The BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) will welcome the action-packed Japanese sword demonstration of James Williams May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
Williams will perform his demo at 1:45 p.m. the Saturday of the show in The Courtyard, aka the parking lot of the host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly.
Williams will present a number of Japanese sword methods, including the tameshigiri—the cutting of bundles of straw mats, bamboo and other media.
Williams uses both one- and two-hand techniques to cut 4- and 5-inch bundles of straw mats. Especially popular are his multiple cuts in rapid succession, including cutting already severed chunks of the mats before they can hit the ground after he cut them the first time.
President of Bugei Trading Co., a specialist in Japanese swords and their accouterments, Williams has been conducting his sword demos at the BLADE Show for many years. He has studied the martial arts since 1960 and taught them since 1975. He also teaches close quarters combat to military and law enforcement and his “The System of Strategy” is based on the skill set of ancient warriors. He is known worldwide as a trainer of special ops unit and government agencies, domestic and foreign. He has taught such agencies and their personnel as the Naval Special Warfare Combatives Instructors, Brazilian National Police, U.S. Army Special Operations, U.S. Navy Special Warfare, U.S. Marine Recon and others. He has appeared on such television programs as National Geographic’s Force Recon, Discovery Channel’s The Ten Greatest Weapons and the Outdoor Network’s Shooting Gallery.
He is also a knife designer, designing CRKT’s Hissatsu, Hisshou, Shinbu, Sakimor, and Otanashi Noh. According to Williams the goal of the Hissatsu folder was not to replace the fixed-blade knife but “to offer the best alternative possible when circumstances demand other options.”
