I have just returned from an Oho Ha Itto Ryu (OHIR) Kenjutsu Seminar held in Pforzheim, Germany attended by senior Japanese teachers as well as practitioners from across Europe.

Ono Ha Itto Ryu  (one sword style) is a traditional Japanese sword art which dates back to 1500’s and the schools headmasters were the sword instructors to both the second and third shoguns in Japan.

It was great to catchup with people that I had met in Italy in 2013 from the Italian, German and Belgian study groups. This year, like 2013, I was the only attendee from the UK.  The teachers, Kaiwa Sensei and Ishizaki Sensei were really open with everyone and wanted us to take as much away with us as we could handle.  During the 4 days, I don’t think we finished on time as there were always options to have a little more knowledge…

The curriculum has over 150 techniques or Waza and this time, we managed to cover the first 50 techniques (which was a new record – so I am not sure my brain will be able to cope next year if they try to beat that record!) and if you know the style, you know how much that is to cover in 20 hours of training.

My goal was to try and remember both sides of the first 10 waza, as well as the basic warmups and kihon practice.  We will also be introducing this style into the monthly curriculum as it is a lot of fun.

Currently there are no official OHIR groups in the UK under the guidance of the current Soke, we practice under licence via the KNBK (another great reason to join).