interested

[gonosen]

I'm a kararte student who is interested in taking kendo or iaido. I was wondering what is the difference and similiarities are between the two. I also wanted to know how much money(U.S.) I would have to spend to buy decent equipment in order start out. Please send any advice you can give me. Thanks.

[Gordon Smith]

I took pretty much the same path while coming to iai.

I started down the Kendo path. Kendo is the sport aspect of swordsmanship. With the group I tried, I only had to show up, and they had spare shinai and armor. After a few sessions, I bought my own shinai (~$25 as I recall). You weren't pressured to buy your own armor unless your eally wanted to. I had some difficulties with kendo, as at the time, the assistant instructor was there more often than the instructor, and the assistant could not adequately explain some of the more esoteric aspects of kendo - specifically, the purpose of pre-kiaiing. I had been taught to conceal your power and spirit until you struck, whereas there is a much more open display in kendo. I couldn't get past what I interpreted as a "psyche-up" factor, and felt too silly standing and kiaiing without actually doing anything else.

Shows my inexperience :)

Now after doing iai for some time (though woefully less now than earlier), I can see many of the advantages of kendo, and would love to take it up again. I've talked with my iai instructor (who also teaches kendo), and think I could do a better job internalizing.

Iai, I really like, due to the solitary, meditative aspects. Iai consists of a series of solo forms with the sword. You continuously repeat those forms until they become so ingrained, that should you ever need to use them, they will flow nearly effortlessly. A really bad nutshell, but there you go...

Iai trains the spirit, Kendo seems to train more the body than the spirit (though I'm sure we'll get some alternate opinions :) )

Again, starting in iai, I was loaned equipment. First a bokken, then an iaito. You can buy swords for anywhere from $200-$1500, depending on what you want and where you shop. I really like Nosyuiaido (http://www.nosyuiaido.com) swords, on both quality and service. You can get a nice starter sword for about $400.

Personally, I would start in iai, and work your way over to kendo. Iai teaches you a lot about precision of spirit, sword motion, and balance, but after a while, it's nice to have to worry about a target outside of your head. Kendo teaches you body motion, timing, and how to contend with an uncooperative target.

-G-

[Scott Irey]

Hello Gordan,

In reading yourt post I see at the bottom that you are in Virginia and looking for an iai dojo. If you are indeed looking for a dojo, you could look up Greg Huff, a 6th dan in MJER who has recently relocated to your neck of the woods and is teaching iai. If you are interested in his contact information, email me and I will get it for you.

Regards,

Scott Irey

[Gordon Smith]

I've trained with Greg before at assorted seminars, and he's a wonderful man to learn from. Unfortunately, DC is just a bit out of the way for me to talk my wife into letting me go on a routine basis (and the kids are also depleting my stamina - this married thing is so _different_)

Hmmm....maybe I can set up a monthly trip, though. If you would, go ahead and send the info. Thanks.

-G-

[Enfield]

Originally posted by gonosen
I'm a kararte student who is interested in taking kendo or iaido. I was wondering what is the difference and similiarities are between the two. I also wanted to know how much money(U.S.) I would have to spend to buy decent equipment in order start out. Please send any advice you can give me. Thanks.

I wrote a reply to this yesterday, but with the new format it seems that I never actually posted it.

First, a disclaimer: I have only done kendo for a bit more than a year, and iaido only for about three months and sporadically at that (this term is killing me). So take that into account when deciding how much my advice is worth.

My main advice is to try both of them, though you'll probably be better off starting with one for a few months then adding the other. Many dojo teach both kendo and iaido, so this isn't as much of hassle as it might seem. Mr. Smith has already covered start-up costs, so I won't rehash that.

At their cores, I think that iaido and kendo are quite similar. Both operate on the same fundamental principles: moving from your hips, keeping a relaxed upper body, te no uchi (gripping when striking), etc. The differences, while they appear large, seem to me to be mostly surface details due to the different ways in which they are practiced. Of course, mt thinking this may be eniterly due to my teachers for both arts being the same person.

In iai practice, your opponent is imaginary and you treat your sword as sharp (whether it is or not). Because your opponent is in your mind, you get to put him exactly in the place and position you need him to be in to make your technique work, so the focus of practice tends to be on the things that make cuts work well: blade angle, correct extension, etc.

In kendo, your opponent is real and usually uncooperative, but your sword is fake and isn't going to cut him, no matter how hard you try, so the focus shifts away from proper cutting to the relationship between you and your opponent. It now becomes a matter of making contact on generally the right target, with generally the right part of the sword, in generally the right way, without him doing the same to you.

In my very limited experience the two disciplines compliment each other very well. After only about a month of practicing iaido, I found my kendo strikes to be bigger and more "cut-like" than they were before, and I was putting my hips more into my techniques. Going the other way, I think that having the kendo experience of another person at the end of my sword helped immensely with understanding what was going on in iai kata in a deeper sense than "my tip should go here now." I found it very easy to visualize where the opponents body is in relationship to my own, because I'm used to someone actually being there.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong.

[Stevo]

You might also want to give some thought to the "jutsu" forms.