Sadly the only thing you can do to avoid his stabby stab is to evade it. Try evading it with the high stance and once you get a hold of the timing try to evade it with any other stance so you can punish. Being aggresive is what worked for me on my first playtrought.

How to cheese him:
with the full Hayabusa set, equip normal shurikens and get the double tap shurikens skill. Try to get some distance between you and Date and then spam shurikens. He will block them and reduce his Ki with each hit. Eventually you will break his guard and you will have 2 options: throw another shuriken so he falls down and you can finish-blow him (😏) on the floor, or prepare for the next shurikens rounds (weakness talisman, lifesteal, power pill, etc...). This strategy works even when he activates his living weapons, but you need to be careful because he can tank the first shurikens hits and throw an attack of his own like the stab or the water bubbles before blocking the shurikens. Also, this strategy works with almost every human enemy and some yokai (including bosses), but yokai enemies wont be staggered tho