Iaido Demonstration

Each year, the Tokyo branch of Yasaka Jinja from Kyoto, located in Hino-Machi, organizes a little matsuri where some of Tokyo’s most famous Iaido schools offer a very rare chance for local people to enjoy the beauty of this martial art.

Among these famous schools, one, the Toudou-Renmei School, dominated the whole matsuri with impressive swordsmanship, with students and masters offering us the power Aido. Unlike other Japanese martial arts, the black belt does not necessarily represent the highest level of experience of the swordsman. In fact, the modern samurai wearing the red belt is actually the most experienced of them all.