

"Fortunately, Tsuda’s sword was a poorly made Western-style sabre rather than a Japanese katana, so the one blow that did land did not cause serious injury."

As the Japanese were only newly creating Western-style weapons with the reformation, which were smithed entirely differently from traditional Japanese weapons which relied on heavily working and folding low quality iron derived from iron sand, as ore was rare, and billets rarer still being sourced from foreign trade. Unfortunately Jones doesn't appear to present sources for this sabre claim, though as a professor, I like to think Jones thoroughly researches anything he presents as fact, whether scholarly or tabloid.

The other side

Some may ask of artwork such as that above called Le Crime d’Otsu. To answer simply, it's sourced from a French publication called Le Petit Journal, and was published on the 30th of May, some 19 days after the incident. Due to technological and logisitc limitations of the time, it thusly cannot be considered a valid source. This is further supported by the fact the depiction conflicts with both Japanese law and policewear policy of the time, and perhaps more importantly, Nicholas's own memoirs, which tell of his cousin striking the man with his cane after a chase, rather than what is seen here. See quote:

"Finally, having run an entire 60 paces, I ducked around the corner of a side street and looked back. By then, thank God, it was all over. Georgie, my savior, had felled the loathsome creature with one blow of his cane..."

It's worth noting that this is the most outlandish of depictions from the time, with several others having Tsuda in police uniform more fitting to his role as escort. These are relatively easy to find with a web search, so I'll not include here in the interest of saving space. It's bammbuss's own words that can help strip credibility from these more traditional Japanese depictions, however:

"...the authorities would not allow him to attend the ceremony of meeting and accompanying a high overseas visitor. Who served in the army or the police (police)[sic] will easily remember how the chiefs check out the outfit and clothing of a serving person at such state ceremonies."

As a police officer, we'd expect Tsuda would be dressed in post-decree uniform and accompanying weapon for such an occasion.

It's also worth addressing the explanation by Nicholas II himself about the strike to the head from his memoirs mentioned earlier:

"At that point received a strong blow to the right side of my head, above my ear. Turned and saw the loathsome scowl of a policeman, who was waving his saber over me in both hands a second time."

This two-handed cutting strike to the head is consistent with a katana attacking technique, rather than a sabre attacking technique, with the latter more suited to thrusting and slashing than cleaving cuts. Katana cut attacks to the head remain practised and feature prominently in kendo. This could further explain the relative lack of damage dealt by the blow, as a technique far better suited to a katana would lack effectiveness from a sabre.

bammbuss also made this claim:

"So Tsuda Sanzo ... passed not only a police officer, but also a standard samurai training. There is no doubt that he was able to handle (the katana) at the proper level."

Due to his age at the time of the event, as well as induction age to the military (at around 17) and later the police (which he served in for around 9 years preceding the assassination attempt), bammbuss's claim of Tsuda being highly proficient with a katana don't hold up; due to reforms mentioned earlier it would be the gunto and not katana Tsuda would be most familiar and practised with—particularly in later life.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that it's entirely possible a katana could fail to penetrate Nicholas's skull had it indeed been a katana used—particularly as the story tells he turned his head upon the strike landing. Here we see evidence of strikes from Japanese blades that fail to crack or fully penetrate the skull. Katana are and were light, and not overly long, so cutting relies heavily on technique, blade condition, and accuracy of the strike. Nicholas II would not have been the first to survive a katana blow to the head had it indeed been made with a katana.

While bammbuss could still be correct about the weapon in use being a katana—I can't know for certain as I wasn't there—I believe evidence suggests otherwise. This article is not me holding anything against bammbuss either, as I admire anyone trying to share knowledge and brave enough to put something written out there for scrutiny. Nor do I particularly hold katana to some lofty heights. I do hope though that the relatively open platform that is Publish0x doesn't necessarily have to mean lax standards for research, evidence, and content creation.