One has to remember just how SHARP that sword is when watching him putting it back into the sheath, so effortlessly in flowing moves. Thanks for uploading this.
Haga Junichi san demonstrates clearly something I think even all but a very few Japanese have forgotten, i.e, the complete and total devotion of spirit and the uncluttered mind of a real Samurai. A man dedicated to Budo and to something we all try to attain but seldom do... living life as sharp and as clean as the sword.
This is absolutely amazing - apparently all shoden and Chuden waza of MJER. absoluitely beautiful, great source of inspiration for practice. I am in awe at the mastery ! Thank you so much for posting this video !
you can tell how master a swordman is when how they are fast to bring back to safety the sword. amazing..... he hold the sword for a quiet long time indeed
Seriously? People actually think this guy is "slow?" Or has "trouble" handling his sword? Look at his eyes, never once do they fall onto his hands. He never has to look at where his sword is going. Even when sheathing the sword his eyes are always forward. Also he has no wasted movement what so ever. His left wrist turns everything the blade does to meet it perfectly when sheathing it.
Martial arts is based on understanding, hard work and full understanding of techniques. Good techniques are those involving fast changes, wide variety and speed. Body training, mind training, mind training True Knowledge The way to transcend karma is in the correct use of mind and will. The unity of all life is a truth that can only be fully realized when the false notions of a separate person, whose destiny can be considered apart from the whole, are annihilated forever. Emptiness includes everything and has no opposite, that is, there is nothing that it excludes or opposes. Become a wooden puppet: he has no ego, thinks nothing, is not greedy or clinging to anything or anyone. The expression of an artist is the display of his soul, education and composure. Behind all movements, the music of his soul becomes visible. The masters of all branches of the arts must first be masters of life, since the soul creates everything. The biggest mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the fight. Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points. Struggling behavior should not be different from normal behavior, his expression should not change, nothing should denounce the fact that he is engaged in deadly combat. A conditioned mind will never be a free mind. Fighter must always be a stubborn, single purpose: fight, without looking back or sideways. He must get rid of the restrictions of his movements, be they emotional, physical or intellectual. To meditate means to realize how imperturbable our original nature is. Concentration is a form of exclusion; It is a narrowing of the mind ...
Really useful! I do fight choreography for the stage and am always looking to make it seem as real as possible...we study actual martial moves and try to make them safe for actors while not losing the look of reality. This is a great video for that.
Look at the end! A complete samurai does indeed practice not just Ken Jutsu, but Jiu Jitsu as well! It's amazing that they're doing ground fights & grappling in a weapon-centered martial arts.
I would have to agree with the person or persons before who nit-picked the kisaki etc. and the lack of smoothness and fluidity. (overall grace really) That being said he is obviously very good at whatever style of kendo etc this is, but it also shows the glaring differences between styles and probably what was important in kendo/Iaido of his time vs what is important to many today. for instance when he does chiburi he steps back at an angle before performing noto, today most modern schools prefer strait back. second when beginning his suwari waza from seiza he moves all the way up and begins to turn before drawing his sword where most schools today prefer rising, drawing, and turning as one fluid motion. Finally when cutting or swinging of the sword of any kind most modern schools prefer smooth and controlled, his cuts etc stop abruptly and are not as controlled as most modern schools teach. (Though his body mechanics are perfect.) That being said it does say he does Kendo which doesn't practice for smoothness the way Iai does. Also during this time most people probably practiced for actual use and cutting with a sword vs emphasizing looking good over functionality like most Iai schools do today. By today's standards this isn't the showy, graceful, fluid swordsmanship most prefer. However this was probably the strong, forceful, and functional swordsmanship it was meant to be. To compare, look up "seitei iaido", modern "kendo" katas, or either of the "eishin ryu" schools and you'll see the difference. I'm sure some people will be mad and/or disagree, but it's not meant to illicit anger it's just what i see. (I'm sure there are exceptions but i haven't experienced them.)
You have to remember that this man likely started his training in the late 1800s (he looks to be in his 50s or 60s), so he likely received training from retired Edo-period samurai. I'm going to assume that they practiced iaido in a much different form than we do now. EDIT: Well, not *much* different, but different enough. EDIT2: Did some research, Junichi Haga was born in 1908, so he probably didn't learn from samurai, but he was only one generation removed, and may have even met the founder of his school, Negishi Shingorō, though he would only have been 4-5 at the time.
I think most of the appearance of jerkiness is due to the fact that the video isn't playing at the proper speed. It's playing too fast. Differences in detail as to how certain waza are performed aren't a problem, different Ryu (schools) are just different. I don't think it has anything to do with "modern vs. 'real samurai'". These are the same waza that are practiced today.
The first set of kata in MJER is also known as Omori-ryu, and he's very good at it, as well as the Chuden kata that start from taté-hiza. His noto (resheathing) is poetry in motion. The Gekkiken at the end is a cherry on top!! A jewel of a video.
people can stay in a martial art for years and then suddenly realise that its missing a hell of alot that they may need to depend on. this video is an example of the ways things should still be today exellent vid
That blade he is swinging around is razor sharp. One bad move and he could be hurt badly. His moves are absolutely precise. If you know anything about Kendo and weapons based martial arts you will appreciate this.
Many comments question speed, sitting, direction etc...Keep in mind these are kata. Therefore some movements are meant to be slow; 11 out of 12 of the first kata are seated, but then you have many standing kata once you practice other series. These movements in these kata are at times predictable, but that is because the form is meant to be slow and not realistic. We practice Iai, but then we spar with bokken, both are two sides of a coin. In addition: people, this is one of the most famous swordsmen. His notto (sheating) is fabulous, for example.
try using a katana with both hands like in normal kendo for example. one hand near the tsuba, one hand near the end of the handle. you will notice, that you use your arms more than your body. now look at him, he is taking both hands really close to the tsuba, so he can't use only his arms to move the sword. that's more like the samurai used it back then, it's way faster because you need to use your whole body to move your sword. only one of the things to learn here.source of info: Yoshinori Kono
+Matheus Rebelo it is Iaido old style omori ryu and later eishin ryu.i would be very careful about judging level.its living art.and our iaido is probably far from Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Hidenobu origin
peter lukaszyk Oh, yeah, I wouldn't dare judge another martial art too critically. Not unless I felt confident enough with one I favor... and I honestly don't.
and there was some god grappling in the end.Looks like modern BJJ with the guard and the wracking ball pass,good atempts for the sweep from the guy in the guard. Very very cool video.
I believe this footage is running a bit fast, which can happen when converting from old film. Watching at .75 seems more like its closer to the actual speed, but probably a bit on the slow side. iaido isn't a race, masters don't just do everything faster. but if you watch his noto (sheathing), its still seriously fast at when watching at .75 speed.
Many are from either of 2 seated positions, but there are also many standing forms as there are also standing versions of the seated forms. The latter are mainly for westerners who have problems kneeling (this does not seem to affect the Japanese as much as they spend much of their lives kneeling).
if the video quality was better you would be able to see the subtle pull in the blade to give that slicing motion which, the way the katana is designed/forged, will easily cleave into bone and such. Also, there is power to it, just very hard to tell on video and especially hard to tell when you can't hear the sound of the blade cutting the air (it whistles)
Haga Sensei was considered a genius. And if you know something about Iai you would understand how outstanding his waza is in this video. He was also famous for taking on multiple opponents, at one time defeating 5 soldiers armed with shinai and to wooden guns used in jukendo. Our Kendo practice follows pr-war rules. So, body checking, taiatari, and grappling, kumiuchi, are allowed.
In the philippines we use bolo but most practice stick instead of using a bolo. I think the technique in using katana is the same in using a bolo but the short sword technique is use.
Sorry, Katana technique is NOT the same as in using a bolo. Ang layo. Bolo is hack-and-slash and dovetails well with daga y daga, arnis and other two-hand styles. Also goes well with a shield. Samurai ettiquette pretty much required you to have both hands on the katana when fighting and that alone has so many implications to the techniques used.
+Marc Augier we use bolo to gut animals or butcher them by kilos so that they can be eaten with so yumyum. many are also gutted in the belly or face while they nomnom. You do not even know how to use a bolo and you commented that way. I hope someday that you will be gutted in your fingers with a bolo while you put it in a pasta so you will know how terrible a bolo is.
dosdadio siapa so just for a joke about bolo and BOLOgnese sauce, you wish me to cut myself while cooking stuff, that's it? just "to know" (for your fun?)? you're fucked up man. bah, you're just human. even a dog would not wish this for another dog.
keep an eye on where the gun is pointed keep an eye out for any of the twitches or signs that the person is about to pull the trigger and avoid the spot where the gun is aimed, especially if you're a good distance away it'd be easier still, not for someone like me or you but for someone like the guy in the video it's definitely possible.
Actually impressive how he puts back the katana back in the case (sorry i don't know what the specific name of the case is) in high speed without stabbing his hand.
I greatly enjoyed seeing the Jiujitsu practice in Kendo gear. It's sad that the first time I've ever seen the two combined is from a video from 50-60 years ago. It shows that, in the beginning, the martial arts pursued an ultimate form of combat, and didn't restrict the art to a single purpose. I would like more of that.
Limber or not. I'm reacting to the fact that you can pretty much tell which directing his attack is going to come from. Plus his two-handed grasp on the blade shortens his reach relative to a fencer. Finally, in order to generate power for a strike he has to raise his sword which opens him up for attack from the front. Again, I don't know how it would play out between a fencer, but this style seems deficient.
Have a look at the wikipedia entry on Shindo Munen Ryu. Snip... "His successor Nakayama Hakudo continued to preserve Shindo Munen Ryu throughout the Taisho and Showa Periods by producing some of the best swordsmen in modern history. Examples are Nakayama Zenowndo, Hashimoto Toyo, Nagakura Kiyoshi, Haga Junichi, and Nakashima Gorozo." I didn't know the guy personally, but he is a known and respected figure.
You quote that it has to do with the "mind of the wielder." Well there are various ways to cultivate the mind, all of which I would say essentially involve overcoming "fear" and its various facets. While one way to do this is to engage in real life combat, honing precision technique without such engagement can conceivably accomplish a similar path to focus. Musashi was clearly in a position in his life where he could justify his desire to pursue sword combat. And while many of us today
This is beautiful. It is not raw or undeveloped just because it is not seitei. Seitei is an introduction to iaido. It is 'standard' in the sense 'standardised' for the purposes of grading and competition. It is not 'standard' in the sense of a standard to measure other things against.
His perceived speed may be impacted by the weight of the sword. If it is an actual battle-ready weapon, it may be heavier than the shinken that is used by modern practitioners. It is hard to be blindingly fast in real life with a real weapon where accidents can be very dangerous.
Beautiful movement alternating speed and power as 1 fluent effortless movement. Like stretching an pulling a rubber band before it's released......SNAP!!!!
A human can't dodge a moving bullet, but it is possible to move at the right time, timing, where it can appear as if they dodge it, if it was quick enough, and if it was the right timing. A 9MM bullet travels at about 681.8 MPH. If one tries to move when the bullet fires, they are probably not even traveling at quite less (not enough speed + time to build up that speed. The bullet is going to catch them. But, to move out of the way, before the fire, which can appear as a dodge.
What is the alternative? Picking up a sword and flailing wildly with it in the hope that you might hit something? Iai teaches absolute precision, one is taught to be aware of exactly where the point and mune are at any given moment. One is taught how to deliver the most powerful cuts possible with this sword according to its design. Kata? What do you expect? Men training against each other with live blades?
Tell me, how do you train / with what? I am genuinely interested. Any vids?
i wish there were places where bieng a TROLL were just outright not permitted, if this was my channel id delete all these stupid posts, nothing can dodge a bullet, blah blah argue that, , this footage is a gem , thank you for the upload
@BravoCharlieTV well i wonder because normally you'd be sliding the back end of the sword against your hand... guess that a lot can happen in that split second right before being sheathed....
You're missing the obvious fact that this guy is ridiculously limber. I couldn't walk around crouched like that. He has a lot of muscle down in his core and his legs and it means that he's got a very good grasp on his center of gravity. Scary guy.
its beautiful you can see this waltz in 3/4 as we now know thanks to the US/ EU hubble telescope the entire universe is moving in a type of wirldwind in 3/4 like a giant waltz like this man and his sword the universe explained with this video
i used to practice kendo and iaido 30 years ago and was very fond of the japanese culture. today i look back smiling and i am asking myself why it is so important to know how to make minced meat out of my fellow man.
If you did kendo in order to know how to 'make minced meat of your fellow man', you absolutely missed the point of kendo. To train the mind, body and spirit is the objective of kendo, so that people don't do bad things to each other. That is atleast how I see it myself.
Mrakoplasz a nah, i do of course know about the effort that has been made to make kenjiutsu into a Do. But actually i can still smell where it came from: Killing your opponent.You hit men in order to slice the head, Kote, to cut his hand off and so forth. Add what is present in Japanese culture today, Zatoichi, Yojimbo, Lone Wolf etc. Slicing, Killing, Sepuku. That is strange to me today.
Mrakoplasz Your ignorance of what you believe in reminds me of religious fanatics who have never read their own holy books. You are the one who missed the point of kendo. You are obviously ignorant of the horrendous and sadistic atrocities committed by the samurai on the peasants and the unarmed civilians. Wholesale massacres and human trafficking of the civilians were casually carried out by the samurai, not to mention the systemic sexual violence on the female populations in times of war. These are well-documented historical facts. You are just a consumer of the "beautified" and "sanitized" rendition and sugar-coating of the real bushido, which was propagated by the modern Japanese media. The samurai was not about honour. It was about the willingness to engage in extreme violence with an unflinching eye. Such mindset invariably harbours sadism and inherent denial/disregard of any value attached to human life. After all, bushido is, more than anything, about unconditional obedience to your higher-ups, fearlessness in violent confrontations, and revenge, which also happen to be the defining characteristics of any modern organized criminal groups and street gangs, regardless of their cultural or national origins. The samurai culture is just a more refined and codified form of the business of the modern criminal organizations: the exploitation and subjugation of the unarmed and helpless peasants for the purpose of taxation ("protection money"), the competition over which one clan (gang) must engage in warfare with others, which in turn necessitates the obsession over the killing techniques and fearlessness in a turf war. But then again, the above description can apply to any class of fighting men serving the ruling class, ie, knights in Europe, although their behaviours and philosophy behind how they treated the peasants slightly differed from culture to culture. The difference is that the samurai were the ruling class PLUS the fighting men. Therefore, they were the self-serving fighting men, maintaining their own rule over the peasants.
BillboardTopMVlyrics You seem to be very knowledgeable in the historical aspect of "bushido," but you mentioned nothing about kendo itself. Therefore, I will assume that you know nothing about the role of kendo in modern life. Anybody that spends a reasonable amount of time practicing kendo would know how different modern kendo is from the former "killing techniques." You are right about how the artifacts of the past related to bushido and samurais are glorified, but that has nothing to do with modern kendo. Despite its origins, it is no longer about "killing" people, just like fencing. It has become a sport, and with training comes discipline. The "training of the mind, body, and spirit" is just a product of the process.
Take this in the spirit it is intended please, but I am truly interested in our different approaches. Mine is to follow the words of Lee: "Absorb what is uselful, reject what is useless, add what is personally yours". As such I train in different arts in different dojos and take what works for me from each. You're going raw. I'd be really, sincerely interested in comparing. Unsure how to ask this in the correct spirit online... will message you.
You are heavily mistaken about Musashi. If you read his masterpiece, The book of Five rings, he says himself that absolutely nothing can act as a solid substitute for real combat where your life is on the line each time. His inference is that the conditions which consume you in the moment cannot be replicated. Remember, his results and his entire philosophy were built on direct experience where he put everything on the line, he never flirted with the idea of swordsmanship as most of us do.
there are people with enough speed and good enough reaction time and intuition to slice a pellet from an airsoft gun in half and that was travelling at 150 meters per second, without worrying about sub-millimeter precision and just staying out of the way that person could probably dodge bullets quite a bit as long as he keeps his focus.
The reason you can tell which way he is about to strike is because that is deliberately betrayed by the practitioner in order to indicate from where the threat is deemed to have originated. Whatever any of us thinks, these forms were developed by warriors, by samurai, to deal with situations they might find themselves in, so I would have thought there would be practical application Also, many of these kata are executions, or "simple" kills. Samurai vs western fencer? Depends on the people.
He was apparently trained by Munisai in the sword, and in the family art of the jutte. This training did not last for a very long time, as in 1589, Munisai was ordered by Shinmen Sokan to kill Munisai's student, Honiden Gekinosuke. The Honiden family was displeased, and so Munisai was forced to move. He was born in 1584. Math says that five years training and he was five 2 yrs off for age. now three years of training, a year or so off for uncles teachings 1 or 2 years training.
Well my friend, I was simply responding to your initial question about "lack of power", that power is not required when using a katana - the shape of the blade is designed to slice easily. From TBoTFR you should know that this is Musashi's position too: "A slice is merely a touch". Do you train with a katana? IIRC Musashi also speaks about his single defeat at the hands of a woman brandishing a naginata - she was smaller and weaker than he, yet still beat him.
Students don't start with a beautiful, razor sharp blade. That being said, cuts on the thumb from when you unlock the blade from the saya are more common, I hear old masters would often have scars there. I've only cut myself there once, it didn't scar. I'm almost sad.
Much respect to this gentleman for his dedication to mastering this art form.
Is that Electrocompaniet sign?
Wow! This is outstanding.
Probably my favourite Iaido video I've seen on RUclips do far.
Thank you for posting.
One has to remember just how SHARP that sword is when watching him putting it back into the sheath, so effortlessly in flowing moves.
Thanks for uploading this.
Heard iaidoka who train with sharp swords tell me they've all cut themselves at least once
@@eedwardgrey2 check that
thank you for sharing this masterpiece.
It's very moving watching this. Thanks for posting.
Just beautiful. Thanks many times for posting this treasure!
OMG, it's my dad and grandpa's master. Haga sensei! :D
I've heard a lot of his "Eyes-opening" story from my dad.
Thanks for uploading.
Can you tell some of those stories here?
Please... Share?
Haga Junichi san demonstrates clearly something I think even all but a very few Japanese have forgotten, i.e, the complete and total devotion of spirit and the uncluttered mind of a real Samurai. A man dedicated to Budo and to something we all try to attain but seldom do... living life as sharp and as clean as the sword.
This is absolutely amazing - apparently all shoden and Chuden waza of MJER. absoluitely beautiful, great source of inspiration for practice. I am in awe at the mastery ! Thank you so much for posting this video !
the way he sheathes just shows how much practice this guy had
xqcL
you can tell how master a swordman is when how they are fast to bring back to safety the sword. amazing..... he hold the sword for a quiet long time indeed
***** are you a swords man?
Very true
Seriously? People actually think this guy is "slow?" Or has "trouble" handling his sword? Look at his eyes, never once do they fall onto his hands. He never has to look at where his sword is going. Even when sheathing the sword his eyes are always forward. Also he has no wasted movement what so ever. His left wrist turns everything the blade does to meet it perfectly when sheathing it.
Martial arts is based on understanding, hard work and full understanding of techniques. Good techniques are those involving fast changes, wide variety and speed. Body training, mind training, mind training True Knowledge The way to transcend karma is in the correct use of mind and will. The unity of all life is a truth that can only be fully realized when the false notions of a separate person, whose destiny can be considered apart from the whole, are annihilated forever. Emptiness includes everything and has no opposite, that is, there is nothing that it excludes or opposes. Become a wooden puppet: he has no ego, thinks nothing, is not greedy or clinging to anything or anyone. The expression of an artist is the display of his soul, education and composure. Behind all movements, the music of his soul becomes visible. The masters of all branches of the arts must first be masters of life, since the soul creates everything. The biggest mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the fight. Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points. Struggling behavior should not be different from normal behavior, his expression should not change, nothing should denounce the fact that he is engaged in deadly combat. A conditioned mind will never be a free mind. Fighter must always be a stubborn, single purpose: fight, without looking back or sideways. He must get rid of the restrictions of his movements, be they emotional, physical or intellectual. To meditate means to realize how imperturbable our original nature is. Concentration is a form of exclusion; It is a narrowing of the mind ...
Long Nguyen , that is not hard to learn. i mean not to look.
Flawless execution of the techniques without looking is hard.
Those who are saying that have never handled a katana
Especially one as big as the one he is using for his frame.
Really useful! I do fight choreography for the stage and am always looking to make it seem as real as possible...we study actual martial moves and try to make them safe for actors while not losing the look of reality. This is a great video for that.
Thank you for sharing this piece of history of Kendo. I did subscribe .
--a master of his art! HIghest gratitude for this video!
+shooter2055 wtf is this!? is this a rarity, of this old man, drawing and seathing his stick....
jes'....
very informative footage of techniques... thanks for posting!!!
some say that thats how Van Gogh actually lost his ear
because van gogh was shit at kendo?
His skill is deadly, by his movements he's had a lot of real encounters, domo origato
Beautiful. This is what years and years of practice will do. Look at that form
Nice to see these kata in a raw undeveloped state. Thanks for uploading.
beautiful, ty for uploading
Look at the end!
A complete samurai does indeed practice not just Ken Jutsu, but Jiu Jitsu as well!
It's amazing that they're doing ground fights & grappling in a weapon-centered martial arts.
I would have to agree with the person or persons before who nit-picked the kisaki etc. and the lack of smoothness and fluidity. (overall grace really) That being said he is obviously very good at whatever style of kendo etc this is, but it also shows the glaring differences between styles and probably what was important in kendo/Iaido of his time vs what is important to many today.
for instance when he does chiburi he steps back at an angle before performing noto, today most modern schools prefer strait back.
second when beginning his suwari waza from seiza he moves all the way up and begins to turn before drawing his sword where most schools today prefer rising, drawing, and turning as one fluid motion.
Finally when cutting or swinging of the sword of any kind most modern schools prefer smooth and controlled, his cuts etc stop abruptly and are not as controlled as most modern schools teach. (Though his body mechanics are perfect.)
That being said it does say he does Kendo which doesn't practice for smoothness the way Iai does. Also during this time most people probably practiced for actual use and cutting with a sword vs emphasizing looking good over functionality like most Iai schools do today.
By today's standards this isn't the showy, graceful, fluid swordsmanship most prefer. However this was probably the strong, forceful, and functional swordsmanship it was meant to be.
To compare, look up "seitei iaido", modern "kendo" katas, or either of the "eishin ryu" schools and you'll see the difference.
I'm sure some people will be mad and/or disagree, but it's not meant to illicit anger it's just what i see. (I'm sure there are exceptions but i haven't experienced them.)
Thank you for some really interesting information, Much appreciated.
You have to remember that this man likely started his training in the late 1800s (he looks to be in his 50s or 60s), so he likely received training from retired Edo-period samurai. I'm going to assume that they practiced iaido in a much different form than we do now.
EDIT: Well, not *much* different, but different enough.
EDIT2: Did some research, Junichi Haga was born in 1908, so he probably didn't learn from samurai, but he was only one generation removed, and may have even met the founder of his school, Negishi Shingorō, though he would only have been 4-5 at the time.
I agree completely This is probably much closer to true samurai than most of what we see today.
I think most of the appearance of jerkiness is due to the fact that the video isn't playing at the proper speed. It's playing too fast.
Differences in detail as to how certain waza are performed aren't a problem, different Ryu (schools) are just different. I don't think it has anything to do with "modern vs. 'real samurai'". These are the same waza that are practiced today.
The first set of kata in MJER is also known as Omori-ryu, and he's very good at it, as well as the Chuden kata that start from taté-hiza. His noto (resheathing) is poetry in motion.
The Gekkiken at the end is a cherry on top!!
A jewel of a video.
people can stay in a martial art for years and then suddenly realise that its missing a hell of alot that they may need to depend on. this video is an example of the ways things should still be today exellent vid
That blade he is swinging around is razor sharp. One bad move and he could be hurt badly. His moves are absolutely precise. If you know anything about Kendo and weapons based martial arts you will appreciate this.
Many comments question speed, sitting, direction etc...Keep in mind these are kata. Therefore some movements are meant to be slow; 11 out of 12 of the first kata are seated, but then you have many standing kata once you practice other series. These movements in these kata are at times predictable, but that is because the form is meant to be slow and not realistic. We practice Iai, but then we spar with bokken, both are two sides of a coin. In addition: people, this is one of the most famous swordsmen. His notto (sheating) is fabulous, for example.
The way he swings that sword with his right hand over his head just before he re-sheaths, it's a wonder he doesn't slice off half his own head.
Amazing video, and how strange, you uploaded this video on my birthday :)
I hope I'm half as good when I'm that age. Beautiful swordsmanship and display of spirit. It's a lifetime pursuit after all.
try using a katana with both hands like in normal kendo for example. one hand near the tsuba, one hand near the end of the handle. you will notice, that you use your arms more than your body. now look at him, he is taking both hands really close to the tsuba, so he can't use only his arms to move the sword. that's more like the samurai used it back then, it's way faster because you need to use your whole body to move your sword. only one of the things to learn here.source of info: Yoshinori Kono
the actual content of the video's title: Showa Period Kendo is on 6:10 . What happens earlier on the video is Iaido, of average level to be honest.
+Matheus Rebelo That's exactly what I was thinking, "What's this Iaido doing here?"
And this is coming from a fan of German Longsword~ ^^
+Matheus Rebelo it is Iaido old style omori ryu and later eishin ryu.i would be very careful about judging level.its living art.and our iaido is probably far from Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Hidenobu origin
peter lukaszyk Oh, yeah, I wouldn't dare judge another martial art too critically. Not unless I felt confident enough with one I favor... and I honestly don't.
+Matheus Rebelo I would love to see you post a video half the length but of the same quality swordsmanship.
+Matheus Rebelo Kendo and Iaido used to be Kenjutsu.
something most commentators here seem to miss is that those old 16mm cinatomatic footages run faster than normal speed
People easily forget he is holding essentially a razor blade that would easily slice through the body without you feeling it
and there was some god grappling in the end.Looks like modern BJJ with the guard and the wracking ball pass,good atempts for the sweep from the guy in the guard. Very very cool video.
+Srdjan Milosavljevic Yeah I was about to say! That looks like guard!
Its like vale tudo quard..more open then classic BJJ
it's a good speed technical.
-Noto
'Nuki tsuke and ........👍👌👈
I believe this footage is running a bit fast, which can happen when converting from old film. Watching at .75 seems more like its closer to the actual speed, but probably a bit on the slow side. iaido isn't a race, masters don't just do everything faster. but if you watch his noto (sheathing), its still seriously fast at when watching at .75 speed.
very nice battojutsu
Many are from either of 2 seated positions, but there are also many standing forms as there are also standing versions of the seated forms. The latter are mainly for westerners who have problems kneeling (this does not seem to affect the Japanese as much as they spend much of their lives kneeling).
if the video quality was better you would be able to see the subtle pull in the blade to give that slicing motion which, the way the katana is designed/forged, will easily cleave into bone and such. Also, there is power to it, just very hard to tell on video and especially hard to tell when you can't hear the sound of the blade cutting the air (it whistles)
Those sideways re-sheathes are incredible
This is wonderful. You can see this is not some BS swordsman. I see some Iaido katas. Thank you for this.
Up until 6:07, it's ALL Iaido "katas". (Waza is the more correct term than kata).
This is control and art of fighting beyond words !!
All I have to say is amazing
伝説の剣道家羽賀先生の動画があるなんて。めちゃくちゃ強かったと聞く。
何とかに刃物、羽賀に竹刀。溺れる犬を棒で打つ。羽賀先生との立ち合いは誰もが敬遠した様です。
Haga Sensei was considered a genius. And if you know something about Iai you would understand how outstanding his waza is in this video. He was also famous for taking on multiple opponents, at one time defeating 5 soldiers armed with shinai and to wooden guns used in jukendo. Our Kendo practice follows pr-war rules. So, body checking, taiatari, and grappling, kumiuchi, are allowed.
In the philippines we use bolo but most practice stick instead of using a bolo. I think the technique in using katana is the same in using a bolo but the short sword technique is use.
Sorry, Katana technique is NOT the same as in using a bolo. Ang layo. Bolo is hack-and-slash and dovetails well with daga y daga, arnis and other two-hand styles. Also goes well with a shield. Samurai ettiquette pretty much required you to have both hands on the katana when fighting and that alone has so many implications to the techniques used.
Me Owthorr If you mean the wakizashi, yeah, maybe you could be right. But not really
dosdadio siapa i use bolo too, but i put it on my spaghettis pastas, with parmesan powder on it. so yumyum everyone wants to nomnom!!
+Marc Augier we use bolo to gut animals or butcher them by kilos so that they can be eaten with so yumyum. many are also gutted in the belly or face while they nomnom. You do not even know how to use a bolo and you commented that way. I hope someday that you will be gutted in your fingers with a bolo while you put it in a pasta so you will know how terrible a bolo is.
dosdadio siapa so just for a joke about bolo and BOLOgnese sauce, you wish me to cut myself while cooking stuff, that's it? just "to know" (for your fun?)? you're fucked up man. bah, you're just human. even a dog would not wish this for another dog.
The grappling/mma at the end is very interesting g
keep an eye on where the gun is pointed keep an eye out for any of the twitches or signs that the person is about to pull the trigger and avoid the spot where the gun is aimed, especially if you're a good distance away it'd be easier still, not for someone like me or you but for someone like the guy in the video it's definitely possible.
This is Perfect 💯
Actually impressive how he puts back the katana back in the case (sorry i don't know what the specific name of the case is) in high speed without stabbing his hand.
+Ivan Visita (Rukiokai) his chiburi(blood shake) and noto are impresive. well hes only doing 40 years 500 cuts a day probably
Nice demonstration!
I greatly enjoyed seeing the Jiujitsu practice in Kendo gear. It's sad that the first time I've ever seen the two combined is from a video from 50-60 years ago. It shows that, in the beginning, the martial arts pursued an ultimate form of combat, and didn't restrict the art to a single purpose. I would like more of that.
Limber or not. I'm reacting to the fact that you can pretty much tell which directing his attack is going to come from. Plus his two-handed grasp on the blade shortens his reach relative to a fencer. Finally, in order to generate power for a strike he has to raise his sword which opens him up for attack from the front. Again, I don't know how it would play out between a fencer, but this style seems deficient.
wow, he sheathed that sword faster than the human eye. Remarkable.
Perfect mastery of Mae, 1st Iaido kata. I would love to be that good.
Have a look at the wikipedia entry on Shindo Munen Ryu.
Snip...
"His successor Nakayama Hakudo continued to preserve Shindo Munen Ryu throughout the Taisho and Showa Periods by producing some of the best swordsmen in modern history. Examples are Nakayama Zenowndo, Hashimoto Toyo, Nagakura Kiyoshi, Haga Junichi, and Nakashima Gorozo."
I didn't know the guy personally, but he is a known and respected figure.
You quote that it has to do with the "mind of the wielder." Well there are various ways to cultivate the mind, all of which I would say essentially involve overcoming "fear" and its various facets. While one way to do this is to engage in real life combat, honing precision technique without such engagement can conceivably accomplish a similar path to focus. Musashi was clearly in a position in his life where he could justify his desire to pursue sword combat. And while many of us today
This is beautiful. It is not raw or undeveloped just because it is not seitei.
Seitei is an introduction to iaido. It is 'standard' in the sense 'standardised' for the purposes of grading and competition. It is not 'standard' in the sense of a standard to measure other things against.
So.. how will I spend the last 5% of my battery life in a place where no electricity?
This.
His perceived speed may be impacted by the weight of the sword. If it is an actual battle-ready weapon, it may be heavier than the shinken that is used by modern practitioners. It is hard to be blindingly fast in real life with a real weapon where accidents can be very dangerous.
OoOoOoOoOoOo "Abruptly" "Unscathed" Literary badass right there
Beautiful movement alternating speed and power as 1 fluent effortless movement. Like stretching an pulling a rubber band before it's released......SNAP!!!!
Respect for the grande master🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Grappling at the end pretty kool
A human can't dodge a moving bullet, but it is possible to move at the right time, timing, where it can appear as if they dodge it, if it was quick enough, and if it was the right timing.
A 9MM bullet travels at about 681.8 MPH. If one tries to move when the bullet fires, they are probably not even traveling at quite less (not enough speed + time to build up that speed. The bullet is going to catch them. But, to move out of the way, before the fire, which can appear as a dodge.
What is the alternative? Picking up a sword and flailing wildly with it in the hope that you might hit something?
Iai teaches absolute precision, one is taught to be aware of exactly where the point and mune are at any given moment. One is taught how to deliver the most powerful cuts possible with this sword according to its design.
Kata? What do you expect? Men training against each other with live blades?
Tell me, how do you train / with what? I am genuinely interested. Any vids?
loving the blood removal moves before re-sheathing...
This is an art many will never understand.
Holy crap, this man's noto is amazing!
Holy crap this guy is awesome
You don't want to be at the end of that sword.
Yes i do, i would love to feel his ito
Easy to tell who was the more confident swordsman of the two.
i wish there were places where bieng a TROLL were just outright not permitted, if this was my channel id delete all these stupid posts, nothing can dodge a bullet, blah blah argue that, , this footage is a gem , thank you for the upload
@BravoCharlieTV well i wonder because normally you'd be sliding the back end of the sword against your hand... guess that a lot can happen in that split second right before being sheathed....
he needs a showa
You're missing the obvious fact that this guy is ridiculously limber. I couldn't walk around crouched like that. He has a lot of muscle down in his core and his legs and it means that he's got a very good grasp on his center of gravity. Scary guy.
its beautiful you can see this waltz in 3/4 as we now know thanks to the US/ EU hubble telescope the entire universe is moving in a type of wirldwind in 3/4 like a giant waltz like this man and his sword the universe explained with this video
すごい と とても おもしろい ですね
Sensei Haga demonstrating koryu iai.
Nice :)
i used to practice kendo and iaido 30 years ago and was very fond of the japanese culture. today i look back smiling and i am asking myself why it is so important to know how to make minced meat out of my fellow man.
If you did kendo in order to know how to 'make minced meat of your fellow man', you absolutely missed the point of kendo. To train the mind, body and spirit is the objective of kendo, so that people don't do bad things to each other. That is atleast how I see it myself.
Mrakoplasz a nah, i do of course know about the effort that has been made to make kenjiutsu into a Do. But actually i can still smell where it came from: Killing your opponent.You hit men in order to slice the head, Kote, to cut his hand off and so forth. Add what is present in Japanese culture today, Zatoichi, Yojimbo, Lone Wolf etc. Slicing, Killing, Sepuku. That is strange to me today.
Mrakoplasz Your ignorance of what you believe in reminds me of religious fanatics who have never read their own holy books. You are the one who missed the point of kendo.
You are obviously ignorant of the horrendous and sadistic atrocities committed by the samurai on the peasants and the unarmed civilians. Wholesale massacres and human trafficking of the civilians were casually carried out by the samurai, not to mention the systemic sexual violence on the female populations in times of war. These are well-documented historical facts.
You are just a consumer of the "beautified" and "sanitized" rendition and sugar-coating of the real bushido, which was propagated by the modern Japanese media. The samurai was not about honour. It was about the willingness to engage in extreme violence with an unflinching eye. Such mindset invariably harbours sadism and inherent denial/disregard of any value attached to human life.
After all, bushido is, more than anything, about unconditional obedience to your higher-ups, fearlessness in violent confrontations, and revenge, which also happen to be the defining characteristics of any modern organized criminal groups and street gangs, regardless of their cultural or national origins.
The samurai culture is just a more refined and codified form of the business of the modern criminal organizations: the exploitation and subjugation of the unarmed and helpless peasants for the purpose of taxation ("protection money"), the competition over which one clan (gang) must engage in warfare with others, which in turn necessitates the obsession over the killing techniques and fearlessness in a turf war.
But then again, the above description can apply to any class of fighting men serving the ruling class, ie, knights in Europe, although their behaviours and philosophy behind how they treated the peasants slightly differed from culture to culture. The difference is that the samurai were the ruling class PLUS the fighting men. Therefore, they were the self-serving fighting men, maintaining their own rule over the peasants.
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You seem to be very knowledgeable in the historical aspect of "bushido," but you mentioned nothing about kendo itself. Therefore, I will assume that you know nothing about the role of kendo in modern life. Anybody that spends a reasonable amount of time practicing kendo would know how different modern kendo is from the former "killing techniques." You are right about how the artifacts of the past related to bushido and samurais are glorified, but that has nothing to do with modern kendo. Despite its origins, it is no longer about "killing" people, just like fencing. It has become a sport, and with training comes discipline. The "training of the mind, body, and spirit" is just a product of the process.
hofmanntho - Ditto. I did EXACTLY the same thing and after 24 yrs training, reached the same conclusions as yourself. I'd thought I was alone in this.
Take this in the spirit it is intended please, but I am truly interested in our different approaches. Mine is to follow the words of Lee: "Absorb what is uselful, reject what is useless, add what is personally yours". As such I train in different arts in different dojos and take what works for me from each.
You're going raw. I'd be really, sincerely interested in comparing. Unsure how to ask this in the correct spirit online... will message you.
Does anyone have a video of the match between Haga Junichi and Morihei Ueshiba?
You are heavily mistaken about Musashi. If you read his masterpiece, The book of Five rings, he says himself that absolutely nothing can act as a solid substitute for real combat where your life is on the line each time. His inference is that the conditions which consume you in the moment cannot be replicated. Remember, his results and his entire philosophy were built on direct experience where he put everything on the line, he never flirted with the idea of swordsmanship as most of us do.
there are people with enough speed and good enough reaction time and intuition to slice a pellet from an airsoft gun in half and that was travelling at 150 meters per second, without worrying about sub-millimeter precision and just staying out of the way that person could probably dodge bullets quite a bit as long as he keeps his focus.
"Я не боюсь того, кто изучает 10 000 различных ударов. Я боюсь того, кто изучает один удар 10 000 раз" - Брюс Ли.
1:25- one of the best Ryuto I've ever seen.
It looks as if his motions are robotic yet flowing at the same time.... o,o thats creepy and cool all at the same time
@genin69 swords do seem to move around a bit, but I wouldn't be so sure these are not shinken. Consider who they are.
the best draw and cut exercise seen
The reason you can tell which way he is about to strike is because that is deliberately betrayed by the practitioner in order to indicate from where the threat is deemed to have originated.
Whatever any of us thinks, these forms were developed by warriors, by samurai, to deal with situations they might find themselves in, so I would have thought there would be practical application Also, many of these kata are executions, or "simple" kills.
Samurai vs western fencer? Depends on the people.
He was apparently trained by Munisai in the sword, and in the family art of the jutte. This training did not last for a very long time, as in 1589, Munisai was ordered by Shinmen Sokan to kill Munisai's student, Honiden Gekinosuke. The Honiden family was displeased, and so Munisai was forced to move. He was born in 1584. Math says that five years training and he was five 2 yrs off for age. now three years of training, a year or so off for uncles teachings 1 or 2 years training.
Truly a master
That takes a lifetime.
great stance accurate and perfect no wander he is a master...
wow,pretty wild speculation. and i suspect pretty much possible.
What would suck is trying to fight one of these guys with a medieval long sword
Well my friend, I was simply responding to your initial question about "lack of power", that power is not required when using a katana - the shape of the blade is designed to slice easily. From TBoTFR you should know that this is Musashi's position too: "A slice is merely a touch".
Do you train with a katana?
IIRC Musashi also speaks about his single defeat at the hands of a woman brandishing a naginata - she was smaller and weaker than he, yet still beat him.
The way he swings his sword close to his head, how many samurai, or students, accidentally cut themselves, I wonder.
Students don't start with a beautiful, razor sharp blade. That being said, cuts on the thumb from when you unlock the blade from the saya are more common, I hear old masters would often have scars there. I've only cut myself there once, it didn't scar. I'm almost sad.