Can you suggest of a good martial art (rest below)?

I do not want it to be completely/only defensive and I would like it to have weapon (sword) use, also preferably Japanesse martial art.. I am planning to start a martial art but I am not sure which one. So, any martial art you are aware of that fits that description?

Hi there

There have been some good answers so far. Cnote and Beatchanter have made some good points.

If you want to learn a Japanese martial art that uses unarmed techniques as well as the sword then there are some styles that do just that. The problem with unarmed schools that use weapons is that most of them will only teach you weapons once you have mastered the unarmed techniques. Some schools of Karate let you advance onto Okinawa Kobudo once you obtain your 1st dan. Kobudo has a list of specialist weapons including the sword but again the forms are quite complicated so it’s better to have a good understanding of the basics first. Aikido is the same. This too has weapons such as the Jo and katana. There’s also the Bujinkan which covers both Samurai and ninja biken arts. The samurai sword techniques come from Kukishinden Ryu and the ninja techniques come from Togakure ryu biken jutsu.

Then there are the arts that just practice the sword such as Kendo (sports fencing) and iaido (Drawing and cutting practice). Kendo belongs to quite a large federation but iaido has many styles and it can be difficult to find a school because it is considered to be koryu (pure samurai) art. Nearly all the modern Japanese arts are not koryu such as Karate, Judo and Aikido which aren’t even 100 years. One iaido school that springs to mind is muso jikiden eishin ryu which is a very good ryu.

But just like cross training in the martial arts the sword arts are no exception. To fully understand its use you really have to train in kenjutsu, iaido, kendo, muto dori and daisho sabaki.

This is what the samurai of old would have done.

I do agree that most arts are defensive by nature. But not all of them. I do believe that in order to be able to defend yourself from any weapon you must first know how to use it.

Best to try a few styles and see which one speaks to you the most.

Good luck in your training

idai

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