In 1983 local judo expert Viliame Takayawa planned to introduce Samurai to his club instructors.
An article in The Fiji Times on January 20 that year stated Takayawa had demonstrated the use of the Samurai sword to two of his senior instructors at the YMCA Hall earlier that week.
The national judo instructor said the swords were used to build self-confidence when the odds were against the person attacked.
“During practice, learners had to be actually touching the sword in order to get the spirit of Samurai,” Takayawa said.
The metre-long sword and the short one for defence were used by the Samurai swordsmen of Japan.
The experts armed themselves with the sword when doing police work before the introduction of firearms into Asia.
He said it was used by experts mainly for self defence.
Takayawa brought the sword back from Japan after completing an instructor’s course at the Tokai University in 1977.
“It was something like the use of sticks in the art of Kendo.”
He said he was introducing the spirit of Samurai into judo mainly to rouse up the spirit of battle among his students.
“It made possible, the ability to continue fighting minus a limb or when you’re hurt,”
Takayawa said the long Samurai sword was normally used on the top while the shorter one was for defensive purposes in as someone attacks from behind.
