A long time ago, back
in mid 1980's, I was first introduced to Kendo techniques by my judo sempai.
It was a very short class, and all I was taught was the names and basic
performance of kamae and uchi waza. But that was more than an inspiration
for me. I started practicing suburi and uchi kaeshi, and soon I had several
people training with me. We had only few kendo and iaido books at the time,
some ninja videos and aiki-ken descriptions. And we had lots of enthusiasm.
Our bokken were made of straight wood (by a man who makes axe handles),
and the cheap dull iaito that we bought were "remodeled" for hard tameshigiri
on woods. Back in those days, we trained some very basic kata (same like,
i.e. Ipponme from Toyama Ryu, or Shiho kiri from Aiki ken, or Gopponme
in Seitei iaido). But, beside all the kata, kihon and theory, what we definitely
liked the most was kumite - and that's exactly how we called it: simply
and without any hesitation - kenjutsu kumite. We used bokken and hand made
kote, tried to control men uchi (although it was not possible all the times!),
and we went on with sparring for days, months and years. After 5 or 6 years
of such practice, the first Serbian Budo Council's club was founded in
1991, and I was elected informal first instructor for this type of kenjutsu.
Back then, we were not aware of the fact that what we actually wanted was
already invented - it was Chanbara. Although I was in position
of training under kendo bogu (and also were my associates from those early
days), we didn't like it. Kendo rules seemed limited to us, and we wanted
"more action". However, we were limited with choice of weapons and protection.
There were no advertisements for soft-padded weapons, and in war torn Yugoslavia
there was not much of information what was going on in the budo world. Somewhere in 1993 or
1994 I saw a short film on TV, showing two men in white jackets and hakama,
wielding apparently very light padded swords, which were described as "ju
shinai" - or soft shinai. This was near to revelation for me. I was teaching
basics of Japanese swordsmanship for nearly 3 years, and then I realized
that what we were doing in our clubs in Pozarevac and Belgrade had already
existed as a sport format out there. These guys were hitting each other's
legs, they were freely charging at each other, without limitations from
armor, or danger of hurting each other with hard wooden or bamboo swords.
And it was very dynamic and real... Unfortunately, war and
isolation of our country prevented us from getting more information. So,
with one large vision, with knowledge picked from kendo, iaido, aikiken
and ninjutsu, and with that short but fascinating view on Chanbara (still
didn't even know the "name of the game"), we continued with development
of kenjutsu in Serbian Budo Council. More new terms have entered our syllabus,
there were more "details" we insisted on, and there were constantly "new"
things that we had included in the "system". Soon, it was more than just
a part of the common "budo" teaching program, so we decided to make it
a separate discipline, a separate gendai kenjutsu school. It was approved
by the Board of SBC, and in 1997 this SBC's kenjutsu was officially promoted
with inauguration of couple of us into Dan grades. There were most of the
current Serbian members of KIAI, including Srdjan Ilic, Dejan Kostic, Drasko
Jankovic, Vladimir Bojovic and myself. Later on, I started making
contacts with foreign organizations. We already had contacts and exchange
with local kendo and iaido people, as well as with instructors of aikido
and ninjutsu who were training some sword techniques - but that co-operation
was not sufficient. So, I came to idea of founding KIAI - and invite all
the people interested in koryu and gendai sword arts to unite under this
wide term of "sword combatives", or kenjutsu. The idea came after seeing
the harmony in Ju-Jitsu International Federation, which also was promoting
unity in "new" jujutsu, gathering at the same time not only gendai jujutsu
schools and organizations, but also judoka, aikidoka, karate practitioners,
as well as some koryu exponents. Thanks to the good will
of first members of KIAI, this association soon became a solid resource
of valuable knowledge and information for further development of SBC's
kenjutsu. So, during years 2000 and 2001, our system was enriched with
new set of techniques (such as tsukamu kaeshi waza), and several iai kata
were added (such as Happo giri). Unfortunately, during NATO bombing on
our country, most of weapon sub-councils of SBC were already dismissed,
and the same thing has happened to our Kenjutsukai. So, the one and only
club of SBC that kept with regular kenjutsu training was my club - renamed
into Shinbukan Dojo in 2002. Not long after that, the whole kenjutsu was
renamed to Shinbukan Kenjutsu, and it was well accepted by most of the
people who have seen it - especially our friends from United Kingdom and
Czech Republic - with whom we organized and held two international KIAI
seminars. Shinbukan kenjutsu is
also accepted as an official style in Martial Arts International Federation
(MAIF), and it serves as a foundation for development of Kenjutsu section
in Bushido Zazen International Society (this section being headed by Aiki
Jujutsu and Shinbukan kenjutsu sensei Ian Stewart and Nick Sleep). A couple of years ago,
I was pleased to send official welcoming note on behalf of KIAI to Dana
Abbott sensei, head of US branch of International Sports Chanbara Organization
(ISCA), and also the international director of this fine organization (Kokusai
Sport Chanbara Kyokai, and Zen Nippon Chanbara Renmei). It was a great
pleasure to learn about Chanbara movement in Japan in past 5 years - and
for me it is fascinating to see that in many aspects what we do in Shinbukan
kenjutsu matches with Goshindo (a.k.a. Chanbara). Our focus is on sparing,
we use padded swords from time to time (and are planning of entering ISCA
in the future), we also are practicing kata (we have 5 Shinbukan kata,
plus it is expected that advanced instructors practice other sets of kata,
such as Seitei Iaido, or Toyama Ryu kata). Eventually, we also consider
our gendai style a natural mixture same as is Goshindo, and we are happy
about the opportunity of developing safe sparring in modern kenjutsu -
with Chanbara or similar weapons. I am looking at the manuals
of ISCA and it looks amazingly similar to what we teach to our beginners.
Of course, we knew all the time that we didn't "invent the wheel" - but
it is a real satisfaction to see that even with all the isolation and other
sad circumstances, we in SBC have managed to create something that is more
than compatible with ISCA requirements and goals. It is good to know that
there are at least 200.000 of others who share the same vision like ours. With all that in mind,
I am coming to the title of this short article: is Shinbukan kenjutsu practically
the "Serbian Chanbara?" The way I see it, yes, it is. It is our small variation
of Goshindo, and I hope to see all future Shinbukan kenjutsu sensei involved
at least in some way in fine activities of ISCA. It is not only "sports
fun" and "safe sparring" that I am having in mind, it is a friendly way
of sharing nice moments of our lives through sword practice, within atmosphere
of tolerance that goes beyond "styles" and "schools".