Hi Guys,

It's been a while since I posted last. Here is a video of my ikkyu iaido test at the Japanese Martial Arts Center in Ann Arbor. We had an extremely big test (as you can see by all the seated students) so in the interest of time, my material was shortened to 5 waza from tachi waza no bu. I chose yukizude, sodome, shinobu, moniri, and itomagoi sono ni. There are things I'd like to have done differently, but like most things martial, being on the path is the important part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWTGNZkJ6WY

Very interesting. Nicely done, too.
They look like Muso Shinden Ryu Okuden Iaido
I would have thought that would be a bit advanced for a kyu test, but that's just me.

Suprising to see Oku Tachi Waza in an Ikkyu test.

Thanks for sharing!

Previously that topic came up and one thing Suino Sensei mentioned was that during his time in Japan, it was not uncommon at all to see someone attain shodan after 6 months in iaido. They really do see shodan as the "first step" which contrasts our time scale where I'm an ikkyu after 3 1/2 years. Our testing material is pretty standard at JMAC and all ikkyu candidates are asked to select 5 waza they like from tachi waza no bu and perform them.