Edinburgh Genbukan

CONTACT DETAILS

david@duarthouse.co.uk
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information DESCRIPTION

Edinburgh Genbukan is a non-profit making organisation, all monies are reinvested in the club and all teachers are volunteers.

Edinburgh Genbukan is a Japanese sword school practicing Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and ZNKR Seitei with a 500 year history!

We have strong links with other dojo in the UK and Europe.

The roots of Edinburgh Genbukan date back to 2000, when the club was publicly known as The Edinburgh Iaido Club. In 2005 the club became officially known as Edinburgh Genbukan, the first branch dojo of Kobe Genbukan, after permission was given to Honisz-Greens Sensei to publicly use the name. This is in recognition of the strong connection the club has with its roots in Japan and to Oshita Sensei. With Honisz-Greens Sensei's extended absence in Japan, the club has gone from strength to strength under the stewardship of David McLean Sensei.

What is Iaido?

Iaido is the Japanese art of drawing the sword. At its most basic level it involves performing predetermined forms, or kata, to replicate a specific situation and the correct way to effect a defensive or attacking technique. At the beginning of each kata the sword is resting in the scabbard, or saya, and during the kata the sword is drawn and utilised in a variety of cuts (nukitsuke and kirioroshi), strikes (ate), blocks and parries (ukenagashi) and stabbing motions (tsuki). The blood is then removed from the blade using a motion called chiburi. Finally the sword is returned into the saya through performing noto. These few actions with the sword, combined with movements of the body are all that makes up all the different sets of kata within Iaido. During the 1960s, under the auspices of the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei (ZNKR – the Japanese Kendo Association) it was decided to formulate a new set of basic forms that all ZNKR members of Iaido, regardless of which Ryu-ha (school) they attended, could learn and subsequently grade and compete against each other following a centralised syllabus and structure. In the UK clubs which are aligned with the British Kendo Association will practice this set of kata, now numbering 12 forms, which is known as Seitei Gata, to which there is more than enough to keep any one person busy for a lifetime.

So these few different sword positions, combined with kneeling (seiza), sitting (tatahiza, iaihiza or suwari), standing (tachi), turning and movement are translated into 12 seitei kata, 44 koryu (old style) kata, plus two-man kata (tachi uchi no kurai) and innumerable kae waza (variations on the koryu kata). This creates the possibility for an almost infinite variety within these movements, with the aim of providing the elements of good technique to the aspiring swordsman.

Currently recruiting new members.

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