Muso Shinden-ryu
夢想神伝流One of the two most widespread modern schools of iaidō. It was codified in 1932 by Nakayama Hakudō from the Shimomura branch of Hasegawa Eishin-ryū.
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About Muso Shinden-ryu
Musō Shinden-ryū is one of the two most widespread modern schools of iaidō, the art of drawing the sword. It was codified in 1932 by Nakayama Hakudō, one of the most influential Japanese swordsmen of his time: he held the title of hanshi in kendō, iaidō and jōdō, taught at the Yūshinkan dōjō in Tokyo, and in the mid-nineteen-twenties led the commission that drew up the swordsmanship curriculum for the Toyama military academy. He died on 14 December 1958; sources give differing years of birth, some 1869, others 11 February 1872. He did not create the school out of nothing. It builds on the line of Hasegawa Eishin-ryū, specifically its Shimomura branch, which Nakayama took over from his teacher Hosokawa Yoshimasa; the school's very name most likely comes, according to sources, from the designation Musō Shinden Eishin-ryū, which Hosokawa used for this branch, though that reading is not certain. The curriculum is divided into three grades, which differ from one another in starting position. Shoden contains twelve forms practised from seiza, kneeling on the heels, and is taken over from Ōmori-ryū. Chūden has ten forms from tatehiza, a position with one knee raised. Okuden is divided into nine forms from a seated position and twelve from standing. To these are added twenty paired kumitachi forms performed in two lines, though these are taught only rarely. Every form follows the same sequence of movements: nukitsuke, the draw combined with the first cut, raising the sword above the head, and finally nōtō, returning the blade to the scabbard without the eyes following it.
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