Upsurge

The amount of views has reached over 40000.

  The last line shows the accumulated number of views from the very beginning (40172), above that there is a line which contains the last 30-day number (4673). For comparison there are two previous records: one in October 2017 (1446 views per month), and another in March 2018 (1469).

   I want to thank all viewers - especially the foreign visitors - who allowed the posts of this blog to reach so many corners of our planet. As I promised before, there will be even more English content, and all older posts will have a short summary section in English. Basically all Hungarian posts of 2019 already have such a section.

  Via Dear Visitors featured post foreign viewers can browse more easily this blog. There is a list of clickable categories (labels) that provides a visitor with the possibility to view all posts related to a specific topic.

  With this upsurge our blog has definitely become the most viewed fencing blog in Hungary. Our competitor displays 20995 views (as of March 30). Many other blogs simply don't display this crucial number, so it is impossible to establish a completely reliable ranking.

Update:
 The actual final figure for March is 5004 views. (In April the blog was viewed 5088 times.)

Fukuro

  Originally I have just wanted to find more about a very special type of shinai, called fukuro shinai (roughly: shinai in a leather bag) And very quickly the whole thing transformed into a nice cultural journey.

  After checking the Hungarian Wiki article on fukuro shinai [1] I found a picture of a kenjutsu demonstration in a beautiful Japanese temple. I felt I must find out more about this temple! After few additional clicks I have been browsing the pictures of stunning Itsukushima Shrine.

Eternal beauty

At low tide

Floating shrine

  But let's return to the original topic: fukuro shinai.

 The famous ''Shinkage Ryu Fukuro Shinai'' was created by Kamiizumi Isenokami, the founder of the Shinkage Ryu. Some additional pictures [2]:

The whole shinai | The tip | The hilt |

Daito approximate length: 98 cm; approx. weight: 500 g.

Shoto approximate length: 61 cm; approx. weight: 310 g.

 They are made entirely of one piece of selected Bamboo, and covered with deerskin leather. Additional pictures:

• completely covered (from the German Wiki);
• picture form Kenshi247.net;

And the last picture of the shrine.

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1. There is also a German version of this article.
2. Pictures are from this site.

Shinai vs plastic

 Originally I thought that I will name this post something like West vs East, or Versus II, or HEMA vs kendo, but those names were so obvious that I have rejected them almost immediately.

 A bamboo shinai of the kendoka (Marcello) crossed a plastic sword of the practitioner of the Bolognese swordsmanship (HEMA instructor Fabio Serraglio). The fencing match was hosted by Enrico Campobello in his Sala d’arme Il Carmagnola. You can watch the video of this bout at YT, narrated by Federico Malagutti.

 I have found this video very enjoyable for several reasons. Firstly due to the quality of fencing. Some very cool actions can be seen during this bout. For example: an incredible inquartata

Absolutely the coolest action!

A very nice disarming & cut [1]

  Just to show that I could appreciate cool actions on both sides. A nice one-handed thrust by the kendoka. The tip of the shinai hits Fabio at the moment when his attack is still in progress.

 Secondly it is really good to see that a well trained HEMA swordsman could fence elegantly an equally well prepared kendoka. 10 years ago at the biggest Hungarian martial arts forum a senior kendora simply derided HEMA fencers, their equipment (weighted shinais with a crossguard), and generally their level of swordsmanship. Good to see that the situation has changed forever!

 My sincere congratulations to both fencers, to the organisers of the event, and to the narrator, Federico Malagutti.

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1. Fabio has the right hand of the kendoka completely under his control, securely jamming the hilt of the shinai against his torso with his left hand, while delivering the finishing cut to the head.

Kuban

  A Hungarian archeologist visited several museums of the Kuban region (Anapa, Krasnodar) in order to find artifacts that could be connected to the time of the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin (around 895). 

Fittings of a sabre scabbard (Krasnodar)

 Unfortunately all these artifacts were found by local grave robbers so no proper archaeological context can be established.

A sabre from a private collection [2]

  It is interesting to observe three spikes on the inside curve of the sabre handle. Sometimes we can see very similar spikes on sabres of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture.

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1. These pictures are parts of the screenshots from a Gabriella Lezsák's YT video about her two visits to the Kuban region of the Russian Federation in 2016 and 2017.
2. Artifacts from the Kuban region in Mardjani Collection (Moscow).

Russian post

   Приветствую всех посетителей блога!

  Изначально этот блог был задуман, как исключительно венгерский интернет-дневник по тематике: фехтование, сабли и прочие мечи. Со временем стало очевидно, что здесь бывает очень много иностранных, в том числе русскоязычных посетителей.

  Если у Вас есть вопросы или замечания касательно отдельных записей или всего блога, то в конце каждого поста есть линк No comments, где есть возможность написать свое сообщение, даже полностью анонимно (Comment as Anonymous).

  Когда будет однозначно видно: какие самые популярные темы, тогда - с помощью друзей - буду писать и русские посты.

Summary:

Basically the same as the Dear Visitors post.

Karabela 2.

  Egy szép karabela Zablocki könyvéből (45. o.; a szerző besorolása szerint: IIa), a kard egy varsói magángyűjteményben található.

Egy lengyel karabela a XVII. sz. második feléből [1]

A kard fontosabb adatai:

• a penge hossza: ................................ 825 mm,
• ívmagassága: ................................... 75 mm,
• súlypontja: ....................................... 240 mm (a keresztvastól számítva).

Summary:

A nice Polish karabela from Zablocki's book, the second part of the 17th century. Main parameters of the blade: lenght, curvature, PoB.

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1. A kép eredetije. (Lengyel magyarázó szöveg.)

Dear Visitors

  This blog was started in 2012 as an exclusively Hungarian site to discuss mainly sabre related topics. Over the years it became evident that a considerable amount of visitors come from Russia, Ukraine, USA, Poland, France, Germany, Australia etc. 

   So I have decided to make easier for the foreign  readers to follow this blog.

• In the settings the language has been already changed to English. So foreign visitors could easily find the commenting form at the end of each entry (usually seen as No comments:). There you can post your questions, remarks regarding a particular post or some more general issues. You can do this completely anonymously, if you wish to remain anonymous. (Please choose: Comment as Anonymous)   √
• -----------------
• Soon at the end of each new post there will be a brief summary of its content.    √
• -----------------
• Also I am planning to write a short summary for each of the older entries (2014-2018).
• -----------------
• I have translated all labels by which the blog can be searched.   √

Enjoy your browsing!

P.S.
Labels (clickable categories):

Ars Ensis;
backedge; book review; British;
Conquest era; competition; Cossack;
data; duel;
fencing equipment; fencing rules; fencing safety; forum; French;
general; German;
Hun; Hungarian gendarmerie; Hungarian martial art (baranta); hussar;
interesting (colorful); Italian;
kendo;
local fencing variant (street fencing);
masters; misconception; monster (sword);
National Library (OSZK); novel;
off-topic; Olympics; opinion;
picture; Polish; presentation; prices;
random (unintentional search result); recension; Russian;
Scythian; six cuts; Spanish; spear (lance); sword data;
theory; translation; Turkish;
weaponless; women;

Sword types:
falchion; storta;

Sorted by centuries:
9th; 10th; 11th; 14th; 15th; 16th; 17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;

Famous Hungarian fencing masters:
Arlow, Bay, Borsody, Chappon, Gerentsér, Szabó László (SZ), Tomanóczy-Geller (TG)

Hungarian writers, historians:
Fehér Béla; Hidán;

Other authors:
Rivkin; Zablocki;

P.S. 2.
√ = Done