![iaido ranks iaido ranks](https://cdn.weasyl.com/~iaido/submissions/875525/6c8caf71ba342744146fcb0a460800ef892ae31e92ff5c414468024912871e70/iaido-prince-profile-iaido.png)
And am now stuck.Īfter about three years of iaido in the US, I had no rank but came to Japan and received first, second, third dans, bang bang bang. I became a kendo 1kyuu overnight and passed the first, second and third dan levels bang bang bang. For adults, 3kyuu does not even exist in Japan - everyone starts from 1kyuu and as long as you can hold a shinai (bamboo sword) correctly and swing it somewhat correctly, you have passed. I practiced kendo for 5 years and reached the respectable rank of sankyuu or 3rd kyuu (the lower, kyuu ranks start from 10kyuu and count up to 1kyuu). This has always been puzzling to me, having started in the US. I managed iaido 4-dan in one shot (the much-hallowed "ippatsu") but my kendo has been stuck for years at 3dan, and I have failed kendo 4dan about a dozen times, having lost count somewhere along the way. Then bang! Things suddenly get very demanding at 4dan level. The idea seemed to be to encourage people, to give positive reinforcement. Even the initial test begins at ikkyu or first kyuu level, and it was of course pretty much guaranteed. This is really unheard of, at least in Japan, as the first three ranks (shodan, nidan or 2dan, sandan or 3dan) were pretty much guaranteed in kendo, iaido, and jodo (they are all part of one federation). Apparently something like 50% of the people testing for 2-dan recently failed - and most of them because of improper reiho. They are announced that morning and everyone does the same techniques for the test.īut this person's point was that there are really 7 waza in the exam, that the opening and closing reiho should be weighted equally with the 5 sword techniques. Basically,everyone is focused on those five techniques. Each person does the opening reiho (etiquette/bowing related to the sword), does 5 waza or techniques, does finishing reiho, and is done. At least in the Tokyo area, you go out in groups of five.
![iaido ranks iaido ranks](https://www.kampaibudokai.org/shiaijo.gif)
More on what it actually is, elsewhere and elsewhen).īack to the main story: somebody Sensei was talking about testing in iaido. It is not a flashy art and has little to do with the crap seen in "samurai movies" or throwing aluminum fake blades up in the air and catching them, as seen in some American "martial arts" tournaments.
![iaido ranks iaido ranks](https://renmadojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cropped-RenMa_Header_test5-13.jpg)
#Iaido ranks series#
(Iaido, for the uninitiated, is the Japanese art of drawing a katana or Japanese sword, performing a series of cuts as if against an actual opponent, removing blood from the blade, and replacing it in the scabbard. Heard something I liked the other morning at iaido.