IAIDO, kata with katana, by Stefan Stenudd in 2004

IAIDO is the Japanese sword art where you practice solo with the katana, either shinken (with sharp edge) or iaito (not sharp). I do a number of iaido forms (kata), from a few different iaido schools and also some of my own invention. This is a new edit of a 2004 video posted in 2006: The quality is improved in this edit, but still far below the level of contemporary videos. I did what I could. I can’t say that I’m totally pleased with what I see. My posture needs improvement, my cuts are insufficiently extended, I bend my arms in jodan kamae, I do an extra thing with the saya before noto that I have skipped since then, my noto after kaiten chiburi has changed to a simpler and safer one, and so on. Well, well... there are always things to work on. I’ve written extensively about sword exercises here: My aikido dojo is Enighet in Malmö, Sweden: For more about aikido, visit my website: My aikido books: