Two Swords of Aikido

Many samurai carried two swords, but few used both at once. According to legend, the exception was the 17th century folk hero Miyamoto Musashi, who is believed to have developed a two-sword system for dueling.
On this video, Mitsugi Saotome Sensei — a direct student of Aikido’s Founder, Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei — demonstrates and explains his own two-sword system. Beginning with basic stances, he moves to defenses against attacks with a single sword and eventually to defenses against multiple opponents. He also illustrates the direct connection of two-sword movement to Aikido’s empty-handed throwing technique.
Many of the demonstrations shown here were performed recently for this video. The video also contains rare footage of Saotome Sensei’s 1988 Two-Sword Seminar at the Chicago Budokan.
Enjoyable for the beauty and ingenuity of Saotome Sensei’s movement, this unique, hour-long instructional video explores martial exercises for integrating and balancing the body’s right and left sides.