Black belts for Iaido students
A group of Japanese sword artists have slashed their way to success.
Last week New Plymouth’s Yuka Kobayashi, Steven Gourdon and Reiko Smithers were awarded their black belts in the Japanese martial art of Iaido, or sword drawing.
It has taken years of practice and mentoring for the trio to land their black belts in the martial art, which teaches the techniques and posture required to correctly handle a specially-made metal sword.
The success of the New Plymouth club at the Auckland grading event was cemented further when member Karen Jones was awarded the annual national Spirit of Iaido Award.
Jones, who has a 2nd degree black belt, wasn’t at the Auckland ceremony but said she was incredibly grateful for the award.
‘‘They rang me and when they told me on the phone they all cheered. It was really lovely,’’ she said.
‘‘I felt very humbled. They gave that to me because of all of the work I do between here and the Auckland club.
‘‘It’s the love of Iaido. It becomes a part of your life...There’s not many people in the association, but it becomes like a family.’’
Jones said Iaido taught all of the things that a good society needed - including respect, honour and integrity.
The sword drawing martial art does not involve any physical contact or combat with others, and instead is made up of a number of kata, a system of individual training exercises with an imaginary opponent of a similar height.
‘‘You don’t have opponents, it’s just yourself, your spirit and your focus,’’ Jones said. ‘‘It’s about trying to get things perfect.’’
At the grading event Kobayashi was awarded a 2nd degree black belt, while Gourdon and Smithers walked away with a 1st degree black belt. The highest rank possible is an 8th degree black belt.
New Plymouth dojo trainer Chris Jones, who has a 3rd degree black belt, said he was proud of the success that had been achieved by the New Plymouth club.
‘‘To have three people go for black belt and have them all pass is huge,’’ he said.
‘‘They can fail you on so many little things and the reason for that is basically you are facing an opponent and the angle of the blade and everything has to be correct. If it wasn’t correct you would lose your life in a battlefield situation.
‘‘So an examiner would look at that and if he saw an incorrect angle or a slightly incorrect technique, the least he can do is fail you, because in a real situation you would have lost your life.’’