Wearing a basket hilt.?.

[Dale Seago]

Hence the reason why discussion of weaponry,even historical weaponry, gets dicey. This is an international forum and laws vary wildly from one location to another. Our personal biases are often also formed by those same laws we live under and we then deem those conditions "normal", when in fact, there is no "normal". The variety of legal conditions prevent it.

One country and society will eliminate all edged weapons, another will sell machetes at department stores. Such is the global community. The best course of action is to not judge one another by our own standards. They are not the standards of other nations and societies.

I could not be more in agreement with your post.

I am a senior-level instructor ("senior" as in, "In a non-promotable status because I'm maxed out on rank") in a international martial-arts organization (the Bujinkan) headquartered in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. This organization's curriculum is based in 9 martial traditions from feudal Japan's pre-unification civil war period and has as much emphasis on effective use of a very broad array of weaponry (as well as things like explosives, incendiaries, poisons, etc.) as on empty-hand methods.

Many of the traditional bodies of knowledge are illegal to learn or train in, in their "pure" or original form, in any number of countries where instructors and practitioners may reside, and "work-arounds" have to be developed. And they're not all the same for all affected countries. Makes for interesting creative exercises. :-)

(EDIT: And btw, I spent many years as an intelligence and special-ops officer for the U.S. of A. So if anyone thinks they can just ask me for details or tips on "getting away with stuff" that might be illegal where they reside. . .hey, you don't ask and I won't tell, okay?)