Takeda Ryu Nakamura Ha - IAIJUTSU
The supreme discipline of Bujutsu.
From the beginning of drawing the sword is used for cutting. Above all high concentration is taught. This will be acquired slowly and carefully. Primarily the student will point out his inmost abilities and characteristics and these shall be improved.
The aim of this discipline is the precise, fast and coordinate handling of the weapon. On higher level there are competitions, which take place keeping larger distance.
For a time training is with wooden swords exclusively. Only after development of the basic coordination the student will change for the trainingsword (Iaito). The use of a real, sharp weapon is only allowed after years of training.
Iaijutsu was the first discipline in real combat on the battle-field and in every other confrontation with swords in feudal Japan. The repertoire of this discipline is large. Jumping techniques will be taught as well, with whom the samurais brought down the horsemen in former time.
Ultimate composure and concentration is the guarantor for deep inner experience and the result for years of training. These are the basic prerequisites for the use of the real sword. Considering the dangerousness of this weapon only a strong mind can prevail.
Equipment: Bujutsu-Trainingsclothes obligatory
Weapons: Wooden sword (for beginners); Iaito on higher level
The Noto
- Flash is required!
One of the specialities of Takeda Ryu Nakamura Ha - Iaijutsu is to insert the sword back to the scabbard. It is done with maximum speed to show full control over the sword. Anyway the samurai did not have much time in the battlefield to insert the sword without focus, because the direction of the next attack never was clear.
Takeda Ryu Nakamura Ha - Batto Giri
- Flash is required!
Is a subdiscipline of Iaijutsu. Training with the real sword. This training only starts at higher ranks and education level, but it is still not the end of the curriculum of Iaijutsu. Batto Giri is another field of experience which the students has to pass.
Dexterity with the weapon, a good feeling for distacne are prerequisites of this discipline. In principle it is not difficult to cut a straw roll, which is soaked with water, with the sword. This I can teach you in two minutes.
That is NOT the point in this exercises.
Batto Giri belongs to the group of KORYU. These are the old, battelfield tested (=KO) techniques (=RYU). So we are very close to reality here.
THAT is it what it is all about.
It is important to have enough imagination, enough focus in mind. Maturity, silent and calmness but also pruposefulness and
assertiveness are permises for learning in that discipline.
To cut shall sharpen the senses. The mind shall become sharp like steel. The body shall become soft like a feather.
It is about spirituality and not about technique. It is about feeling and not about power. The battle the students has to fight with the straw roll is his personal one. Batto Giri therefore can onl be practiced by people, who had reached their inner parts of the soul through selfreflexion and cognition. You need to control yourself. One single mistake, one second of anger can cost you a finger. The student is alone with the roll. The teacher is in the background.
Like in battle centuries ago. On the battlefield the samurai was allone. The teacher, the family, the friends could not help in combat between man and man to death.
How would you feel in that situation? What happens inside yourself? How to handle the fear?
THAT is it what it is all about.
Therefore it is logical, that only advanded students can train that. Because of beeing so easy to handle, the cutting in its technical way is often taught too early to unexperienced students (= training for about 10 years). They think it is very easy. But this is wrong. It is about intellectual maturity. It is about the experience of all other disciplines in Takeda Ryu Nakamura ha, which shall be combined here.
And as I experienced in Japan, the journey in training is not finished after that discipline. There is much much more to learn.
For everyone.