Kishimoto sensei iaido notes 2012

by Kim Taylor

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These are notes that I took or remember Kishimoto sensei teaching. Any mistakes are of course entirely my fault. The notes are mainly from two senior classes, Friday evening and Monday morning.

General points


Hatakenaka sensei is only the third female hachidan and I am proud to have helped teach her. Women are different than men, they won't have the same progress if they train the way men train.

I wear tabi but that is to prevent injury as a representative of the FIK who goes to many different dojo. It's almost a requirement for me to wear tabi. But there is another side to this, with tabi you can't feel the floor. If you can't feel the floor it's not real budo training so you must have bare feet for correct training.

Budo starts with cleaning the floor. Teachers should get down there and push the towels. Often teachers forget to practice and improve. Don't be lazy as teachers.

Why westerners can't pass 6 and 7dan

For many years he has had a question as to why westerners have trouble passing 6 and 7dan tests. He believes that our basics are not strong and our bases are not strong. Watching us push the towels across the floor he sees that our lower bodies are weak so we must practice cleaning the floor. Our arms are strong but our lower bodies are not, perhaps it is because our legs are long compared to our bodies while Japanese legs are short compared to theirs. Regardless, we need to improve our lower bodies.

1. The way we set our minds. We treat iaido as a sport, overly concerned with the kata and so we don't know how to use our minds.

2. Kihon. We don't know the basics of the sword.

We do the forms correctly but we don't know the riai. We will work on the riai, Ji Ri Ichi this seminar. Many westerners just work on the forms, this is not the right mindset. If you want to pass 6 and 7dan in the future and you keep going like you are going now you will never make it. There are 6 and 7 dan ranks in the class now, it can be done, so do your best and you can pass like they did.  Gambatte.

To Rei

Using the whole length of the weapon, put the middle of the sword in the middle of your body. Some koryu (Shinden) line up the tsuba with the outside of the left knee which is not the middle. Even for Shinden if the tsuba is in front of the knee or inside of it, that position is wrong.

Keep the left hand away from the kojiri. After putting the sword down move the right hand to the obi and then straighten the sageo with the left hand before sitting up and bowing.

The finishing to rei is also done with the sword centered. The kojiri is set down on the floor to the right front with the sword held vertical. If you can simply lay it down to the correct position that is good. If you must move it, do not lift the kojiri and then drop it again with a sound, this is a deduction. it is OK to slide the kojiri rather than lift it but again don't make a noise.
 
When you pick up or put down a weapon on the floor kneel on one knee and place it with your right hand. Kneel on the knee that is closest to Kamiza.

Seiza is hard, for iai we need a strong lower body so try to sit seiza if you can.

When you hold the sword with your left hand put the pad of the thumb on the tsuba. This says "I am going to draw" and should be used in embu or in a tournament. There you should be able to draw at any moment. If you grip the tsuba with your thumb placed more deeply, with the crease of the thumb on the tsuba, you are saying "I am not going to draw" to teki.

Proper swords


In Japan a blade must be papered. This ensures that it is correctly made. Swords with no papers may be weak. In the west we can use unpapered blades because there is no regulation but we must be especially careful with those blades. Westerners have strong arms and if they have good tenouchi but the wrong hasuji they can cause the blade to wobble and eventually break.

Matawari Suburi


Stand in shikko like a sumotori and draw your swords. As you straighten up your legs cross the hands and lift the sword in uke nagashi. Cut straight down as you bend your legs again.

Japanese have long upper bodies and short legs so they are stronger below. Westerners have long legs so you must practice this suburi. It is good for your strength and also for tenouchi.

Bring the sword up as you breath in. When you drop your hips and cut, breath out. Up, breath in, down out and cut. When you breathe in expand the area below your belly button. We often make students count, this is to help them learn how to breath out as they cut so you must count on the cut. When practicing like this it is important for everyone to cut and count together.

The sword has three sections in thirds. Bo Sei Sats, the defensive part near the tsuba, the control part in the middle third and the third near the tip that cuts. Use the first third to receive tekki's blade in this exercise, receive it edge to edge and at a right angle. The point at one third of the blade from the tsuba should be directly in front of your center.

If you receive a blade on the middle third in uke nagashi, we turn the blade so as to receive the strike on the shinogi. The last third is to cut so put force into the tip third when you cut.

When you put the middle of the sword in front of your face and keep your body square to the front you cannot keep your hands closed on the tsuka, you can't grip it deeply, you must grip with your thumb and little finger in the diamonds. When it goes over your head you must move your hands to make the proper grip. This forces you to concentrate on proper tenouchi.

The grip is shallow with both hands, the thumb in the diamonds. Cut as far in front as possible and stop with the hands at shoulder level with the tip at forehead height. In this position the tsuka will point at the bellybutton.

If you do tea ceremony, when you squeeze the tenogui (cloth) you drive the tip of the pinky into the palm of the hand. This is the same squeeze / pinch you apply to the hilt.

Matawari allows you to practice all the basics except nuki, kesa or tsuki but everything else is here. It also trains ki ken tai ichi as well as tenouchi.

At the bottom of the movement make sure your thighs are horizontal and your left fist is one fist from your belly button. As you do this, you will be able to stand wider and wider so even if you don't push yourself you will improve. For westerners you need to do this to get strong legs, be careful if there is pain.

Vocalize and breath naturally to develop ki ken tai ichi.

Set kasso teki as far away as possible so that your kata is slow, careful and big. If you do this your iai should go up by next year. If you don't do this as teachers, your students will stay at a low level.

Seitei Gata


Mae

The tsuba is in the center of the body. Have a good saya biki, make teki far away. When you do kiri tsuke just move the right foot, do not pull the left knee forward at the same time.

Ushiro

When you cut use the left pinky most, do saya biki properly.

Keep the feet in the same place as you rise. Roll the left foot over onto the toes as you turn. Put the right foot into the correct place at saya banari, when you cut move the left foot across but do not move the right as well.

Uke Nagashi

The block must be made at the same time as the right foot toes (moves) into the base of the big toe of the left foot. Watch not to block too early. Cut as you move back, not after you've moved back which means you have missed teki.

Tsuka Ate

Look at teki before the final cut and do hiki nuki, don't pull it out and then move it up or up and back, move the left hand directly up over the forehead.

Kesa Giri

Don't turn the saya over first, this will force your blade into the wrong angle as you grip it incorrectly. Turn the blade over as you draw. Cut completely through teki before turning the blade over to cut down again. Keep the hips square to the opponent, don't twist them side to side. The tip must be down and in front of the left hip if it is to come out of teki.

The first five kata finish with the tip down, the rest with the sword horizontal.

Morotezuki

Think of teki getting further and further away, Hiki nuki, pull out of the teki you have thrust, before you perform the first cut. On the second turn and cut it's an uke nagashi movement.

The first cut moves down to the chin. As you move into chudan the tip moves down to throat level. Thrust into suigetsu and thrust strongly with the arms and the body. When you turn, do hiki nuki keeping a strong tenouchi with the left hand and bring the kashira up above your forehead. The tsuka can come above the tip on this movement. Turning from this cut to the final cut bring the sword up in uke nagashi as you did in matawari suburi keeping the tip at the same height as the hilt.

Sanpogiri

Be careful of your shoulders this cut is not in front of the body so it can cause some damage if you swing too hard. Look at the front (final) teki on each turn. Cut to the chin on the first cut, turn and cut down without moving the feet on the second cut. Turn the hips to the front without moving the sword, then lift it up in uke nagashi to cut the third teki.

Ganmen Ate

Shift one body width to face the rear teki. This is a different turn than morote tsuki. The base of the thumb is on the front of the hip. On saya biki the left hand should not turn over too far, a flat saya is fine and the left hand should be in a strong position.

Soete Zuki

The base of the right hand (thumb) is on top of the hip and the sword is in a straight line. If the right hand is further back the position and thrust is weak.

The first cut is kesa, the right hand ends up outside the body and the tip comes down almost to horizontal to cut out of teki's body.  The timing on this is fairly long, count iiiiiiiCHI. Start the count when you touch the tsuka. The twist of hips, bend of elbow to get the blade back for the thrust, and the thrust is much shorter NI

Shiho Giri

If you do one line at a time, those who are behind should watch the heels of those doing the kata. Face the opponents, square up to them. On the last cut the front knee is often too far forward and this drags the hip and then the back heel out of square. Square the back heel which squares the hip and your weight will be in the middle of the stance. If you put the opponent further away you will chase more and this will let you be more square.

The hardest thing for westerners is the mindset. For instance you need fukaku which is "presence". If you have no presence the forms will be small. In the Edo period there were Ashigaru, lower ranked soldiers, and Daimyo. Ashigaru techniques would be without fukaku, Daimyo techniques are large, full of presence. for 6 to 8dan you have to have a Daimyo mindset.

So Giri

There is one timing from touching the tsuka and drawing through to the cut. Pull the right foot back to the left but don't drop your heel to the ground.

From the second to the final cut pay attention to the angles and the depth of the cuts. 2 is from shoulder to suigetsu, 3 is from armpit to belly button.

Tenouchi: The left hand is stronger than the right. Set Teki further and further away and it will be easier to stop. You must complete the horizontal cut before turning the blade to begin the vertical cut. The weakest cut is the horizontal, don't turn the blade in the middle of the body.

Push with the back foot, don't drag it up with the front foot. The point of numbers 11 and 12 is that the back foot drives the body to the front.

If the first and third cuts are at the same angle, the kata is wrong.

Nuki Uchi

Keep the front heel up on the pull back, don't drop it. If you go slow at the beginning of the form you can do it accurately.

Teachers

A good teacher doesn't need to be amazing at doing the kata but must be good at the basics. He must know how to use the sword, how to do tenouchi and have a strong lower body so you can use the tenouchi correctly. If you teach this you will eventually have students that are better than you are. You won't be confident as a teacher until you have a student that is better than you are, so teach that way.



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