It’s a chilly evening in Emeryville, where half-a-dozen martial arts students at a community center are practicing with katana. They kneel, jump and slash, then slowly mimic wiping blood off their ...

NEW HAVEN >> Mention “samurai” and swords come to mind, or possibly the epic miniseries “Shogun” with Richard Chamberlain, or perhaps John Belushi’s classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Samurai ...