Blade to the Heart
There it went, all my respect for my pompous, self-righteous, know-it-all but somehow academically likeable ex-Harvard professor. Out the window with one little comment.

Today she took my class of ninety to Yasukuni shrine. It was the first class field-trip I'd been on since... oh, gosh, middle-school maybe? Thankfully, only half the class showed up, as I expected when she made attendance voluntary, so it was a less-than-painful experience even with the forty-some of us that were there. Because of her ties to Ise Taisha, the priests gladly let our class into the shrine's inner sanctum where we were subsequently purified and observed the ritual of offering to the shrine gods. All in all, it was a novelty but not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped compared to some of the other religious ritual I've seen of late. Afterwards, the shrine staff admitted our whole class into the adjacent museum free of charge.

While observing the war parephenalia, in which I have no REAL interest, I attempted to keep up with sensei to hear any commentary she said. However, probably as a result of having been to the museum countless times before, she was proceeding at a breakneck pace and I, unfortunately, had fallen behind when the offending comment was spoken. Only a few minutes later, when paused before a beautiful original admiral's katana did a classmate chance (why, GOD?) to feel the need to repeat to me my sensei's pearl of "wisdom."

"Did you hear what the professor said about those?" My classmate asked, pointing to the katana. I replied that I had not. "She said," Marcy continued, "that the ones with the wavy line above the blade like that are the ones that have cut through more bone."

I died. Not laughing even, mind you... but died inside.

SHE SAID WHAT??

"That's absolutely not true. She said that? Why would she say a thing like that? How many people did she say that in front of?" I was a mass of whirling questions and somehow found myself personally embarrassed. Surely, I don't expect my sensei to be a sword expert AND a pompous ass, but PLEASE, could she at least refrain from speaking absolute IDIOCY as fact???

For those who don't follow what I'm saying, though I can only claim to understand by the proxy of my boyfriend's sword hobby, the discoloured "line" above the sharp edge of a katana, sometimes wavy, sometimes straight (pictured here) is called the hamon or, more accurately, yakiba. It is a product of the sword's temper, in effect, how it is created and shaped. The yakiba is most often called a "temper line" in English and has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the number of human bodies the sword has chopped, sliced, skewered, filleted or whatever. And I honestly DOUBT that any of those high imperial grand magesties or whateverthefucktheyare ever even USED their lovely dress swords to chop up the peasantry.

So excuse me for again proving myself an absolute dork but I am livid, LIVID that she would convey so ludicrious a bit of misinformation to a group of students. In fact, as much as she will probably hate me for it (and oh how I wanted her to like me!), I can only do my duty in addressing her privately after tomorrow's class to redress her mistake.

From one novice sword-lover** to a so-called anthropological expert on Japan, I issue the following unspoken challenge: You have thirty days to redeem my respect in all things academic. Until that time, I will hang on your every word and if you again dare to fail me in such a manner, I will be sure to let you know in so many words that it is your personal failure that has caused my disenfranchisement with the entire academic system. The burden rests on you.

** (the by-product of my cohabitating a year-and-a-half with my beloved boyfriend, an otaku of all things pointy and sharp)