Iaido - General Background

Mahatma Gandhiis the art of drawing the swordto overcome the enemy without the sword being
and striking an armed opponent at lightning speed.drawn in the first place - in other words, to
It is the art of strategy, achieving precision in allconquer the enemy "spiritually", with the sword
aspects of mental and physical ability, includingstill in the sheath, and so resolve problems without
accurate footwork, balanced posture and criticalhaving to even resort to violence. There is one
timing. Live blades are razor-sharp andquote that explains this way of thinking: "The mind
experienced practitioners are the only onesis not disturbed by the self being beaten up but
permitted to use them. The risk involved isby the self beating up others." History: Iaido
thought to be worthwhile because this is the onlyderives from the ancient way of the Samurai
way achieve the ultimate in awareness andwarrior (bushi), and the forerunner of the art we
concentration, and to unify the mind and the bodyknow today, Iaijutsu, was used in earnest on the
together in total harmony. Although Iaido may bebattlefield, whereas Iaido was designed to practise
classed as a separate martial art, it is closely"the way of the sword". Evidence suggests that
related and complementary to Kendo. Kendothe bokken used today in Iaido has been used as
practice requires 2 people fencing each othera weapon since around 400 AD. The bokken is a
armed with shinhai (bamboo swords) and wearingsolid wooden stick with the same shape, weight
armour, whereas Iaido is practised on an individualand approximate length as a sword, and is usually
basis wearing a gi, juban, hakama and obi.made of red or white oak. Bokken technique was
Practitioners use a real or an imitation sword,followed by the art of tachikaki (drawing the
called an iaito. The aim of the exercise is tosword from its scabbard). The blade (tachi or
perform a set of movements (kata), in which thekatana), was long and straight and the Japanese
sword is drawn, an imaginary opponent is cut, andwarrior would carry it on his left side. A shorter
then the sword is resheathed. The ultimateblade was used for quick-draw techniques known
purpose of Iaido, however, is to master the abilityas batto.