Further Reading
Comprehensive training in the sword has always involved developing both mind and body. These articles by members and friends of Zentokan Dojo offer a glimpse of our approach.
Reflections on a Naginata Seminar
The common theme of optimizing body structure and accommodating the body's natural range of motion in battodo and naginata is pretty striking. It now seems to me that my previous training in the martial arts and in martial art-adjacent sports was based on conflict with the body, either focusing on the body's capacity for (directed) brute force or imposing sets of movements on it with little attention paid to underlying structure.
The Brush, the Sword, and the Principles of Eight
In his book, The Spirit and the Sword, the sword master Nakamura Taizaburo relates an epiphany he experienced while teaching in Northern China during the Great Pacific War. In his epiphany Nakamura sensei correlated sword study with the Eiji Happo of Japanese calligraphy (Shodo).
Locked Doors and Lethal Beauty: An Introduction to the World of Nihonto
The Japanese sword is a miracle. It is a miracle that the manufacture of these weapons was perfected beginning a thousand years ago – without metallurgical science or technology. And it is a miracle that today these blades survive at all, much less that many of them live on in healthy condition. That these majestic weapons have been safeguarded and cared for generation after generation — sometimes for centuries — indicates a level of appreciation beyond mere preservation. Nihonto are sacred objects.