Very interesting to read about how a sword has no life, yet many who are engaged in Asian martial arts, including those connected to Shinto spiritualism, practice the forms of those "war" arts as reverently as any religion. Even bows are done to respect human persons who are not of the Western stigma of any god. How besmirking to comment that to name a sword, because it is lifeless and "just a tool" it is! Many have never seen the spiritual connection between the life student, his katana, and the bullet that flies past him as he cleaves it with his katana. Why should he bow to his sword in his practice of iaido? Do you bow to your screwdriver or your bullets? I dare to say none here who bow before another human would have any understanding as to why the student of iaido bows before his katana... or anyone before anything. Perhaps once one understands that to bow to the sword is not demeaning, but, it is a matter of respect for the spirituality that is represented... or contained within, the birth of such an item. Surely the rubber stamping of thousands of toy swords and military playthings do not illicit a reverence for the purpose nor the thread of connection to all things around... or should they? The Japanese have a way of understanding their connection to the spirituality of all things, living and nonliving. Shintoism is a religious practice that aids that understanding. Naming a child gives a human an identity as one that commands fundamental respect for human life. Woe be it to every human to provide a similar spirituality for things that represent the bringing of death. We should be so kind no?
