I am familiar with a lot of martial arts and I am a 4th degree black belt in TaeKwonDo. I was wondering what the closest sword martial art to the sword style of the samurai? I have been told it was kendo but i am not 100% sure. I am also very interested in learning it but I dont know if there are any local schools around the area of Greenville, SC. Thank you for you help.

Which Samurai? What region, what era? In some cases what family,

Ok I won't be so obnoxious, but it is a pretty broad question. There are literally hundreds of different styles. Some of which are still taught in Japan. A portion of those accept Japanese which are not part of the "in crowd" for the style. A portion of those accept foreigners in Japanese dojos. And a portion of those have qualified instructors in the states.

Kendo is not really a traditional sword art, but for the majority of the US it is literally you're only option unless you're willing to move. Large parts of the US do not even have access to quality Kendo instruction.

One of the styles that is traditional, and by that I mean a koryu(see http://www.koryu.com), is Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu. MJER is one of the few koryu styles that is available within the states. MJER comes from the Tosa area of Japan originally, but early last century it began to spread outside of Tosa and eventually to the US and a handful of other countries.

I don't know of anything off the top of my head in South Carolina, although I'm pretty sure there is Kendo in your area. You should try searching the forum archives over at http://www.e-budo.com and http://www.swordforum.com

[This message has been edited by Charles Mahan (edited 01-26-2005).]