After what seems like an eternity, we are finally getting back on track with our Iaido practice in Singapore.
We are currently accepting again beginners of any age above 16, please contact us by email [email protected] or by whatsapp +6582398189 We will also restart maintaining regularly this Blog with hopefully interesting articles of Martial Arts, Sword and Japanese culture. Yokoso to our lives, with an higher appreciation of every single moment. Jack
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Also this year, like every year, our Singapore dojo organized a trip to Japan, to visit Furuichi Sensei (the picture above is the view of Mt. Fuji from his dojo), practice Iaido, enjoy visiting Japan and of course, taking the Ikkyu and Dan exams. We were a sizable group of 7 iaidokas from the Little Red Dot, in a larger exam that saw about 200 candidates, and I am happy to say that everyone did great, better than usually even, and all passed the exams!
We now have 2 more NIDAN (Second Dan), 2 more SHODAN (First Dan) and 2 more IKKYU (First Kyu) in our Dojo back home that can share their knowledge and experience and contribute our overall growth as a group! We are already planning our next visits in April and October 2020, in the meantime we will all go on training well and hard! Again compliments to everyone, it makes very proud of the time spent together training and learning! Jack We have a regular Iaido course in Singapore, in Tanglin CC. Any beginner with any level of past experience - or not at all - is welcome to come and try! Please contact us to organize. As with every year, we are getting ready to visit Japan to enhance our training under the guidance of Furuichi Sensei and also to attend the ZNKR official Federal Exams.
We will post here a full photo reportage on the trip! On Saturday 8th of June our Iaido dojo joined other 16 Martial Arts from all over the world in the "Martial Arts Open Day" in Tanglin CC, a wonderful event organized by Singapore's People Association and with the support of MP, Mr. Melvin Yong.
It was a great opportunity to test our skills under pressure during the public demonstration as well as to share experience and knowledge with other martial artists and members of the public. A big thanks to all of our members that joined and the great team at Tanglin CC which organized it all with precision and perfection. We are currently accepting new beginners both on our Wednesday and Saturday sessions, please refer to this page for more info. As many of you certainly read, the Japanese Emperor Akihito abdicated in favour of his son and heir Naruhito with effect from the 1st of April 2019. Japanese society adopts both the classic western-Gregorian calendar, but also a different calendar based on the reign of a sitting Emperor; that name is a special name meant to mean something. Therefore, 31st March 2019 was the last year of the Heisei period and today 2nd of April 2019 is the the first year of the Reiwa period (Reiwa being the name Emperor Naruhito chose). All of this has a great importance because being a millennial tradition, it helps us also date precisely and easily a katana or shinken. Each traditional Japanese Sword can actually be completely (and with relative ease, having the right tools) dismounted so that the blade, which is, indeed, the sword, can be properly cleaned, oiled and stored in a special all wooden enclosure called shirasaya for medium to long term storage to prevent rust and damage to the blade. This exposes the nakago or tang which was left unpolished and is never cleaned, letting it get with the years a patina that collectors cherish; it's also the place where the bladesmith master would write his signature (or mei) and that includes often the date expressed with the Emperor year of forging. There is an art to deciphering the mei, which includes identifying the region and the name of the bladesmith, the date (often expressed with poetic sentences "On a quiet day of year...") and if the blade was proofed or not. Proofing, which is overall rare and can increase or decrease the value of the blade depending on the collector and the circumstances, means that it was tested on either dead bodies (usually stacked horizontally on a pile to see how many would be cleanly cut through) or on a unlucky fellow sentenced to capital punishment. Of course in more modern times this practice was substituted to testing on rolled wet straw mats with bamboo trunks inside, and this gave birth to the more recent practice of tameshigiri (which we still do in Iaido as a celebratory practice on special occasions, festivals and celebrations) and contemporary arts like battodo. Hakudo Nakayama (10 dan in Kendo, Iaido, Jodo and considered the founder/reorganizer of Muso-Shinden-ryu) was professionally testing swords on straw mats for several master bladesmiths. Sometimes the sword is a mu-mei, which means that it has no signature engraved on its nakago; this clearly can significantly reduce its value depending on how recognizable are its other defining characteristics (for example certain masters only used a very specific shape of hamon, the tempering line of the blade). Many advanced Iaido practitioners use - even if it is not really a mandatory requirement until after 6th dan and you can surely use a high-quality iaito for all your life - what is called a shinsakuto, which is a traditionally made sword done today by a specially registered Master, either specifically on order or not - they are usually quite expensive starting at 7.500$. Some practitioners use also historical or older swords, but this is generally not recommended as it is harder to find the right size and they can vary wildly in range from about 5000$ to.... the sky is the limit. Also, for safety reasons, you would probably have to redo the whole fittings, scabbard and so on, which would add another 3000$ at least. As with everything it's important to understand that the man makes the art, not the weapon itself, and I always recommend not to exaggerate when choosing a sword, be it a iaito or a shinken. We regularly hold classes of Iaido in Singapore, open to members of any gender, age and physical condition. Please do not hesitate to contact us. First of all, Happy New Year 2019 and looking forward soon to Chinese New Year as well!
Please note that our training schedule changed from 2.1.2019 to: - Wednesdays 5.30 PM - 7.00 PM; - Saturdays 1.30 PM - 3.30 PM; Both sessions in the Dance Studio (Lvl 3) of Tanglin CC in Whitley Road. A great year of training, sweat and improvement to all our members and all our readers! One topic that is often coming up is the one about the shinken, that is, a real live, sharp sword. Some beginners ask me, even before ever coming over to try, if they can use it, and the more advanced students wonder when their time of picking one up would be.
As always, there is no easy and quick answer. Overall, the tendency of the ZNKR, the Governing body of Iaido, is to discourage the adoption of a real sword until much later in time. This is because accidents do happen, and quite frequently, when a practitioner starts to use one before his time, and sometimes the blade can even "bite" experts. On the other hand, practicing with something that can actually hurt you if mishandled, takes one's focus to the extreme and can be a long-time way to improve one's technique. Long time! Because in fact, in the short term (a few years since starting to use it at least) you tend to become worse out of fear and insecurity. From a "regulation" point of view, in Japan it is only mandatory to use a real sharp sword, as opposed as a Iaito (which is a metal unsharpened reproduction instead), from the 6th Dan exam and above. To put this in perspective, to be eligible to take a 6th Dan exam you have been practicing, in the very best of worlds and never having failed not even a single exam, 16 to 20 years already. But already in Europe and in international competitions, this limit was waived and now outside of Japan you don't really have to purchase and practice with a Shinken at all, if you don't want to. So, overall, the tendency remains to discourage adoption of a live blade until much further in the road; indeed, a Iaito can already injure you well enough if you are not careful, and it is supposed to be dull! There are also other reasons, including regulatory (in many Countries it is forbidden or very difficult to import/export/own/transport/use a live blade) and economic (a shinken STARTS at about 7.500 USD at the very cheapest). That being said, I almost do not know anyone that after 5th Dan didn't pick one up and try at least some sessions with one. Yes, you read right, actually even the strongest, most experienced practitioners don't ALWAYS use a shinken even when they own one! It's heavier and you might not feel at your 100% physical and mental condition that night, for example, and you need to be at 110%! My personal position is that it is fair, wise and sensible to give people the choice, without discriminating one way or the other. That being said, NOBODY should EVER purchase, use or train with a shinken without proper approval and specific guidance by an official, reputable and expert teacher. What is important is to practice with dedication and precision, listen, try to do one's best and the journey in the Way of the Sword will be challenging and incredible, no matter which type of sword you use. For a long time I wanted to write an article about what and how many of us get interested in Samurai and Katana swords in the first place, to the point of picking up a proper Budo like Iaido or Kendo. The truth is that manga, anime and videogames do play an important influence on that, even more than most of the non-Japanese Budo community would like to admit. Take my case: when I was in my late teens I loved to regularly meet up with friends on lazy afternoons and play videogames like Samurai Showdown IV, Last Blade 2 and later the Soul Calibur series. I always found myself attracted to characters wielding the almost mystical katana sword and, in the meantime, buying and reading the WHOLE Kenshin manga didn't help me get over it. Almost by chance, I started to look online if it was at all possible to learn how to use a sword in modern times... and an incredible world that eventually brought me to Kendo and ultimately Iaido opened up to me. Of course, almost nothing of what you see in media, including all of the above comic books, adult oriented-cartoons, computer games but also movies, tv shows etc. etc. is really reflected in what the actual study of the Japanese sword is. Well, the katana is there, the clothing somewhat, and, in many ways, the spirit of those characters is there; but the methods and actual movements are totally different. But then again this is the same with guns: in the brief period I practiced competitive shooting with .22 and later 9x21 caliber guns I understood that the biggest portion of what we see in media is totally a made up version of what a gun is and works (and its accuracy). That being said, the difference between fantasy and reality doesn't deter or remove anything from the fact that these media and these subcultures are breathing life in a traditional martial art system that in Japan has been suffering for a while, all to the benefit of soccer and baseball. Indeed, I met many great Sensei in Japan that are moved by the passion we non-Japanese have for their arts, the kokoro (heart and dedication) we put into it and that, by reflection, is also rekindling many own Japanese young hearts. As when you see foreigners SO passionate about something you have and that you give for granted or you find boring, you yourself get curious to check it better and rediscover your roots. So never be ashamed of you sword anime passion or your love for a ninja character in the latest console's game: you are contributing keeping alive a millennial tradition in this relativistic, quick-burning and postmodern world. We regularly hold Iaido courses here in Singapore. The Way of the Sword might be different than what you thought, but the satisfaction of a well performed cut in a difficult form will stay with you forever! Contact us to join up or for a trial practice. One of the most identifiable characteristic of Iaido is the concept of nukiuchi, which is extracting and cutting in one single, flowing and effective action.
Its physical and logical opposite, putting the sword back in its saya or scabbard at the end of the fight, is called noto. As we saw in a previous article about the "blood shedding" (chiburi), also noto presents a great variation of style, form and execution depending on your Iaido School. At the fundamental level, it requires the practitioner to use both hands to put in a same line the sword and the scabbard. The movement is performed rather quickly in the vulnerable first moments and it slows down as soon as the tip of the sword is covered. Save for these principles, which are in common, different schools will perform this movement in completely different fashions: in Muso Shinden-ryu, our school of reference, it is performed horizontally at the center of the body, and the sword gets slowly verticalized at the end of the action. But in Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu, for example, noto is performed vertically and on the left side of the body, and so on. When training and performing the 12 forms of the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei Iaido (formerly known as "Seitei") the practitioner is allowed to still execute noto as in his style of origin, provided that the hands still meet at the center before starting it. If the student doesn't have any old school of reference, and is only a ZNKR Iaido practitioner, then the standard noto used is the same as Muso Shinden-ryu's beginner's level. Beginner's level? Yes, because to further add to the complexity of noto, in many schools to different levels of the art correspond different types of it! In MSR, for example, there are 3 levels, each with a corresponding set of forms to be learned and mastered: "Shoden" (the "beginner's level" also known as Omori-ryu), "Chuden" (the "intermediate level" also known as Hasegawa Eishin-ryu) and "Okuden" (the "secret level" also known as Okuiai). The noto is different in each of these levels and is overall harder and harder to master; and it is a requirement - executing a "Chuden" form with the "Shoden" noto, because it is easier, totally nullifies anything good we did, even if the form itself was performed flawlessly. Learning and performing noto well is therefore almost an art in itself, to be practiced and mastered alongside the rest of Iaido, and used to convey both the technical ability of the student as well as the presence of spirit to express with it, the right "zanshin" (the heightened sensory moment after the cut, when you are ready to follow through again on the same or a new opponent). And as always the basics are the fundamental bricks on which to build your ability: it would be utterly impossible to learn the Okuden noto without having assimilated properly the Shoden one. Noto is the mirror image of the extraction, that completes the yin-yang circle of the form harmoniously, and it is therefore one of the most important part of the beautiful art of Iaido. We regularly organize Iaido courses in Singapore and we welcome students of any physical ability or condition, sex, experience and any age (as long as major). Please contact us for more info! |
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