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Heya
Naryoril:
--- Quote from: satty on December 28, 2011, 04:53:50 am ---Welcome to the forums. How's Switzerland?
A Yukiho and a Hibiki/Mami fan? Good, good.
--- End quote ---
thanks
unfortunately it's cold and foggy and there is no snow, at least where i live
but sorry to (maybe) disappoint you, it's not Mami, it's Miki ;)
satty:
Ah...where I live, it's pretty random weather. With no snow all year.
And my mistake, I should have read what you wrote more carefully. Still, enjoy your stay here.
Cael K.:
--- Quote from: Naryoril on December 27, 2011, 11:19:32 am ---Hobbies: iaido
--- End quote ---
So, I always meant to ask this, but I keep on forgetting.
What sort of martial principles are there in iaido? I mean, there's probably some theory behind what you're doing, I was just wondering if you noticed anything or could tell. For instance, I could say that Baguazhang usually involves circling around a central point, mainly on eight different points on that circle, or something. (Unfortunately, that's about all I could tell you about Baguazhang.) That sort of stuff.
Naryoril:
No, there are no such principles that i am aware of. I'm only 1st Dan though, maybe there are, but they are not tought until a much higher level. And if there are i guess they will depend on the style.
In the end, iaido isn't actual fighting. It developed during a time of peace (during the Tokugawa shogunate) as means for samurai to train with the sword as they couldn't do so in war. This is also reflected in it's name, iaido is written as 居合道, the kanji meaning "to be", "meet" and "way". You could translate it into something like "the way to meet the essence of being" and thus iaido is, in my personal interpretation, mainly a fight against yourself, your own body, your own mind with the goal to perfect yourself.
In iaido you don't fight against someone, you only perform katas (forms) and kill imaginary opponents. Due to that you can use metal swords (at first they are not sharp, but about from 4th dan onwards you can use sharp swords, an i think if you take the exam for 7th dan you must use a sharp one). The difficulty is to make fast, precise movements that look completely effortless. Thus if someone who doesn't know iaido watches it they usually think "that's easy", until they try it themselves. It really is a fight against yourself.
On the other hand, all katas have their scenario. What they all have in common is that the sword is sheathed at the beginning and the end of a kata. If you want you could take a principle "You can draw your sword under any cricumstance and attack/defend immediately", be it standing, sitting, between narrow walls, below a house, when you attack suddenly, when you are attacked suddenly and so on. Thus the movements you do with your sword are extremely diverse and the angles vary also as much as you like (though i don't know of a vertical upwards cut, since it doesn't make sense to do so). Quite often you also hit your opponent with your katana's hilt.
I hope that was more or less what you wanted to know ;)
baruhara:
--- Quote from: Naryoril on January 02, 2012, 01:07:42 pm ---In the end, iaido isn't [...] hilt.
--- End quote ---
Huh... That sounds strikingly similar to Shotokan Karate, except obviously without a weapon. Do you ever have occasional sparring with other people practicing iaido, like I do with karate, or is it all kata-oriented?
In any case, I envy you for having the oppertunity to do something that I want to. I don't think there are any facilities that offer any kind of weapons training around here, let alone iaido.
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