Brief History  

Iaido is the art of drawing using and resheathing the Japanese sword.  Although the history of the sword and its use can be traced far back in Japanese history the role of the Samurai changed towards the end of the 15th century. It was then that Izasa Ienao (also known as Izasa Choisai) founded the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu.  Although this school studied and trained in the use of many types of weapons it was here that the seeds of modern iai were planted when Izasa Ienao along with some of his senior swordsman developed the art of the sword to include attacking with the draw which evolved into Iaijutsu.

A century after this Jinsuke Shigenobu (who later renamed himself Hayashizaki) founded the Shimmei Muso Ryu to teach a new sword art called batto-jutsu.  Not only was this a sword art that principally dealt with drawing the sword but Jinsuke Shigenobu is also attributed as the first to teach swordsmanship as a means of personal and spiritual development.  These styles were taken up by students who went on to form their own schools.  Over the centuries as these techniques have been passed on more schools were founded.  There are in fact over 200 schools that can ultimately be traced back to Jinsuke Shigenobu.  

During the 20^th century Nakayama Hakudo who had studied Omori Ryu, Muraku Ryu, Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu, Shindo Munen Ryu and Yamaguchi Itto Ryu used his diverse knowledge of swordsmanship to develop his own technique, which he called Muso Shinden Ryu batto-jutsu.  This was refined and taught to the general population as iai-jutsu until the 1940’s when the name was changed to iaido.

After WWII the occupying forces banned martial practices in Japan, it was after this ban was lifted that the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei (All Japan Kendo Federation) was organised to oversee the development and certification of kendo and iaido.  Because of the different styles if iaido that were practiced throughout Japan it was felt that it would be impossible to set a standard for each and every one and so It was decided that a new set of kata should be introduced that would standardise the teaching and certification of advancement in iai.  After several years work of combining techniques from many different schools the ZNKR, in 1969 released seitei iai.  In its original form seitei had seven kata but as it grew in popularity three more were added in 1981 and was modified again in 2001 when two more were added.

Training

Today seitei is practiced at all levels and used as the primary tool to help beginners learn and develop basic techniques before advancing to the more advanced koryu forms. After learning the basics, such as grip, cuts, kamae’s (stances) and footwork the student will progress to studying the kata of seitei iai.  Each training session will begin with stretching and suburi (cutting) exercises as a warm up and then move to basic kata work.   As the student makes progress paired practice is introduced as an aid to understanding timing and distance.  There are three stages of learning:

1)   Keiko - This is the stage of learning and beginning to understand the basic kata through slow and methodical repetition.  It is also the stage where you will begin to learn some of the associated concepts such as distance, timing and control over your sword.

2)  Tanren – The benefits of the hard work and determination of the keiko stage begin to yield rewards by unifying the mind and body to act as one.   The techniques and principles are practised without having to think about every stage of the physical movements.  During this stage the movements become more natural and effective and more mental resources are available to apply to the concepts and principles that are at the heart of iaido. 

3)  Renshu – To polish and perfect the techniques through continued hard work.  At this stage the practitioner has reached the highest level of efficiency by the use of a calm mind working in unison with a relaxed body and pure technique.  Any remnants of actions fuelled by anxiety, fear, anger or any other emotion are removed.