Especially given that Iaijutsu duels are a formal combat style where you have to start with weapons sheathed:

Bokken are essentially wooden 'practice katana', and should be useable with all the techniques you could use a Katana with.

Giving them Razor-Sharp might sound silly, but the only mechanical effect is making them breakable if (for some reason) you decide to start whaling on a guy in body armour with one.

More importantly given that they are sparring weapons used to learn kenjutsu; it would allow you to use iaijutsu techniques (and anything else in the future requiring a razor-sharp weapon) with one.

I actally did think about this...

And you can make two arguments about this: Either Iaijutsu is practiced with a katana and a bokken is no propper substitude, or the bokken needs to sheat and must be razor-edged.

I think either option is fine and we are obviously now in a state where only real blades can be used with katanas.

A quick search tells me that IRL Iaido can be done with bokken, so I'd allow it.

On 27.10.2017 at 2:09 AM, horngeek said:

A quick search tells me that IRL Iaido can be done with bokken, so I'd allow it.

I think it is less about allowing things, but approaching this from a pure mechanical perspective:

• A bokken needs to be razor-edged to be used for iaijutsu (you can build special razor-edged bokken with the crafting rules so this can be archived)
• What consitutes as sheathed? (Is a bokken tucked into an obi sheated enough?)

On 27.10.2017 at 2:09 AM, horngeek said:

A quick search tells me that IRL Iaido can be done with bokken, so I'd allow it.

I probably would not, if the rules are written in a way that they cannot support that, then I have to assume that this part of how this is practiced in Rokugan. Chrunch should inform fluff!

On 10/26/2017 at 4:37 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Especially given that Iaijutsu duels are a formal combat style where you have to start with weapons sheathed:

Bokken are essentially wooden 'practice katana', and should be useable with all the techniques you could use a Katana with.

Iaido/Iaijutsu are the exception. Those rely upon the lack of friction between blade and sheath. Having drawn a bokken from an obi, it just doesn't work. The same is true of shinai.

6 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

Iaido/Iaijutsu are the exception. Those rely upon the lack of friction between blade and sheath. Having drawn a bokken from an obi, it just doesn't work. The same is true of shinai.

This. Plus, iai doesn’t need the safety net of a less-lethal weapon during practice. Or not as much as regular swordplay, at least.

I would say duellists in training practice kenjutsu with bokken or Shinai and practice Iaijutsu like shadow boxing, refining their unsheathing method.

Most promising students of a Iaijutsu tradition may be allowed to actually test with live weapons via Tameshigiri (cutting test) , either on a goza (rolled tatami covered by a bamboo sheet layer) or on criminals (alive or dead). Sometimes even piling dead bodies to estimates the cutting power.

This practice is usually more used for testing a blade's edge at the end of the forging process, but why not?

Otherwise if duellists spare with live weapons, the cute Kakita would be covered in scars from first draw/first blood practice.

From what I understand the bokken that are used to practice Iaido/Iaijutsu are specifically made for that which includes their own custom sheath.

If I wanted to stat one up I'd probably go with this:

Iai Bokken Martial Arts [Melee] 1/3/2 1-handed: –, 2-handed: Damage +2, Durable, Mundane, Razor-Edged, When an Iai Bokken would lose the Durable property or gain the Damaged property from the effects of the Razor-Edged property remove the Razor-Edged property as well.