The History Channel is showing a 2-hour special on samurai tonight, 3/16 at 8PM eastern. Among the topics covered will be the modern Komiya family of swordsmiths. This information comes from Paul Martin, who will also make an appearance.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'll probably watch at least part of it, even though the Samurai are quite far from my area of interest.

A warning to everyone else though, the History Channel, especially in th last several years, likes to over-dramatize things. So take anything you hear with a grain of salt. :)

Thank you for the heads up on this program. I thought that it was just another rerun of a previous program. I will watch this program since I am an afficianado of Katana swords.

Regards,

Harry

It was mostly about Musashi. Very good production quality. :)

Tried to watch it but quickly lost interest and spent the evening with a nice book instead. Didn't seem as over the top as much of what I've seen from History Channel of late and I'm sure somebody that was more into the subject matter might have been held more effectively by the program than I was. :blush:

It looks like they visited Niten Ichi-ryū. I came to it late. Mark was actually taking some training at the school.

That's a LOT further into Musashi than they usually get.

I also wasn't expecting them to get so in-depth with the history of Musashi, but he is perhaps the most famous samurai Japan has ever (or will ever) produce and it is the History channel, so having him as the central figure for this special makes sense. I liked how they tied in the teachings of the samurai with its more modern applications (for better or worse), and how Musashi's famed work Book of 5 Rings is still being used today.

The real life reenactment and documentary bits were the most interesting, while I could definitely do without the heavily stylized exposition and silly anime/animated bits (and I tend to like the medium, just not in the context of a History channel special). It had vibes from their 300 specials when that movie first came out. That said, I wonder why they released this samurai special right now . . . is there a new samurai movie coming out soon that they want to tie this to?

Still, it's good to see Marc Dacascos as I consider him one of the better martial arts actors (along with others such as Jason Scott Lee) out there who has been working in the entertainment business for a long time (but without falling into the seedier trappings of Hollywood stardom). He has a good head on his shoulders (though the shots of him with a katana on the streets of modern Japan seemed somehow tacky). Heck, I can only wish I looked that good when I'm 40+ years old!