Chiburi

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you all are going to have fun on this 3 day weekend.

I downloaded a cool looking game for my iPhone and I thought I'd do (yet another) a Samurai sketch. I haven't played the game yet, but I'm hoping to be able to spend at least a few minutes on it this weekend.

The position that I have sketched is called chiburi. It is a movement at the end of most iai forms that has the intention of clearing the excess blood off of the katana. The movements of chiburi are quite varied. Sometimes it's a subtle movement to the side. Other styles use a more pronounced flick to clean the blade. Probably the most stylized version of chiburi comes from the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu style of swordsmanship. This is probably my favorite Japanese sword style. And it happens to be one of the oldest established schools in Japan as well. One day I'll do a sketch in homage to that ryu.

Anyway, it was done in CS3 on the MacBook using the Bamboo tablet.

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you all back here on Monday.