Kendo & Iaido

[Kokoro777]

For me its a battle with the self! Its constantly having to monitor your movements, adjust them after feedback, putting into practise what your instructor is telling you and do it all while making it look effortless which is hard! At the beginning of this evenings session, we repeated a kata 10-15 times and I found myself entering a strange but pleasant mental state where thoughts genuinely stopped and I don't know what was controlling my movements but I seemed to be going through the kata. As soon as I realised this I snapped out of it, unfortunately. I've only had a similar experience once whilst doing Zazen and it lasted only a few seconds and took years to get to that stage!

So I think Iai is a fascinating discipline, very rewarding and hard to stop thinking about when the lesson is over!

[Kendoka]

I do both and know a few people who do both.

My opinion is that kendo and iaido complement each other. Others may see it differently, so it really depends on you.

While there are things that iaidoka and kendoka do that differ, the basics are the same, the bio-mechanics are the same (but at different speeds), the kamae are the same and even some of the iaido (ZNKR/Seitei) and kendo kata are almost the same.

In kendo you start with a bamboo shinai, with the sword drawn, facing a real opponent and learn lots including - ma-ai, how to attack, recover and practice zanshin; in iaido you learn how to handle a sword, use the saya, to concentrate and use the other kendo stuff as well.

A challenge would be having different teachers for kendo and iaido. Some teachers of either know little about the other, so that can be confusing.

[atgm]

My sensei, who is 7-5-5 (kendo, iaido, jodo) has encouraged me to study both jodo and iaido in addition to kendo. The only reason he hasn't gone higher in iaido is because of the shinken.

So jodo and iaido it is.

[Michael Hodge]

The only reason he hasn't gone higher in iaido is because of the shinken.

Could you elaborate on this for us?

Michael Hodge

[TheJRK]

Very interesting perspectives. I almost want to try Kendo again-almost!

Why did you stop?

Did you take kendo first and then quit to start iaido... or did you practice both at the same time and just quit doing kendo?

[atgm]

Could you elaborate on this for us?

Michael Hodge

I was told that in order to reach 6th dan, he needed a shinken, which is simply too much of an expense for him.

[tagonagy]

I've been training in Kendo/Kumdo and Siljun Dobup (a sword form similar to Nakamura batto-do) for the same time - about a year an a half. My feeling is that the two compliment each other. It helps that I have the same teacher for both.