A Word on the Title [SPOILERS]
Ok the title translated from Japanese is "Hidden Blade/Sword, Devil's Claw/Nail". Written in english as it is on IMDB, with a colon, makes the "Devil's Claw" equal the "Hidden Blade": "Kakushi-ken: Oni no Tsume". But, when written in Japanese on the R2 DVD, "Hidden Blade" and "Devil's Claw" are seperated, and in different sized writing, and in different colours. Does this mean the same thing?
Anyway my point is that I interpreted the title as being about 2 different techniques: the Hidden Blade was used to defeat the escaped rebel, called such because it cannot be seen and is seen as a little dishonest, and the Devil's Claw was used to kill the head retainer.
In Japanese "tsume" is also "nail" and the long needle-like weapon used to kill the Head Retainer resembles the talon; and this is a samurai movie and metaphoric and dramatic titles are expected to be cryptic.
The character played by Masatoshi Nagase said that the Devil's Claw was not for sword fighting, and his master said to him in a previous scene that he would teach him a new technique for dueling.
Anyway, what do you think about that? I could be barking up the wrong tree here, and maybe that special technique his master taught him at the end was just another technique, and nothing special, not deserving of a funky name! :/ It could be "Spinning Blade" or something like that :P