What does the name Iaido mean?
Iaido is the Japanese name for a sword discipline from Japan that has been taught for centuries.
There is no 100% accurate translation for the word. It has a meaning in the Japanese language that cannot be translated 1 to 1 into German.
The term Iaido is made up of 3 characters (居合道).
- I (居) means "to be" or as much as "to be present".
- Ai (合) means "to bring together" or "to adapt".
- Do (道) can be translated as "way" or "art".
Do is the standard qualification for modern martial arts from Japan (such as Kendo, Aikodo, Karate-do, etc.).
Iai can be loosely translated as "being present in the now" or, in relation to an opponent's attack, as "being ready at all times".
Put together, the term can therefore be translated as "the art of being ready at all times". As already mentioned, it is difficult to formulate an exact translation.
Where does Iaido come from?
This sword art is usually attributed to the samurai Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu. He lived from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century. According to legend, he recognised the true spirit of swordsmanship during meditation and invented the Battojutsu style, which later became Iaido.
In addition to this sword art, Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu was also the founder of several other sword schools.
His martial art was also respected and learnt by the Tokugawa Shogun of the time. This also made it famous and it spread throughout Japan.
After the Second World War, it was above all Nakayama Hakudo for the spread of this art. Even before the war, he was a well-known figure in the world of Japanese swordsmanship.
During the American occupation, the practice of martial arts was forbidden and swordsmanship had a difficult position in Japan.
After the war, Nakayama Hakudo looked to the future (with the true mentality of a sword master) and promoted the sport as soon as it was allowed to be practised again. He was involved in the founding of the All Japan Kendo Federation, which still exists today.
He taught many personalities of the Japanese martial arts, such as Gigo Funakoshi, in Iaido and Kendo.
Where does the term "the art of sword drawing" come from?
Although Iai does not mean sword drawing, the martial art is often referred to as the art of sword drawing.
Among other things, this comes from the old term battojutsu, which is also called battodo as a modern martial art. Batto (抜刀) literally means "to draw a sword".
Originally, Batto-do and Iai-do were united "under one roof". In 1977, Battodo split off in order to clearly distinguish itself from Iaido. In particular, the difference that cutting targets are cut in battodo training and not in iaido is a fundamental difference between the two disciplines.
The difference between Jutsu and Do is that Jutsu was trained with the mentality of being used in war. The ending Do refers to martial arts that deliberately have a modern, sporting mindset.
Because of the practical training content of Iaido, i.e. what you can see as a spectator, the martial art is known as the "art of sword drawing".
In fact, Iaido training is primarily about a certain mental attitude, as the exercises are performed alone and the fight against opponents is visualised internally.
The important part of Iaido training is therefore the mental component and not just the physical type of movement.
How do you train in Iaido?
Iaido is practised in forms, i.e. fixed sequences of movements called kata. This form of sequence of techniques summarised in a sequence is important in many martial arts. In Iaido, they are the centre of the training.
Each of these kata starts with the drawing of the sword, which is probably why Iaido is also called the art of sword drawing.
The kata start like this because the origin of the fight should be a surprising attack to which one must react. This is the real meaning of the name Iaido.
The kata are trained with a blunt training sword with an aluminium blade. Iaito which literally means sword for Iai.
