Why not experience the samurai sword?
Yuushinkan training hall in Kumamoto, Kyushu, offers tourists "Iai-Giri" (the practice to draw a real samurai sword and cut an object) experience. Iai is one of Japanese martial arts, and was invented and prevailed among samurai about half a millennium ago in order to develop their techniques to draw a sword and kill the enemy in an instant. It is still practiced for mental and physical discipline.
Although the numbers of Iai players and training halls are not so large compared with other martial arts such as Kendo (Japanese fencing), Judo, and Kyudo (Japanese archery), Iai is the best practice to feel the genuine samurai spirit because Iai players use a real samurai sword.
Furthermore, Yuushinkan training hall is the very unique place among all Iai halls in Japan. Most of Iai training halls practice to draw a sword but don't cut anything, they just practice the basic movement. On the other hand, Yuushinkan practices to draw a sword and cut an object, a bamboo pole covered with tatami-mat facing. So they say their practices as "Iai-Giri", instead of "Iai". You can also feel the sharpness of a real sword through the experience.
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