The
Iaido Journal Nov
2003
Comparison
Chopping:
A
non-scientific review of current offerings for the tameshigiri
crowd.
Continued...
Prior to rolling the targets, I decided to check out their composition.
The beach mats were loosely woven of some type of flattened grass
or thin reed. They felt
very dry and very pliable. The Bugei wara were made of a dark reed, woven about
medium tightness. The reeds were quite round and fairly large in diameter, but
the walls were thin making them fairly pliable also. The Mugen Dachi, the used
tatami, and the Bugei goza all seemed to be made of the same type of reed. The
used tatami was quite a bit drier, and had some obvious flattening from use.
The Mugen Dachi and Bugei mats were both still fairly green. The Mugen Dachi
had the thinnest diameter reeds. The used tatami had a reed size in the middle,
but they had the tightest weave of the three. The Bugei goza had noticeably larger
reeds, and their weave tightness was on par with Mugen Dachi’s. They all
three felt fairly stiff and sturdy in relation to the other two.
We rolled all of the mats in single and double mat targets, except for the beach
mats. These we rolled in two and four mat targets because I knew from experience
that they are much less dense than the other materials. Herein follows a brief
comparison of the act of rolling the targets up:
The beach mats were a pain! They were fairly difficult to roll
tightly. I didn’t
remember them being such a pain when I used to use them before, but I guess it’s
just those rose colored glasses we all tend to don when we look back in time.
The used tatami were much easier to roll, but they do tend to shed reeds off
the ends quite a bit. I had to make sure and do a thorough clean up afterward
to avoid spousal wrath as we were in my kitchen at the time.
We had a few problems with the Bugei wara as they are made from a different type
of reed that seemed harder to get rolled tightly. Add that to the fact that they
are quite tall, and it gave us a little difficulty.
The Bugei goza on the other hand were very easy to roll. You could tell just
from rolling them that they were quite a bit thicker than the others.
The Mugen Dachi tatami were the easiest to roll. They also smelled
like fresh
hay, as opposed to the used tatami’s smell of old feet, although they did
tend to leave your hands with a green tinge.
All the targets, with the exception of the single Mugen Dachi and double beach
mats, were soaked for 30 hours. The single Mugen Dachi and the double beach mats
were soaked 12 hours.
The Bugei wara are quite a bit taller than the other mats. As
a consequence,
they wouldn’t fit in my normal soaking tubs. (I use a large size plastic
tub, lay the mats inside, and put a smaller tub on top to hold the mats submerged.)
My wonderful spouse suggested using the bathtub upstairs. They just fit in the
tub, so I was ready to go. I have to mention that this earned me a bit of that
spousal wrath I tried to avoid earlier. I found out afterward that they leave
a serious bathtub ring that took quite a bit of scrubbing to remove! I am no
longer allowed to employ the tub for soaking mats.
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