Welcome to Gaia! ::

As everyone knows In the latter years of the samurai the katana became the weapon of choice due to the ammount of respect it deserved. eventually many people created thier own styles of using the sword. I personally am training in 3 styles. i will explain each one and if anyone else is training in any others please feel free to add them to this page.

Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu- This is one of the older forms of swordsmanship. It requires a great amount of endurance due to the striking method. This style requires that all strikes be executed from a kamae or attitude/stance then returned to another kamae. it is a very fast style and was reported as the basis for present day kendo. This style has 7 kamae and 12 cuts/strikes. (not sure if the japanese spelling for cuts its right so leaving it english)

Kendo- now i was opted not to put this due to the openess of kendo but there are kendo basics. In the basics of kendo there are 3 kamae and 4 cuts/strikes. it is extremely similar to Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu. Kendo has become a world renound sport as well as a sword style.

Kukishenden ryu- This is by far my favorite style. This is the name for bothe the sword style and hand to hand style of the kuki family. they are the creaters of the kukishenden clan of ninja located in the mountainous regions of japan. This style was designed as a battlefield art. the strikes both cut and push so that when you slay an opponent then his corpse will fall away from you. this style does not require a lot of endurance because of the flow. In this style the cuts end in or near a kamae alowing you to easily get ready again or you can flow with the blade and make an extra cut easily. This style has 16 kamae and no set amount of stikes but there is a basic set of 12.

I will soon start training in Shinkage ryu, an art with no killing strikes. there is a book that i have taken to heart that i believe every martial artist should read, even if they dont use the sword or practice arts from other countries. this books applies to all things including regular life. you just have to understand the principles. the book is called "the book of the five rings" written by Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Genshin or most will know him by his given name, Miyamoto Musashi. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all.

if you are studying karate then you are probably doing Muso Jikiden. it is a basic swords style created by the first samurai. karate mean empty hand. so if you are practicing with the sword then its probably a basic style. Kukishenden ryu is a ninjutsu specialty sword style. so i highly doubt you are practicing it.

wow wolf. great find! eek the test cut could be better by actually doing a true draw. but aside from that it shows the power of a katana. and the kata i cant be completely sure but that looks kinda like Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Masaaki Hatsumi's teacher. it shows the trie discipline of the japanese sword. because if you look carefully neither one twichtes when the blade moves towards them. they are fully trusting in each other. that is how martial arts is supposed to be. fully trusting in one another, as well as yourself.

yeah. i cleaned the video up and relized it wasnt him. it was just kinda hard to tell with how choppy it was.

I seen those a wile back the hand gun sort of surprised me I don't think a man could do that though if it was realy a fight but this shows how strong a sword can be.