A samurai’s power is in his little finger, not his samurai sword

In the 12th century the shogunate was formed. The head of this regime was the Shogun, the supreme ruler. Below him were his regional ‘daimyo’ or ‘dukes’. Under each ‘daimyo’ served the Japanese samurai. When a samurai stepped out of line, became too rebellious, or displeased his daimyo, the samurai often had to go through a procedure known as yubizume. This procedure is a very barbaric punishment in which the first joint of the little finger of the sword hand was amputated.

Not only would that be a very painful punishment, but it would serve a much more intelligent purpose. When holding a samurai sword, the finger that has the strongest grip is the little finger. Each finger up to the index finger has a weaker grip strength. You can try this yourself. Make a fist with what would have been your sword hand and pick up a thin object of equal circumference, such as a pencil or pen. Now, without hurting it, take the blunt/drawing end and starting with the index finger end of your hand, while holding the fist, slowly insert the pencil/pen into the grip.

You will see that the more the pencil is gripped, the more resistance there is. Now you can see how important the little finger and ring finger would be for gripping samurai swords. To make matters worse, if the samurai disgraced himself further, he would be required to remove the next joint from his little finger, and this could even extend to the other fingers. But what was the use of hurting the samurai like that? Well, not only did it serve as a constant and embarrassing reminder, but it made the samurai more vulnerable than he had ever been before, thus making him more dependent on his immediate superior, his ‘daimyo’ for protection. he.

This brutal practice of yubizume is still used today by Yakuza/Japanese organized crime families as a means to punish their wayward members.