| Iaido lies at the heart of the samurai warrior. It's | | | | against surprise attacks from opposing samurai |
| the way of the samurai sword and a practice | | | | warriors. If a samurai acted slowly, this meant |
| designed many years ago for samurai warriors to | | | | death, so the samurai needed to hone his skills to |
| hone their skills. Iaido has been passed down as | | | | perfect the sensing of an attack, unsheathing his |
| an art from master to student over many | | | | samurai sword and finishing his attacker quickly, all |
| decades, and its practitioners use real samurai | | | | in one motion. Sometimes this is called the art of |
| katanas which are extremely sharp. A | | | | drawing the sword, because the techniques start |
| Practitioners aim is to reduce the samurai sword | | | | and end with the sword sheathed. Simply learning |
| movements to the most effective forms which | | | | to unsheathe the sword right takes months. |
| to a samurai warrior meant the technique that | | | | In western society there are many clubs available |
| took out his enemy quickest. In today's practice | | | | to learn and practice Iaido, be sure to check your |
| there is no enemy so to show their highly honed | | | | local area and directories. Practice samurai swords |
| skills they slash through tatami, representing the | | | | are also readily available from many stores, |
| enemy of the past. | | | | though they can command a high price. |
| Iaido sprung from the increasing need to defend | | | | |