User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Ecological Info/@comment-21371438-20140916095353/@comment-4212769-20140917111355

You're having a thinking flaw in it. Just because they don't doesn't mean they can't.

First of all if you're not trained with the katana of course you won't be able to hold it right. Projecting it on the situation of MH maybe Kokoto Village just had no trainer for katanas in the time the game covers, no available katana's or similar or tradition stepped in its way (like "a real Kokoto hunter has to use SnS, Hammer, Lance, etc. not LS"). Another point could be that other weapons are just more popular in Kokoto at that time and draw most new hunters away from Longswords so the smiths concentrated on these weapons. Another reason could be that the smith don't have the right techniques to craft katanas. Or Longswords were just unknown to that time in Kokoto (unlikely but not impossible).

Now for swimming. There's a difference between simple swimming and underwater hunting. First of all Moga would only hire hunters that could also hunt in water as they are a sea (island) village and many sea monsters are possible threats. Yukumo or Pokke doesn't have any water bodies near them so underwater hunting is not necessary for them. So the hunters that were to enroll in Pokke or Yukumo don't have the necessisity of the ability to hunt underwater. You see, hunters are going to train their breathing and swimming ability for hunting underwater but not everyone is suitable for that so many hunters don't have the possibility to hunter underwater or to hunt for Moga and that's why many hunters in other villages aren't able to do underwater hunting.

If you think about it both statements can be underlined with easy reasons.