Iaido Techniques

One of the newest members of our iaido group has a two-hour commute to the dojo, as there is no straight-line route through the mountains to the west of central Pennsylvania. Primarily for his benefit, I shot a reference video of the waza required for the 7th-Kyu exam coming up when Suino Sensei visits in September, but I made it available to all the 7th-Kyu candidates. This clip from the video is the waza, Mae, first of the five waza required. I need to start doing this more often for my own be

Our practice of iaido, the art of drawing the Japanese sword to an immediate, defensive technique, is a far more comprehensive study of swordsmanship than you might assume. While many styles of iaido focus exclusively on the practice of solo forms—and many styles of kenjutsu focus exclusively on the practice of choreographed, paired forms—our training under the direction of Nicklaus Suino Sensei (Japanese Martial Arts Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan) includes conditioning exercises, solo and paired

At the conclusion of the “Introduction to Iaido” seminar at Ohio Budokan yesterday, Suino Sensei asked participants that were comfortable with the idea to demonstrate one of the waza they’d learned that weekend. To get things started, Sensei asked me to demonstrate a waza, but said that I could do any form of my choice. So, I chose “Oroshi” from Tatehiza no Bu, a form in the set that Alan, Charles, and I are currently learning and on which we’re working hard to establish a baseline level of skil

Masataka Kobayashi on Instagram: "Senenin en büyük kılıç gösteri zamanı geldi🥋🇯🇵🙇🏻 For the biggest Iaido demonstration 🙇🏻🇯🇵 #Japan #japanese #iaido #martialarts #japon #damat #enişte #samurai #samuray"