#nito ryu

A little background.

This week we have had a guest sensei who fights in Nito-Ryu style, and having hardly ever fought against a Nito player, I would have found a post like this extremely useful!

The first time I fought against him, 'destroyed' is probably a fitting word for how I lost! I'm not new to kendo either, so I thought I might be able to hold my own. Ha! Wrong. My right wrist is bruised very badly. That alone is good reason to try to not get hit the next time!

So, over this past week I studied up on how to fight against this style, and in my final spar with him I was able to score two ippon.

This is MY opinion, from my own experience, on how to fight Nito-Ryu.

So, first of all there are two Nito stances; Sei-Nito (normal) and Gyaku-Nito (reversed). Here is a small diagram!

Note the red areas I have outlined as possible ippons.

To be able to fight Nito successfully you need to be able to do all strikes including tsuki, as it is a main area of focus. I would say a HUGE opportunity for ippon is opposite side of the men to where their shinai is. Depending on their stance it could be the left or right side, however if you (and this is instruction directly from the Nito sensei) are able to curve slightly to hit the sayu-men solidly, the ippon is yours.  

Against Jodan, it is useful to raise up your shinai into seigan-no-kamae (tip towards their hidari-kote), this is helpful with Nito too, though watch their shoto. I have also be told by a Nito friend to try and ignore the shoto!

That's all I have! This experience has definitely given me great food for thought and I hope to be able to get another chance soon to practice against the two sword style!!

Does anyone know of/ train with women who use Nito-Ryu (two sword style)?

So in the world of Kendo there are many ways to call Two Sword Kendo.

The first, and most incorrect form that kendoka say is Niten Ichi Ryu (二天一流, literally Two Heavens as One). This is the name for the school of kenjutsu that was created by the famous Miyamoto Musashi.

While we Nito players like to think they we are like Miyamoto Musashi or what we practice is derived from his school, in reality it is a completely different style.

For starters, Niten Ichi Ryu, is not limited to just the usage of two swords but also includes single katana styles and techiniques as well. The kata and the cutting areas in Niten Ichi Ryu are also different to that of Nito Kendo (there is no offical Nito Kendo kata).

Next, we'll go back to the kenjutsu point as it is the most important point. Niten Ichi Ryu is koryu (古流, literally old school) and it's formal name is Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu (兵法二天一流, 兵法 meaning The Art of War of Two Heavens as One), that means it's katas and techniques are unique as far as I know are kept within the school. There is a soke (宗家 literally headmaster) who can trace his roots back to Miyamoto Musashi himself.

The next term we'll look at is Nito-Kendo. I don't need to write the kanji out for this as you can probably imagine it, but literally it means Two Sword Kendo. This is by far the most accurate and politically neutral way of talking about Two Sword Kendo.

However, the way I personally call Two Sword Kendo is: Nito Ryu (二刀流). This can be read as Two Sword School, which is technically incorrect as it is not a school unless you are part of the Musashi-Kai or literal Nito-Kendo Dojo, but this is a topic for another time. However, this is not to say that anyone who studies Niten Ichi Ryu can't practice Kendo or synthesize what they learn in koryu and adapt it to Kendo.

However, the funny thing about Japanese, is that kanji can have more than one meaning. In this case the kanji for 流 can be read as either school like that in Niten Ichi Ryu, or it can mean 'style'. So for the majority of Nito players, this second meaning is probably what describes their Nito-Kendo the best. This means that rather than reading it as Two Sword School, you read it as Two Sword Style.

Anyway, to summarise what you call the Two Sword Style in Kendo in 3 lines: Niten Ichi Ryu = X Nito-Kendo = O Nito-Ryu = O

Hello, I created this blog in order to follow the progress of my Nito-ryu! A little about me: I started Kendo when I was 20 and I am now 26 and 2nd Dan (二段). I started Nito-ryu (二刀流, literally Two Sword Style) in the middle of this year (2014) and I have learnt most of this style by myself and through the use of online discussion forums and videos for Nito-ryu players.

My style of Nito-Ryu is Sei Nito-Ryu (正二刀流, literally True Two Sword Style).