Mystery or no you can pretty much watch a fighter, a boxer, and any art, and then do it for a while and you can judge sound mechanics, intent or lack thereof.Ĭuriosly most of the greates boxers of our time have been trained by.non boxers. Ellsi Amdur has been quite open and now humorusly says every time he mentions or comments on Iai he is going to call it "that art that no one can understand." And curiously, they all -to a man- say the many learned men who comment on it are simply wrong, as they do not understand the mystery that is Iai. The few I have talked with who are in Iai disagree with this, perhaps rightly so. So, while many Iai are indeed Koryu thay are not seen the same way as the Koryu in general. To a man they all agree Koryu is Koryu / Iai is Iai. I have met and talked with several of the authors of the very books we read and the recent returnies from Japan. What is interesting is as I've recently gotten out to meet and greet again. This of course bothers some people in Iai. I will mention that most people I know currently practicing Koryu most certainly think of MJER and SMR and other veriants of Iai as being "Different" than Koryu sword work in general. Last edited by Charles Mahan 01-09-2004 at 01:01 PM. The concept is kinda similar but the intended rolls for Seitei and Toho seem to be quite different. For instance, despite the general lack of kiai in MJER Seiza no Bu Ippon me Mae, Toho No Bu Mae Giri has a kiai during the kirioroshi. The kihon for each waza was changed slightly in order to tie the waza together into at least a semi-coherent set. It stands seperate from the member ryuha that make up the ZNIR. I wouldn't consider Toho to be koryu either, BTW, although it is based on koryu waza. At higher ranks the number of the koryu waza increases, but I'm pretty sure you still only do 1 toho waza. While it is 1 of 5 or 6, it's supposed to be a failry small portion of the overall grading. The other waza demonstrated are from the koryu to which the student. They are used at ZNIR embus, seminars, and shodan shikens to provide a common element for members of the various ryu.Īs I understand it with regards to shodan shiken at the lower ranks, the Toho kata make up 1 of 6 waza(might be 5).
Toho no Bu consists of one kata from each of 5 different ryu with membership in the ZNIR. Since then I have found out what are the differences between what is learned in Iai and in a Koryu Ken school.īut thanks for the URL! I'll definitely give a look! :) As there are only a handful of legitimate instructors/schools. Being that both will eventually lead me to "koryu ken". To make a long story short.I had simply asked about JSA in general.this was way back in early December (or was it November?).any how I spoke to Sensei Kim Taylor ( ).he assumed I was asking about "koryu ken" (old school sword).he mentioned in order to find a qualified "koryu ken" instructor/school I would have to go through either Kendo or Iai. Though I have spoken to some American's that concur with what I have been told on this subject. It seems terminology might be a little different in the US than it is up here in Canada. Try checking out to learn more so that you can ask a question we can better answer.