Nukitsuke of Mae

 

Lateral side of the orbit consists mainly of the zygomatic bone. It is a robust bone,  and because of it’s ‘edge-on’ orientation, it is well designed to protect the orb of the eye.

 

Bearing in mind the general principles of the previous post, it is likely nukitsuke will produce copious bleeding (high vascularity of the face) as it  superficially cuts across the eyes. This blood will run into the eyes obscuring the teki's vision.

There will be a considerable ballistic component to the impact similar to being hit with a steel bar of comparable mass. This will cause a rapid rotation and banking of the head as indicated by the arrow, causing the brain to strike the inside of the skull on the contralateral side producing a contrecoup injury (contusion) of the brain.

The head will very rapidly rotate about a vertical axis and there may be a rapiding tipping of the head. This will produce a contrecoup injury, counterintuitively, on the opposite side of the brain.

A ‘deeper’ cut may fracture (#) the temporal bone (very thin area called pterion.

 

 

 

The pterion of the skull is the point where the greater wing of the sphenoid-, the squamous portion of the temporal- and parietal bone all meet. It is a very thin and if a skull is held up to a light source it becomes translucent showing just how thin it is. In a living person its is well protected by the temporalis muscle (which lifts the mandible), subcutaneous fat and a thick layer of skin.

 

Within the skull, under the pterion lies the middle meningeal artery. Blunt trauma causing slow bleeding which can producing symptoms similar to drunkenness! Excision with a blade will cause rapid bleeding into the cranial cavity and enclosed 'box' which will raise intracranial pressure which may lead to ‘coning’ where the intracranial pressure tries to force the brain through the foramen magnum, the large hole at the base of the skull.

If the sword is able to cut through the lateral margin of the orbit, the orb of the eye may be pierced causing instant and severe visual impairment (!). 

 

 

The blade may cut through nasal bones into the left orbit/eye, but the arcing path of the kissaki

may just cause it to painfully ‘skitter’ across the bridge of the nose.

 

 

 

It's interesting to see we Asians have a wider bridge of the nose that our Caucasian cousins.Is this why Westerners were depicted having big noses in old Japanese woodblock prints?

 

Thus it can be seen that nukitsuke of mae fulfills it's function of being a forestalling action, causing debilitating and 'distracting' injuries allowing the attacker to proceed with the coup de grace that is kirioroshi, the straight-down-the-midline vertical cut that sends the teki to meet Buddha. Kirioroshi will be the topic of my next blog.