Thankyou. Yes it is a bit like that scene. Actually, they have a step
by step pic series in the same section that the scene that inspired
this vignette came from, that shows the left handed, underhand draw
that Mifune used in Sanjuro. That book has given me many great
ideas for future projects, which I'm eagar to get started. I have to
get this one done first though.
Have you seen the movie Kurosawa? They interview Tatsuya Nakadai,
and he talks about how Kurosawa had he and Mifune practice that last
duel in Sanjuro. Kurosawa had Mifune practice the left handed,
underhand draw, while he had Nakadai get into a tight box, and practice
his standard draw in those confines. The box made it so that Nakadai
had to draw his sword up, rather than forward, which, when done in
conjuntion with Mifune's draw, left Nakadai's torso wide open to
Mifune's cut. I never noticed that, but I watch it just to scrutinize
that scene, and sure enough, that's how they did it. It's so quick, you
never see exactly what they did, if you didn't know already.
One of the ideas for the future will be a 54mm vignette featuring a
battle between a pair, or possibly trio of skilled ronin and several
younger, fool hearty clan samurai, using some of the spear and blunt
weapon tactics displayed in that book. I also have been wanting to
sculpt a 1/9th or 1/6th scale figure of Tatsuya Nakadai, as he appeared
in The Sword of Doom (a great flick I highly recomend, if you haven't
seen it. Directed by Kihachi Okamoto, who brought us the classic
Harakiri)