Nakamura Ryu Battodo

The Nakamura Ryu school of swordsmanship was founded in 1952 by Taizaburo Nakamura, one of the greatest swordsmen of the modern era, a combat veteran, instructor of close combat and lifelong researcher of traditional swordsmanship. Like Miyamoto Musashi, he abhorred the artificial and impractical developments in many sword schools and sought to recreate a school of genuine combat swordsmanship.

The heart of the Nakamura school is Happogiri – the eight ways of cutting. Although several sets of kata (forms) are taught they are regarded as merely examples of possible scenarios. The goal is to attain a state of natural, spontaneous movement and instinctive handling of the sword through which one can utilise the eight basic techniques with complete freedom. The principles used to attain this goal are circular trajectory (enkeisen), correct and responsive handling of the sword (tenouchi) and natural footwork (shizen ni aruku shisei). Mastery of these allows one to transfer power from one movement into another and one cut into another.

Curriculum

The curriculum for Nakamura Ryu Battodo will include mastery of kata, tameshigiri, and tanren. The student will begin with a bokken (wooden sword) and with time graduate to using an iaito/mogito (blunt sword) and a shinken (live sword).

1. KATA - Toyama Ryu Kata (8 forms), Toyama Ryu Kumitachi Kata (6 forms), Nakamura Ryu Kata (8 forms), Seitei Gata (8 forms).
2. TAMESHIGIRI - Test cutting of targets with a shinken

3. TANREN - Tanren is a system of body conditioning or ‘forging’ that develops the qualities of strength and flexibility required for Japanese sword arts. It involves the melding of inner and outer power through integrating breathing with slow deep movements while swinging a tanrenbo (a long heavy wooden club) or tetsubo (two short steel rods).

Instructor

Sarwar Bhuiyan

Sarwar Bhuiyan holds a Sandan (3rd Dan) in Nakamura Ryu Battodo and a Shodan (1st Dan) in Kurikara Ryu Heiho. He is a student of John Maki Evans, Nanadan Kyoushi (7th Dan Kyoushi) in the United Kingdom. He has been training in Battodo for five years and in other arts such as Karate, Aikido, and Tai chi before that.