In the mid-1990s Sensei Coyle was asked to give a lecture demonstration at Glasgow University during The Samurai And Japanese Culture week. The audience was made up of students interested in Japanese culture, a great number of whom were martial artists from the numerous clubs in the University.
The lecture began with Sensei Coyle holding up an iato (practice sword) and then a katana (real sword). The iato had gold silk braid on the hilt and the black lacquered scabbard bore gold Tokugawa crests. When the blade was unsheathed the high polish glittered in the light. The katana was in a shirai saiya; a scabbard made of simple polished wood with no decoration. The hilt of the katana was the same. When the blade was unsheathed there was a dull silky sheen to it.
There was no comparison - the iato looked as though it belonged at the hip of a samurai warrior while the katana looked plain by comparison. "Which are you," asked Sensei Coyle, "an iato or a katana?" - no-one chose to answer.
"Let me explain. For all intents and purposes the iato looks the same, perhaps even better, than the katana. However the iato has no edge - should I choose to slice my arm with it, it would have no effect. Should I attempt to slice my arm with the katana this lecture would be over before it has begun. I think that among today's martial artists there are more 'iatos' than 'katanas'. The katana is far superior in every way than the iato because it has undergone the process which makes it so effective while the iato has only the appearance of a real sword."
"The definition of perfection, if such a thing may be said to exist, is something from which cannot take anything without it weakening, and something that to add anything to it would be superfluous. The katana does not have the decoration of the iato nor the 'martial' appearance and yet it is perhaps the deadliest bladed weapon ever produced."
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