Please explain Iaido, and how the competitions run?
Wow! That’s a big opening question! Iaido (pronounced ‘ee-eye-doh’ …so it’s kind of Old MacDonald’s Farm meets Homer Simpson) means literally ‘the way of meeting life’. The basic image the Kana or Japanese script is trying to convey is that of something in life (specifically, a samurai or shinobi enemy) coming at you like an express train. What will you do to survive? How will you think, feel and move in the face of great danger? Finding, then learning to live the answers to these questions forms the path of Iaido, also sometimes translated as The Way of the Sword. It is the art of duelling as practiced by Edo-period noblemen, but is also an art form, a kind of meditating, and a school of life for developing strong and good character. So the ideal samurai is gentle and almost impossible to provoke, yet exceedingly formidable when forced to fight. He bears the burden of a chivalric code; politeness, discipline, loyalty, cheerful indifference in the face of death, a heart that burns for
