The Spirit of the Sword: Iaido, Kendo, and Test Cutting with the Japanese Sword

This book is great and very explanatory of its content. Moreover it contains images of each move included in slow motion photography.I highly recommend it to everyone who would like to self train for the Japanese sword.PS: start with wooden training swords or you WILL hurt yourself. :)

the author spends a great deal of time describing the different characteristics of many different blades, highlighting which will be useful depending on your size, strength, experience and usage.ie) a mid-range iaito might be good to start iaido/kata with, but as your technique improves and higher quality blade will be better for you, maybe even moving onto shinken (not recommended for anyone below 3rd dan, despite what some instructors push)the author also is keen to see a unification of the different sword styles, as they are all part of the same.if all you do is kendo, then your sporting ability on the techniques you are allowed to use (based on the current rules) will be good, but your overall sword technique will be bad.equally, if all you do is iaido kata, you will never be able to prove your cuts are noteworthy. they may sound good in thin-air, but without putting it into practice with regular tamashigiri, then you will never get the instant feedback of a good or bad cut.this book is a very interesting read that throws away the politics of different associations and gets to the heart of the matter - - that by buying/reading this book, YOU are interested in learning about the sword, and not the petty restrictions made by shallow minded people. the author is very critical of bad technique he has witnessed over the years, despite the world level competition due to the petty politics and bad teaching.

The Japanese sword fascinates many. A lot of people also take the further step of finding a school to study it in. The real thing however is hard to find, even in Japan, where so much is clouded in tradition and lack of realism. Nakamura Sensei is the probably the last of the real swordsmen, who taught a martial art and not a sport or dance. Anyone who trains in a sword art MUST read this book for proper insight into Japanese swordsmanship.The book itself does not aim to teach, but provides insight based on actual combat experience. The fact that the author shares a lot of his personal experiences, offers more instruction than gold can buy. I only hope a Hardcover edition will be released at some point. A leather-bound edition should be in a every swordsman's library!

I enjoyed this book for the most part and although much of it is devoted to the authors style of swordsmanship which I do not practise, it was mildly interesting for someone like me, from another school, to see. A central and eventually tiresome thread that runs through the whole book is the authors opinion that the art of the sword isn't as good as it was in 'his time'. The swords people choose to use aren't as good as they used to be. The kata of modern Iai aren't as good as they used to be and swords-people don't practise cutting targets as they should do....and on it goes. I suppose you can understand this from an elderly author and the elderly in general, where things were often perceived as being rosier in the past, but it does get wearisome after a while. The anecdotes are interesting on the whole though but this isn't the fantastic book I was hoping it would be, indeed I put off reading it until I had some time to devote to it. Perhaps its my own hype that slightly tarnished it for me. The translation is very readable although I can't attest to its fidelity to the original since I am not a fluent Japanese reader.

I am not classically trained as there are no swordsmanship teachers in my area, and I acknowledge that am pretty untalented when it comes to the sword, but with that being said this book gave me some insights in to the art of the sword and helped me progress in terms of technique, though considering my previous level of swordsmanship this isn't saying much, but to a beginner this should definitely be useful

An excellent book on iaido, tameshigiri, various techniques, history of Japanese sword fighthing, and much more.

Excellent book, highly recommended!

I have been practising Iaido in the UK for 26 years and I also refit swords, I could have saved hours of my life experimenting in both fields had I found this book years ago.David Collins