Iaido lies at the heart of the samurai warrior. It's the way of the samurai sword and a practice designed many years ago for samurai warriors to hone their skills. Iaido has been passed down as an art from master to student over many decades, and its practitioners use real samurai katanas which are extremely sharp. A Practitioners aim is to reduce the samurai sword movements to the most effective forms which to a samurai warrior meant the technique that took out his enemy quickest. In today’s practice there is no enemy so to show their highly honed skills they slash through tatami, representing the enemy of the past.

Iaido sprung from the increasing need to defend against surprise attacks from opposing samurai warriors. If a samurai acted slowly, this meant death, so the samurai needed to hone his skills to perfect the sensing of an attack, unsheathing his samurai sword and finishing his attacker quickly, all in one motion. Sometimes this is called the art of drawing the sword, because the techniques start and end with the sword sheathed. Simply learning to unsheathe the sword right takes months.

In western society there are many clubs available to learn and practice Iaido, be sure to check your local area and directories. Practice samurai swords are also readily available from many stores, though they can command a high price.

Article by Nick Johnson, for more information on samurai swords be sure to visit his website below http://www.japanese-samurai-swords.net

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