The Wado Sword Defences 

Danny Corr, Zanshin Karate

Although our intentions are always honourable, it would be foolish of us to try and study every aspect of our art, unless that is we are dedicating our lives and livelihood to it. After many years training myself and the Zanshin seniors have agreed that we all fell foul two two things - instructors who did not truly study their art or if they did they didn't pass it on to their students and  our own apathy when it came to the study of Wado. However in Zanshin we are at least attempting to research and share the knowldge where possible.

We believe Ohtsuka's Wado did develop a set of sword defences which are very rarely seen at least not on these shores. Because of this we are attempting to rediscover and define exactly what these sword routines are all about, not just from the movement perspective but from a practical and spirtual level.

Where did the Sword Defences come from? 

I do not believe the techniques are within Wado for any practical, street scenario, it is highly unlikely we are ever to meet an expert swordsman on the street and if we do he is highly unlikely to strike at us with nice clean movements, if anyone has met one on a Friday night after chucking out I'd be glad to hear of it!  But I do believe there are very good reasons why we practice sword defences and I hope to outline a few in this short article.

It is without doubt that the Bushi (warriors) treated the sword with amazing reverence and respect, this was the symbol of their power and prowess, perhaps Ohtsuka wished to draw a comparison between his Wado and the strength and spirituality of the Sword, hence he kept it in his art.

Around AD 700 a swordsmith named Amakuni produced a new type of sword with a curved, single-edged blade, this became the preferred weapon of the samurai and gave rise to the warrior school of Kenjutsu. Kenjutsu based their skill in fighting on Ma-ai (distance) and suki (opportunity), however the predominant aspect of these bushi was to develop Zanshin to a high standard, physical and mental domination of an opponent was their goal - of course these guys were not in it for the art they were training to kill or be killed. Kenjutsu also focused on confidence, self-reliance and resourcefulness, something every true karate-ka should aim for. Something like 5000 ryus developed the skill of kenjutsu, however the first known school was Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, founded around the 1st century by Choiisui Izasu Ienao. Another style soon developed known as Iaijutsu. The main difference between this and Kenjutsu was that most of Iaijutsu technique was based on defending from a resting position where the sword is drawn and used immediately to fight of an aggressor. Comparisons between this and Wado karate are easily made.

Iaijutsu has 4 main sword movements the draw (Nukitsuke), the cutting (Kiritsuke) the Chibari - the cleaning or wiping of the blood, not for the squeemish! and the (Noto) putting the blade back.

For our purposes the most impressive aspect of this style was that practitioners always trained with "live" blades to develop their mental awareness. Although it would be foolish for the normal Karate classes to be held in this way, in Zanshin we have developed a system whereby those experienced enough train at "full-tilt" to ensure the technques we advocate are real and effective and to put presssure on the individual to perform when the adrenaline is pumping, something a live sword scenario would take care of!!  Ohtsuka may have have realised the purpose of training this way and once again saw the benefit of putting it into his art.

Although to my knowledge very few if any wado practitioners in this country train with the sword, in Zanshin we will endeavour to reignite the interest in the set Wado blade techniques 

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