By Christopher Shay
Dressed in traditional Japanese robes, Richard Sung unsheathes his 550-year-old sword in a large industrial room in Hong Kong. The chief executive of gold mining company Sino Prosper has a look of intense concentration as he raises the sword above his head and then smoothly cuts downwards through the air.
- Christopher Shay for the Wall Street Journal
- Mr. Sung practices a cut in front of old samurai armor.
Mr. Sung has been training in iaido, an ancient Japanese martial art based on the sword techniques of the samurai, for two years. Fascinated by Japanese history and ancient metallurgy, he initially just wanted to collect ancient swords. But when his sword dealer turned out to be an iaido sensei, or instructor, Mr. Sung, 40, jumped at the chance to learn how to wield his antique weapon.
Despite its age, Mr. Sung’s sword, for which he paid 110,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$14,100), is kept as sharp as it was centuries ago. Many swords made during the Edo period (1603- 1868) were tested on the corpses of executed criminals — the sharpest ones could split a person in two with a downward strike through the skull.
“One mistake,” he says, “and you’ll cut through your whole arm.”
