Gyakuto
2017 08 23 | journal
In my dojo, during the summer months, we concentrate most of our time on koryu - reiho, waza, etcetera. So far this summer, we've been learning some alternate versions of some of the koryu waza - Koranto (two steps forward instead of three), Seichuto (stepping back upon rising, rather than stepping forward), and Gyakuto so far.
The first set of Muso Shinden koryu waza already has two versions of In'yo Shintai - the first one the sword cuts forward as you step back on the second unsheathing, and in the second one the sword cuts down and to the side a bit during the second unsheathing. Apparently, there's another way to do that one as well. With Gyakuto, there's a method of noto whereby, rather than doing it partial Jikiden style as we do with Ryuto, Junto (MSR's version of Kaishaku), and Gyakuto. Normally, the sword is held flat in front of you parallel to the floor with the right hand, while the left (of course) reaches for the saya and brings it to the blade. I'm not loving this. I found it incredibly awkward.
"More left hand" is the single most repeated term in any Iaido dojo - and probably ever dojo really.
Of course, I also found Jikiden style noto incredibly awkward when I first started learning it. It's ... a bit harder with a blade that's longer than what Jikiden folk normally use. My sword would have to be at least an inch shorter than it is, for me to do Jikiden style noto properly. Size matters - an inch can make a lot of difference. I can see a lot more pierced between-the-thumb-and-pointer-finger webbing in my future ... or a lot of scratching of the inside of the saya, which is not at all healthy for it. A split saya is nobody's friend; and all the noise you make doing it, is a big dojo nono anyhow. Apparently this flat-style noto is more common in Muso Shinden than the way we normally do it.
We've got a couple of oddities in our school; by which I mean my dojo's lineage. One of the more obvious things happens when we kneel for reiho to sensei and to the kamiza. In most schools, when you place the blade to your right side the ha, or cutting edge, faces inwards towards you. In our school, we turn the cutting edge out. It's a more aggressive posture.
The way we've been doing noto for Gyakuto:
This other funny way with the flat awkward noto (I swear I'll get the hang of it one of these days; but trust me when I say it looks easier than it is. It's probably actually easier than it looks.):
* Any whooshy sword noises are not sound effects. We get to make whooshy sword noises all the time ... unless we do things wrong. Then there's no whooshy sword noises.