Am I Dumb?

[Kaedan]

You mean like my first two posts? I think I was rather detailed in my description of why katanas were never worn with the edge down.

Katanas are always positioned with the curve up, so that the blade edge does not rest on the interior of the scabbard. That would needlessly dull and damage the edge.

As for drawing the katana, there are multiple "correct" ways to do it. The scabbard is grasped and then twisted in the appropriate direction for the appropriate draw.

In the case of FF14 Samurai, they are using Iaijutsu master-type samurai. Meaning they strike in the same motion as they draw the blade. "One Draw, One Cut." For a rather romanticized example, you can watch Ruroni Kenshin, which is the image in which Yoshi-P based samurai off.

That is, at once, somewhat correct, and somewhat incorrect.

A katana was never left hanging in the sheath with the edge down. As I mentioned, that would needlessly damage the edge.

The drawing, on the other hand, is mostly correct, but simplistic. Again, the scabbard was tied to the waist in such a way that you could easily rotate in it in the desired direction for the desired draw style.

And in the case of that article, the samurai in FF14 are considered to be the "kimono-wearing" samurai, not the heavily armored ones from the early to mid Edo period (regardless of the fact you can get "armor" looking equipment in game).

As a point of note, there was a sword worn by Samurai on horseback that was worn with the edge down. Those swords were called "Tachi" (different from katana) and were worn blade down because they couldn't be drawn from horseback if they were edge up because the horse would get in the way.

Holy shit, thank you, that makes so much more sense now, and I feel less ignorant!

Glad to help. ^_^