Katana Training

Katana Training

Training with a katana is a  centuries old tradition and do you want to start with samurai training? Or perhaps you have been training with a sword for some time and are wondering where this sport or Japanese Sword Martial Art actually comes from? You can now learn everything about this sword tradition and how it works today with samurai sword training.

There are many writings that lead historians to assume that a Japanese army with conscription existed as early as the 6th century AD. Later this was about an army consisting of samurai, which partly had a voluntary character. The Samurai is therefore an age-old tradition in Japan. The original samurai were elite warriors who joined and swore allegiance to a feudal lord. The samurai continued to rope until death to their lord and his family. Approximately from the Edo period onwards, warriors were called samurai, before that they were known as saburai.

In Japan they often call the samurai buke or bushi. During the Meije period, the samurai class was abolished and the military importance of the samurai warriors decreased. In modern culture in Japan, the samurai tradition is still very important and has a major influence on many martial arts.

Samurai Sword training

Training to become a samurai took many years and this started at an early age. Many samurai came from the same families and passed from generation to generation. The heavy training was often given by the father and was more or less completed around the age of 20. Training did not end there, you always had to be ready for battle and so a samurai continued to learn and train all his life.

A samurai had many types of weapons, including a katana, wakizahi and tanto. These weapons were for close combat, but a bow was certainly also part of the equipment. The long and short swords all had their own function and were among the most functional weapons of the samurai. The most famous weapon is perhaps the Katana sword. The trained samurai were only allowed to use this katana sword and the traders and farmers usually had a short sword or wakizashi at their disposal. All these different weapons were used in battle and they were practiced a lot in samurai training. An important part of katana training is maintenance or sword care.

To make katana training safer and to prevent injuries, wooden practice swords or a bokken were often used. This can also be good for you in some films such as the Last Samurai. The training was individual or in a duel. In addition to training with the katana, Japanese martial arts without weapons were also often taught.

Modern Samurai Training

Today you can still practice the classic samurai sword training. The styles have of course evolved and adapted with the content still coming from old Japan and its samurai era. The Japanese sword fighting techniques that you can learn in Europe are often iaido, Mugai Ryu, Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, Shinkendo and Kendo.

Some styles and schools were even founded by former samurai warriors. In the Netherlands there are also many Dojo that teach these styles. Here you usually first train for quite some time with a bokken or wooden practice sword. Then often with an Iaito and perhaps afterwards with a real katana. To transport the Katana safely you need a sword bag.