Martial Arts: Whangarei Iaido Club on the rise

First Dan Ellis Reader is helping bring Iaido to Whangarei. PHOTO/JOHN STONE<

A club specialising in swords has come to Whangarei and is looking for prospective members who want to sharpen their skills.

Whangarei Iaido Club has come to the city.

Iaido is one of the traditional Japanese Budo forms concerned with drawing the sword and cutting in the same motion.

Born out of Iai-jutsu, the classical sword-drawing art practised for combative purposes, Iaido evolved during the peaceful Edo period of Japanese history.

Today Iaido is found worldwide and has found its way to Whangarei after three students of the martial art decided they'd rather study it here than go to Auckland, as they had done for the past three or four years.

First Dan Ellis Reader said there is an event next weekend for anyone that is interested.

"A workshop is being held at the Sport Northland Complex next Saturday at 10am to help introduce the martial art to Whangarei," he said.

"The workshop is being run by an Auckland instructor of Iaido, Stuart Fairweather, who has recently returned from Tokyo, where he gained his Godan."

"A Godan is the fifth Dan black belt in Iaido."

Training is non-adversarial, consisting principally of learning and experiencing the performance of kata, which are pre-arranged patterns of movements and technique.

Considerable attention is given to etiquette, posture, breathing and technical precision.