Great "class"

[iai_adept]

Our dojo traditionally does not meet during either August or December. I was bumming about the upcoming August break and (along with several of those going to Japan for the shinsakai in November) asked whether it was possible to keep meeting informally during the month

Comments

[slobbit]

I can't wait until next week.

Woo! That's great.

It's great to break up the routine and come at it from a different direction.

Wondering about your saya position, are you taught to correct the saya after nukitsuke? We're taught (though it's not a prominent teaching) to move the saya to center at furikaburi or the point where the hand comes off the koiguchi. I need to pull it just short of my navel -- completely centered, and it does get in the way. I most often notice this in ryuto.

This is another one of the female gotchas -- we have less space between ribs and hipbones, and we tend to be forced by anatomy to wear the sword in that space, rather than below the waist like the guys.

I'm looking forward to your next report.

[iai_adept]

Surprisingly, there is almost no focus on correcting the saya after nukitsuke. All the focus is on sayabiki. I only picked up the fact that we were supposed to reposition saya from watching the senior students do so and I took my cues from them.
About the only time it was mentioned was when the position of the draw during nukitsuke was such that failure to correct would result in trying to resheath the sword while the saya was still upside-down. So then the focus is on returning the saya to an upright position rather than making sure it ends up centered. Maybe it is because there are only men in the class and small mistakes in that regard don't have obvious consequences for them.