The Iaido Journal  May 2008
Our Sponsor
Our Sponsor, SDKsupplies, click here
SDKsupplies

Eight Months In - Reflections on Swordsmanship

copyright © 2008 David Duncan, all rights reserved
I remember the first time that I showed off my Iaido katas to my family. This was back in September, and I was riding high off my first Iaido lesson. As I finished what I felt was a particularly bad-ass chiburi, sliding my imaginary bokken into my imaginary sai, my sister piped up with what should have been an obvious question: “When on Earth are you ever going to use that?” I mumbled a hodgepodge reply. Something about building self-discipline or using a pool cue as an ad-hoc jo in a bar fight. But nothing truly convincing.

It’s been about eight months since I started Iaido. I’ve managed to fix some of my beginner mistakes only to discover that imperfections are like cockroaches: you kill one and three come to the funeral. But for all the amazing skills and people I’ve met in such a short time, I don’t think I’m any closer to having an answer to my sister’s question. I’m a realist. The odds of me being attacked by a swordsman while sitting seiza with my katana in hand are about the same as me being attacked by a monkey with an AK-47 (the key difference being that I am not aware of any martial art designed to protect you from the latter).

So why do I keep showing up every Saturday to Iaido practice? I’ll admit that there are weeks when I really don’t see where any of this is going. Days when I’m staring at the piles of assignments to do and exams to study for and thinking “I just don’t have any time to waste today”. Then, when I’m getting ready to down a red bull and dig in for the library long haul, it hits me like a slap across the face:

“I am learning to fight with a samurai sword”

And it’s the sheer awesomeness of that fact that gets me going again. Yes, Iaido teaches me self-discipline and yes, I do feel a connection with a vast body of tradition. But what it all boils down to, for me, is the fact that I am living out the fantasy of every ten year old that has ever seen a martial arts movie.

That’s not to say I don’t take it seriously, far from it. It’s because I enjoy Iaido so much that I feel compelled to get better at it. There’s that rush, that surging sense of accomplishment that happens when you finally get the steps of a kata down or you fix a long troubling imperfection. That’s as much a part of the fun of Iaido as is the cool “woosh” noise your sword makes.

My sister’s comment was not the last remark I heard about the so-called “uselessness” of swordsmanship. We’ve all seen “Raiders of the Lost Ark”; gun vs. sword is a very short fight. But people like that are missing the point, and not just about Iaido. There’s a deeper problem in our culture, one that’s rooted around our obsession with efficiency. Everything from music programs to simple acts of goofing off are being deprecated because of the perceived time that they waste. What these people fail to grasp is that there is a difference between wasting time and spending it. All art is, to one degree or another, an act of payment. We give up time in order to create something new. Whether or not this thing is useful to anyone else is irrelevant, the point is that you have chosen to create something with your life that is uniquely your own.

That’s what keeps me going, in the end. I’m not in it for the money, the fame, or the women. I’m not even sure how one would get those with Iaido (although if anyone’s figured it out, particularly the last one, feel free to enlighten me). Swordsmanship is an art form. Like any other group of artists, we all have our own justifications for being drawn towards it. If my sister were to ask me again why I practice Iaido, I wouldn’t say because it builds self-discipline (there are hundreds of things that do that) or because it strengthens the legs (again, many alternatives). I’d be honest with her and simply say: “because it’s fun for me”. I don’t think I really need any reason beyond that.

David Duncan is a 2008 recipient of the Haruna Bursary to the Guelph Spring iai and jo seminar. He is a student at Lakehead University and has been practiciing with Rai Un Kai since September.


Our Sponsor
Our Sponsor, SDKsupplies, click here
SDKsupplies

TIN May 2008