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Iaido - General Background

Mahatma Gandhiis the art of drawing the swordsword being drawn in the first place - in
and striking an armed opponent at lightningother words, to conquer the enemy
speed. It is the art of strategy, achieving"spiritually", with the sword still in the
precision in all aspects of mental andsheath, and so resolve problems without
physical ability, including accuratehaving to even resort to violence. There is
footwork, balanced posture and criticalone quote that explains this way of thinking:
timing. Live blades are razor-sharp and"The mind is not disturbed by the self being
experienced practitioners are the only onesbeaten up but by the self beating up others."
permitted to use them. The risk involved isHistory: Iaido derives from the ancient way
thought to be worthwhile because this is theof the Samurai warrior (bushi), and the
only way achieve the ultimate in awarenessforerunner of the art we know today,
and concentration, and to unify the mind andIaijutsu, was used in earnest on the
the body together in total harmony. Althoughbattlefield, whereas Iaido was designed to
Iaido may be classed as a separate martialpractise "the way of the sword". Evidence
art, it is closely related and complementarysuggests that the bokken used today in Iaido
to Kendo. Kendo practice requires 2 peoplehas been used as a weapon since around 400
fencing each other armed with shinhai (bambooAD. The bokken is a solid wooden stick with
swords) and wearing armour, whereas Iaido isthe same shape, weight and approximate length
practised on an individual basis wearing aas a sword, and is usually made of red or
gi, juban, hakama and obi. Practitioners usewhite oak. Bokken technique was followed by
a real or an imitation sword, called anthe art of tachikaki (drawing the sword from
iaito. The aim of the exercise is to performits scabbard). The blade (tachi or katana),
a set of movements (kata), in which the swordwas long and straight and the Japanese
is drawn, an imaginary opponent is cut, andwarrior would carry it on his left side. A
then the sword is resheathed. The ultimateshorter blade was used for quick-draw
purpose of Iaido, however, is to master thetechniques known as batto.
ability to overcome the enemy without the



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