Martial arts technique like the Lindy Hop Tick-Tock

[Bruce Baird]

Colleagues (with apologies for cross posting),

In the Kobayashi Masaki's _Seppuku_, towards the end of the movie  
during the final fight scene, Nakadai Tatsuya's character Tsugumo  
Hanshiro does a sliding movement across the room which looks like the  
lindy-hop tick tock (tic toc).  In lindy, you put your hands on your  
knees and then point your knees and feet out and then point them in,  
and repeat for several counts (and you remain in one place during  
this--its an accent you add to your dance).  In the movie, Tsugumo is  
wielding a sword so obviously his hands are not on his knees, but he  
slides across the floor by means of pointing his feet simultaneously  
both out and then both in and then both out again, and alternating  
weight from the heel to the ball of the foot as a means of lateral  
locomotion across the floor.

I assume this is a known sword fighting technique to allow you to  
move laterally without having to cross your legs and experience of  
moment of unbalance.  But can anyone picture what I am talking about  
and corroborate my assumption and tell me what this technique is called?

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Baird
Assistant Professor
Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History

717 Herter Hall
161 Presidents Drive
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003-9312
Phone: 413-577-4992
Fax: 413-545-4975
baird at asianlan.umass.edu




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