Samurai slices 100 mph fastball with sword in Japan

TOKYO, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A Japanese swordsman dubbed a modern-day samurai sliced a 100 mph fastball in half 30 feet away from where it was launched by a pitching machine.

Isao Machii, who previously made headlines when he dueled a sword-wielding robot and sliced a shrimp traveling 80 mph through the air, drew his sword after the ball was fired from the pitching machine and sliced it in half in midair.

Video of the stunt, posted to YouTube by Oricon News, shows the ball was clocked at 100 mph in the air and was fired from a machine 30 feet away from where Machii was standing.

The video closes in on some of the remains of the baseball, which appears to have been sliced almost exactly in half.