Best Centers To Practice Kendo In Minneapolis Near Me

4worldlovers:
Offer your child a supportive and welcoming community to explore the world of olympic fencing. Center for Blade Arts offers classes, private lessons, and camps for kids as young as six.


T E S T I M O N I A L S

4worldlovers:
Here are videos of our demonstrations at this years Obon Festival at Como Park in St. Paul, MN

The Mutokai was founded in 1979 by Dale Schwerdtfeger. It was done under the guidance and advice of his teacher Tsumura Keiji Sensei of Tokyo. The name translates as the "sword of nothingness" or the "empty sword". In the Mutokai we practice two distinct forms of iaido. All members train in the forms and traditions of the Musoshinden sect. As the master of Musoshinden-ryu died without naming a successor there are no longer any dan rankings (black belts) issued in the style with a validity beyond the club level. Ranking is given according to the old style of awarding den. There are three levels: shoden, chuden and okuden. In the Mutokai we have members training at all three levels.

We also train in the modern forms generated by the All Japan Kendo Federation. Kendo is a competitive, sports oriented adaptation of the traditional schools of ken-jutsu. Practitioners wear padding and use split bamboo sticks to prevent injury to the opponent when striking. This has led to techniques suited to speed of hitting rather than power in cutting. The All Japan Kendo Federation iaido forms were developed to remind kendo practitioners of what the real katana was all about, It was also an attempt to standardize iai testing in the Kendo Federation so that people with backgrounds in any of the traditional iai schools could test for nationally recognized rank. Mutokai dan are granted for advanced training in both of these traditions.

Iaido is the art of drawing, using, and resheathing the Japanese sword, or katana, quickly and efficiently, without damaging either the sword or the swordsman. Iai generally assumes an aggressive cutting draw in response to a sudden attack. The art was developed over 400 years ago by a swordsman named Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu. Iaido grew out of the dueling techniques variously called batto-jutsu or iai-jutsu, which evolved in the wake of the development of the katana styled sword and the taito style of wearing it (with the kimono, blade edge up, through the sash). Batto-jutsu was not suited to the organized combat of armored warriors, but was developed as an effective means of self-preservation for the unarmored situations of the Samurai‘s everyday life. It involves the need to act in an instant, without thought or plan or fear of death. Unlike other forms of ken-jutsu, iai assumed no time to take up a position or ready the mind. Thus, it became the epitome of the pragmatic application of the Buddhist doctrine of "no mind", a practical demonstration of the achievement of the meditative state of "mu" or nothingness.

With the consolidation of Tokugawa control over the local lords, warfare decreased and was eventually completely quelled. The "fast draw" techniques of iai-jutsu were perfectly attuned to those transitional days of political intrigue and armed ronin, the wandering warriors put out of work by peace. Nonetheless, the katana as a weapon gradually became obsolete. For the peacetime samurai the sword became more of a badge of office than a practical weapon of personal combat. Despite this met, swordsmanship did not become obsolete. The art of wielding the katana still survives today and prospers on the archipelago as a unique legacy of feudal Japan. Indeed, in recent years it has spread beyond Japan's borders to be practiced widely in the West. But it does not exist merely as a relic of the past. To survive in the fast pace of modem life it must provide something of relevance to us now.