Hi everyone,

This is something I’ve been thinking about on and off. I’m just curious in terms of what people think on this matter, especially those that have practiced Iaido for a long time.

In short, many instructors have talk about Iaido as a performance. When being instructed, you would hear terms like “the judges want to see this, the judges want to see that.” Moreover, in explanations of
“jo-ha-kyu” and gasso-teki, there’s quite a bit of emphasis on how you need to be able to tell a story from your movements.

So, where’s the question?

In kendo, I try to control tell-tale signs or telegraphs that could give away my intention. Hopefully, I only reveal intentions when I want to use my opponent’s response against them. Even more hopefully, when I reveal my intentions when I don’t intend to, I hope I can clue in to the fact that my opponent caught some of my telltale signs and still use it against them.

So, when I hear about Iaido as a performance, I really have a difficult time understanding what is done for the sake of performance alone, and what aspects of performance could have a martial application?

On a very basic level, if you are practicing with the idea that you are showing the judges certain key points, doesn’t that conflict directly with the idea of concealing your intentions?

Also on a very basic level, I guess you could say by being able to tell a story with your body language, you could forestall any conflict and hopefully discourage any situation before it becomes a situation.

Anyway, I’m just rambling, but I hope I wrote enough to get things started.

And just to state the obvious, my obvious bent on things is I’m wonder what I could bring from iaido back to kendo, especially in terms of dealing with a live person that wants to whack me.

Thanks!