Bleach Zanjutsu vs Kenjutsu

[warai_kitsune]

As Aizen so carefully pointed out, there are four skill sets for shinigami; Zanjutsu (sword techniques), Hohou (movement), Kido (demon arts/spells), and Hakuda (unarmed hand-to-hand combat).

Something I've been wondering though; why do they call it zanjutsu? More specifically, if it's about wielding a sword, why don't they call it kenjutsu?

What I'm wondering is, what is zanjutsu, really? Is it just about being able to wield a sword? Or is about how well you can wield your zanpakuto? Because if it's about zanpakuto, is it just about swordplay, or does it also have to do with how proficient you are at using your zanpakuto's special abilities? Or alternatively, does it have to do with how useful/powerful your zanpakuto's ability is?

 

[Lord Raine]

Zanjutsu is a subart of kenjutsu often associated with bushido. It's the art of cutting and slicing effectively and efficently. The majority of Zanjutsu focuses on maximizing the amount of damage you can deal in a single blow, putting as much force and speed into it as possible. The ultimate goal of Zanjutsu is dispatching your enemy with a single sword stroke.

This is seen when two samurai fight. Anime, manga, and movies may have embellished it away for the sake of looking cool, but real swordfights between real samurai rarely last longer than a few seconds. In fact, if the samurai are even halfway competent, it never will last longer than a few seconds, because only two strikes will occur. The loser's strike and the winner's.

Being a samurai and training in Zanjutsu is all about efficency and speed. It's like many powerful boxers and wrestlers say. "There's gonna be two hits. Me hitting you, and you hitting the floor."


That's what Zanjutsu is all about. And to Tite's credit, he's actually kept it somewhat true to it's IRL origins. There are obviously drawn-out battles, but in contrast, there are many instances of shinigami dispatching an enemy with a single well-placed sword strike. That, that right there, is Zanjutsu. The art of the singular devastating strike. The one-hit-kill cut.

 

[bissek]

That's true. If you watch any of the Kurasawa movies like Yojimbo, Sanjuro or Seven Samurai, you'll note that the people who are killed in the battles are usually killed in one or two hits. And once they take the first hit, they usually aren't in any condition to dodge or block the hit that kills them.

Also, kenjutsu can be translated as 'Sword Technique'. Zanjutsu would translate to something more like 'Killing Technique'. Since most Shinigami don't have swords once they reach shikai, calling the armed combat style of Shinigami swordmanship is highly misleading.

 

[Lord Raine]

Zanjutsu. This is some:

And it really sucks to get hit with when it's done right.

You usually break out in a bad case of dead.