Shinto Ryu Kenjutsu

There is a seperate syllabus for the sword in Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo.

It is called Shinto Ryu Kenjutsu. This is the original style that the jo came from. We practice this on a separate night so that we can have a total focus on the sword work. There are 12 kata to learn as well as some other kihon exercises.

I like spending a whole night on this, I find it really helps when we go back to the jo kata. I've been shown all 12 kata now, so it's now up to me to keep working on the movements and eventually, raise the intensity and make it more real. Once we get better at the kata we will probably move onto real battle applications.

Lately on the kenjutsu night, towards the end of class, Sensei has started showing us some tanjo techniques. The tanjo is about the size of a walking stick and has its own kata set to learn. At the moment it's the seniors that are using the tanjo and I take the bokken.

There's so much to this system. I'm anxious to learn.