Kenjutsu is the samurai's sword art. It requires the use of blades (especially Japanese blades such as the katana, wakizashi, and no-daichi); this is not a unarmed combat art by any standard.

The elements of the art originated some 1 500 years ago, and kenjutsu schools flourished in Japan beginning in the 9th century AD. One of the most famous practitioners and teachers of this style, Miyamoto Musashi, is the author of A Book of Five Rings, a psychological guide to strategy and competition. Musashi lived, fought, and taught his famous two-sword (Nito-ryu) technique during the early 17th century.

Kenjutsu is known as kum do in Korea; a sporting version of the art, kendo, has been taught worldwide beginning after World War II.

Kenjutsu Sub-Styles

Kenjutsu, throughout Japanese history, was usually taught in schools with different swordsmanship techniques; some of these schools continue today.

Mijin Style
Mijin Style emphasizes power and speed; it concentrates on leaping and running attacks. The most famous Mijin maneuver is the Soaring Lark stroke, a leaping ground-to-sky attack.

Muto Style
Muto is a style of fighting without the sword, and is the sole exception to the rule that Kenjutsu is a sword-fighting art. However, it is only employed for either getting a sword, or fighting until a sword is available.

With this style, an unarmed swordsman can take his attacker's blade away, and then use it on his attacker. This is considered an advanced technique, one to be taught only to the best students.

Nito Style
This is the two-swords style whose popularity is attributed to Musashi Miyamoto, Japan's most famous swordsman (also characterized as a lucky bully with a sword). Miyamoto was a swordsman early in the Togukawa shogunate (i.e., in the first half of the 17th century).

The Nito stylist is trained to deal with multiple attackers. He can use his sword in either hand, or can fight with two swords, one in each hand (anything else would be ... unusual). Note that even the master of this style, Musashi Miyamoto, noted that it would be better to fight one opponent with one sword, and to only use nito kenjutsu when fighting multiple attackers.

Suio Style
This kenjutsu style has been popularized in an acclaimed series of Japanese movies and manga (comic books). The suio ("water") style is characterized by all-out offense, speed, power, and risk-taking.

A special suio technique is to stand knee-deep in water with the blade beneath the surface of the water. The swordsman will strike from this watery position, potentially executing a very effective and extremely surprising strike, as the water will 'bend' the reflection of the blade while it is under water, and any opponent will have difficulty determining the position of the blade until it breaks the water's surface.

Yagyu Shinkage School
During the Togukawa era (early 17th to mid-19th centuries), the single most influential school for Japanese fencing was the Shinkage school, which produced many excellent swordsmen from the Yagyu family.

The Shinkage style is cautious, compared to many kenjutsu styles, and disarming techinques are emphasized.