I get a few comments about the sound or looseness of the goshirae, address this;
I'm using a Shinken, a live blade made in the 1600's not a Iaito fresh from the shop. When you get a Iaito theres a couple of things about them, they are light, they feel funny if you're used to a real steel Ken, they sort of flex and feel dead, but a Shinken doesn't feel like that and they're heavier. A good Shinken should be light, but there's no way a shinken and a Iaito (sometimes called a Mutoh), feel the same, one's soft cast alloy the other is folded steel. When you get your Iaito everything is super tight, and the shop doesn't hope you'll pull it apart. Taking down a Shinken is part of its maintenance and safety. I always take down my shinken before a demonstration for example to be sure it's OK.
I belong to the Katori Shinto Ryu, I come through Minoru Mochizuki, we use this Chiburi called Kaiten. Kaiten first spins the Ken on its axis to loosen up blood, followed by the tap on the Tsuka to dislodge more, the return is done with a spin at an angle, at that point blood would spray across the ground but not across anyone near you - that would be very bad manners right? Then the sword is returned (Noto) hand reversed so you can't cut yourself - embarrassing right?
Nope a new Iaito doesn't make any sound, but it's not a real sword either. I guess you could get a manufactured Chinese fake katana, if you want to get a shinken it's not too expensive to get a new one made for you in Japan, or to by an antique of not high price don't train with a $10,000+ sword, it's too distracting!
So no, the sound is natural, it's everything working the way it should, because it's not rigid. The sword has life in it. That sound is the sword talking back to me, it's saying 'thank you for taking me out today, I really enjoy this, this is what I was made for'.
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