Does anyone else like to 'train' with Kusari-gama?

[FireWolf]

i have trained with the Kusari gama.it takes alot of work but it is worth it.i wouldnt use any home made weapon.it might come apart and thats when you or someone gets hurt.i make dagers and stars.its hot and hard work but i love doing it.im also a gun smith and have seen what happens when someone that doesnt know what there doing trys to fix a gun.working on guns is dangerous and so are home made wepons.the best thing i would say is to find one or have one carved out of wood.thats what i did when i was training.i wish you the best of luck in your training

[Dark Shogun]

Kusarigama is part of our weapons system but I have no learned it yet.

Here's a question. Has anyone ever done tameshigiri(test cutting) with a kusarigama or kama?

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

Yeah, one of the koryu I train in have kusarigama techniques in it's syllabus. Very nasty.

Dark Shogun, how far have you reached in the SMR Jo syllabus? Anywhere near Uchida-ryu tanjojutsu or Shinto-ryu kenjutsu?

[Dark Shogun]

In my dojo we train one day in SMRjo, the other day in the SMR auxilary arts (sword, tanjo etc). I have done all the Shinto Ryu Kenjutsu kata and all the Uchida Ryu Tanjojutsu kata. I haven't done any of the other weapons. On the same days we also have a MJER session.

This may seem strange because I have heard that many schools o not teach auxilary arts until after the entire jo sillabus has been learned.

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

Nah, it depends on the teacher you have and how his teacher taught. Not uncommon. There are some teachers in Japan who teach the Shinto-ryu & Uchida-ryu as a warmup in the dojo and then progress onto the Omote, chudan, etc, so that as your skills with the jo progress, so do the auxilliary weapons skills.

Other teachers instruct in a different way, teaching the heiden bujutsu sometime after learning the chudan, or samidare.

Case by case, mate.

[Dark Shogun]

What is heiden bujutsu?

We also do MJER iai before jo and after auxilary class.

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

Heiden bujutsu and Fuzoku ryu are Japanese terms for the auxilliary systems used in some koryu bujutsu ryuha.

[Dark Shogun]

Thanks Gunyo, I'll add those to my vocabulary.