Right-handed or Left-handed? Please help.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

In feudal Japan, it was forbidden by law to be left-handed, at least when you were samurai. Wikipedia says that many people are still forced to convert to right-handedness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_ag...-handed_people

Strangely enough, being left-handed would have been an advantage for writing Japanese as far as I can see, because you start at the right side of the page.

It could have to do with the art of writing. I took a class when I lived there--and I forget the name of it, but the characters require a special brush and you end the characters with a certain fade that shows the brush strokes. This effect is much harder to achieve using your left hand because you are crossing your body--so you have a tendency to cut the strokes short or not "feather" them correctly. Each of the symbols taught have certain pressure points--fat lines, skinny lines and then these feather up strokes to end (in many). I did just fine with my left hand, but the teacher used to try and get me to use my right so that I could finish with a flourish (it's just not as impressive when doing it across your body.)

Sadly I didn't get to take samuri training so I can't speak to that.

When I tried with the...archery club (sorry, can't remember what kind of bow) I never got past the "hold" part. The entire first part of the class was pulling the bow and holding it in position to strengthen the arms. We would pull and hold for what seemed like hours. This was all done at first without an arrow. Then when we had an arrow it wasn't tipped. Not that my arrows would have gone anywhere. Just getting that thing pulled back was hard enough and after standing there holding it for an eon, I wasn't likely to care about AIMING!!!!

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by troll05

The fact about japanese tradition is astounding, How come a country of nearly no contact to europe evolves the same prejudice

Because, left handed people are a minority in society, therefor they are inferior. Every culture has people it considers "lesser" and it is usually some "odd" thing about them that can be obvious in certain situations. Skin color, height, handedness, etc.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

In feudal Japan, it was forbidden by law to be left-handed, at least when you were samurai. Wikipedia says that many people are still forced to convert to right-handedness:

No longer in Japan. It was the case 30-40 years ago but it's now against the rules of the 'Mumbusho,' the Ministry of Education, to try to force children to change hands.

Strangely enough, being left-handed would have been an advantage for writing Japanese as far as I can see, because you start at the right side of the page.

Very handy when writing vertically! Starting at the right margin is only done for vertical writing. But most hand written pages are written horizontally from left to right. Vertical is reserved for formal letters, important documents, and some of the printed books.


Stitchawl

[CazMar]

Ambidextrous - and very useful for a musician! But I write right-handed due to teachers telling me it would be "better" to be right handed! Better for who? I'll bet that ambidextrous people suffer less from RSI as you can change hands if one gets tired from using a mouse or a touch pad.

[Freeshadow]

BearMB: with archery you mean kyudo I assume.
I'm astonished against said prejudice in sword fight. How is it in disciplines being not as close to formal duelling as western sport fencing is? (a lot of rules like not touching tbe opponents blade etc. come from informal gentleman's agreement duel rules I think.) How is it in disciplines which still more resemble fighting for survival? Is there having a different dominant hand than the opponent an advantage or a disadvantage? (I'm thinking about circling, parrying dodging, feinting)

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Even serrated knives are made for right handed people... We lefties have learned to unconciously tip them a bit to get the serrations to have more effect.

I'm an not so surprised at the fact that we are now showing almost 3x the world average for percentage of lefties. We must be a very creative bunch!


Stitchawl

Or the average right-y just thinks "what's the big deal, I'm 'normal'?!" and is avoiding the poll.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

How is it in disciplines which still more resemble fighting for survival? Is there having a different dominant hand than the opponent an advantage or a disadvantage? (I'm thinking about circling, parrying dodging, feinting)

In sport fencing with epe'e, (the closest in rules to real combat as the entire body is a valid target and double touches (simultaneous hits) count,) it definitely pays to be left-handed, but only if your opponent has limited practice against lefties. As a left-handed fencer I was fortunate to have a couple of other lefties in my clubs so I could get the practice against that stance. But without exposure to left-handed opponents, any fencer (or fighter) is at a disadvantage. Blocks, parries, and counter-attacks that work so well against a right handed fight just don't work at all against lefties.


Stitchawl

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

BearMB: with archery you mean kyudo I assume.
I'm astonished against said prejudice in sword fight. How is it in disciplines being not as close to formal duelling as western sport fencing is? (a lot of rules like not touching tbe opponents blade etc. come from informal gentleman's agreement duel rules I think.) How is it in disciplines which still more resemble fighting for survival? Is there having a different dominant hand than the opponent an advantage or a disadvantage? (I'm thinking about circling, parrying dodging, feinting)

Yes, thank you. Kyudo it was. I had to go look for the pictures and that is exactly correct.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

BearMB: with archery you mean kyudo I assume.
I'm astonished against said prejudice in sword fight. How is it in disciplines being not as close to formal duelling as western sport fencing is? (a lot of rules like not touching tbe opponents blade etc. come from informal gentleman's agreement duel rules I think.) How is it in disciplines which still more resemble fighting for survival? Is there having a different dominant hand than the opponent an advantage or a disadvantage? (I'm thinking about circling, parrying dodging, feinting)

With no disrespect to the original poster, there were (and still are) several 'schools' of Japanese sword use that teach two swords, one in each hand. Miyamoto was famous for this (Same guy who wrote 'The Book of Five Rings.) His school is called 'Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu.' Two other schools of Japanese sword that use two swords at once are Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu and it's descendant school Shinkage ryu.

Left-handed kendo players are as rare as left-handed fencers, but they exist. They just hide us in the corner.


Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by troll05

Goofy-footed is not that seldom, AFAIK nearly 30-40% (or so my snowboard teacher told me once), maybe the amount of left-handness would come out to similar numbers if it was not supressed.
Is there religious rejection of lefties in other cultures other than christian? Here only "rightness" is considered good, remember the "sinistre" some posts ago

in the Muslim world, left handedness is EXTREMELY looked down upon, you cannot even touch someone with your left hand. that is the hand that is used for cleaning your butt sans t.p.

[medard]

You know, Muslims got t.p. in the past years..

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by medard

You know, Muslims got t.p. in the past years..

it's still got the juju

[Stitchawl]

In Malaysia and Thailand too. Always use the left hand and water. But you can find rolls of toilet paper on all the restaurant tables for cleaning your hands before eating. Strange world.


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[Jasmine GreenTea]

I am fully and proudly left-handed.

I can however use my right hand to write. I always use my right hand to write on the black-/whiteboard. I can also use both hands to write simultaneously.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Jasmine GreenTea

I can also use both hands to write simultaneously.

Only simultaneously? Or other words too?

Question for all... WHY?? Why are we almost three times the world 'norm' for percentage of lefties?


Stitchawl