Grandmaster Tse’s Chùn Yuén Diaries 俊元日記 25

Attaching the long tassel to the sword is done in the same way as a short tassel, but because the long tassel is much heavier than the short tassel, it will wear out much more easily. To help prevent this, we put something around the top of the string like a piece of plastic, a short straw, some rubber tubing etc. between the metal ring and the top of the handle and the string. When we practise a lot, the reality is, no matter what we use to protect the tassel it will eventually wear out, so we should have a spare. We also need to ensure the screw holding the tassel and the sword handle together is tight as it will loosen up from time to time.

We can find tassels in many different colours, blue, white, yellow and even tassels which are rainbow coloured, though traditionally the tassel is usually red. As long as the tassel looks good on the sword, the colour does not matter too much.

Nowadays the long tassel swords are done more for the performance, however, in the past the tassel could be made from metallic string and used as a weapon. When we practise our main aim is to balance the tassel and the sword and make it look good because using the long tassel well is very spectacular. The forms have many beautiful movements which are both challenging, elegant and make us fit and healthy.