Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this article. I’m Shogo from Let’s ask Shogo, the interpreter of the online lessons and owner of this website.

1. What is This Video About?

In this video, we introduced six of the dozens of Suburi swinging practices that we do with the Shunjō staff in our Ryuha. Watching Seki Sensei, the 22nd headmaster of Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu, perform the Shunjō Kata (forms) makes it look very easy. However, Jō are unique weapons that are quite different from katana. If you don’t first master the basics by practicing these Suburi, you will never be able to control the Jō flexibly.

2. Why Should You Absolutely Watch it?

These Suburi are what we train at the beginning of the Shunjō online lessons we hold over Zoom too. So for beginners, this is the perfect exercise that you can train at home on your own to learn the basics of how to control the Jō. Even if you can’t join the online lessons immediately, you can watch this video to deepen your understanding. The requirements for the first and second Dan ranks for the Shunjō online lessons are these Suburi too.

3. What are Some Points NOT Discussed in the Video But Shared Here?

These six are only about ⅓ of all the Suburi training that we do with the Shunjō. We will be introducing the rest in the future videos. To be honest, even if you didn’t know any Kata if you could do just the Suburi with the Jō, that would already be so powerful that an average swordsman cannot even get near you. You might think just practicing Suburi over and over might be boring, but in the long run it will help you to improve your martial art skills in general.