The art of drawing the sword

Seitei Iai Kata has its roots in Kendo, a lot of the basic footwork and stances can be seen within it. Many great masters of Kendo also practised Iai as well as other martial arts. 

Because of the restriction put on the martial arts by SCAP , Kendo and most of the martial arts that were practised in pre-war Japan were forced to re-invent themselves. When modern Kendo was reintroduced in 1953 it bore very little resemblance to pre-war Kendo and was destined to become virtually a pure sport. Because of this some of the traditional sword schools would not join the ZNKR but would carry on their own traditions, and associations. 

Some of the traditional schools do not practise or recognise Seitei iai as they consider it to be to young and does not embody the tradition of martial arts, but is for sportsmen only. The koryu forms practised by the traditional schools were once new, and were probably not accepted in their time either. Either way Seitei Iai kata is a good starting point for learning swordsmanship.

At Shin Ichi Do Dojo, we teach a style of Iaido known as Muso Shinden Ryu, this style was formalised by Hakudo Nakayama.this style consists of several sets of forms ,known as kata,the sets are Shoden,chuden,okuden,okuden tachiwaza, plus we also teach paired kata.     

Training times

Please see the Location tab for directions to the dojo

• Monday: 7:30pm to 9:30pm
• Wednesday: 8:00pm to 10:00pm