Iaido martial arts
![iaido martial arts iaido martial arts](https://www.oist.jp/sites/default/files/photos/OIST-charlie-murray-68.jpg)
The Ikkyu written exam asked me to label the parts of the sword and explain some techniques. There’s also the likelihood that there isn’t enough higher ranks to vote on awarding a 9th Dan.Īll this to say that I recently went to my first Iaido grading. Allowing no one to go beyond 8th Dan is partially about respecting the history and lineage of the art and partially about realizing that today the highest levels are all about the same in skill as each other. Times have changed considerably as we don’t have swordsman as a profession, so the idea with the elimination by Kendo is partly because it’s inconceivable to think that someone studying the art today could ever get to the level of proficiency that was seen in ancient times. In the time of the samurai, 9th and 10th Dan were voted on by a committee. Given that Iaido is part of the same organization (at least in Canada) and there is no information about wait times between ranking, Iaido has either done the same thing or votes on those ranks.
![iaido martial arts iaido martial arts](https://www.swordsofnorthshire.com/image/data/000h/HB733_overlord_spear_sword_3.jpg)
Every other level has a minimum waiting period as follows:įrom what I’ve read on various forums, Kendo has eliminated the 9th and 10th Dan rankings. Between No Kyu and Ikkyu is up to the descretion of the sensei. There are waiting periods between each rank. I believe this is because we swing swords around and even someone who hasn’t done the art extremely long can kill someone with a sword, thereby making them more dangerous than the average inexperienced martial artist. So in essence we go from white belt to brown belt and skip the ranks that are in between in other arts. If needed, seniority can go as granular as the day you first came to the dojo to train. If you don’t know, you err on the side of them being higher than you. How do we do ranking in the dojo? You just know who’s ranked higher than you are and line up appropriately. We don’t have a belt system our belts are simply to keep our hakama up and our katana in the right place. Iaido has a different grading system than other arts.