2005 Axe Seminar

The Japanese word for axe is "ono". I rather like this, as in English it can be pronounced as "Oh, NO!".

For certain, the axe has some major differences in relation to the sword when used as a combat weapon. Whereas the sword is one of the apex weapons developed for personal combat before the introduction of firearms, and has a greater range of movement and subtlety, the axe has many great strengths in it's favor. The axe is a much more durable weapon, and was originally designed as a tool. The axe is a very difficult tool to break, where the sword is relatively much more fragile. If trapped inside a burning building, the axe is a much more desired item to help one escape the possibility of death by having the advantage in being handy for chopping through a locked door.

In our dojo, I teach anything and everything I have learned to my students with just a relatively few exceptions. While it may seem to most on the Internet that I mostly teach sword arts, this is not the case. It may seem so because sword arts is what I have written about for the most part. My personal interest in ancient weaponry includes an arsenal of many varied instruments. I just find it difficult to make the time to write about them.

My ancestors, in particular the Irish and the Norsemen, favored the axe as a great weapon. My father's side of the family, the Scots and Vikings, also used this weapon to great effect.

Robert the Bruce, Scotland's King, split the helm and head of Charles De Bohnan in a single blow in personal combat, shattering the haft of his axe in the effort.

The Irish King, Brian Boru, was also fond of the reliability of the axe.

Unlike the sword, developed as a killing weapon, the axe can chop wood for a fire, make planks to build a home, and has greater versatility. Few, if any, swords can reliably defeat body armor in the mode of "giri" - cutting. Most Renaissance Era swords evolved into a weapon better suited to thrusting in between the weak points of armor, known as the "chinks". Plate armor was very difficult to overcome for the swordsman, as both arms and armor were very evenly matched.

The best hope was to thrust into the articulated joints of the suit of armor. All points in such armor had to be kept relatively thin to allow movement.

The axe had no such common difficulty. Any point that the Axe could strike could easily defeat a suit of armor.

Either through the force of impact, trauma or even through penetration the axe was most reliable on the battlefield.

Axes could readily shear through the toughest armor plate with little problem. Of course, this does depend on the quality of the armor and the axe, not to mention the relative skill of the warriors.

Included are pictures from our 2005 Axe Seminar.

Here, Sam Sempai (left) and Ron Sempai (right) grapple using the axe as a tool for defeating the swordsman. As you might see, the sword is used against the attacker in a grappling technique.

We also spent some time working on our axe throwing skills.