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Our club, “Eishinkai” was established in 2002 in order to create a formal organization uniting a group of iaido and jodo practitioners in Moscow, Russia. Among our members are people of different ages and professions, beginners to dan ranked, all studying together the Japanese arts of the sword and short stick and striving to improve our understanding of them. Our club is associated with the Russian Federation of Kendo, Iaido and Jodo (RKF).
“Eishinkai” members from Moscow and Ulyanovsk with Ide Tomota-sensei
“Eishinkai” (   ), owes its name to Hasegawa Eishin, one of the major figures in the development of the two widely spread iaido styles — Muso Shinden-ryu and Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu, also named after him. This name was adopted after it was suggested by Oshita Masakazu-sensei (iaido kyoshi 8-th dan) in August 2002.
The club has grown fast and its numbers increased, so that in 2004 our group was the biggest and Ide-sensei's seminar in Moscow. In the same year the club's instructor, Andrey Arefyev, brought 3 prizes (silver medal and two “Fighting Spirit“ awards) from the European Iaido and Jodo Championships. In 2005 Alexander Zhebin, first of those who had started practicing at “Eishinkai“, took part in the European Jodo Championships and was graded to shodan in iaido and jodo. In 2008 four more students were graded to shodan in jodo and three more in iaido. 2008 was also a year when the club's instructor and students took active part in competitions within Russia and abroad. This brought us gold medals in the Moscow Interregional iaido tournament dedicated to N. Yakovlev (Alexander Trofimov in the junior kyu category and Andrey Morozov in the senior kyu category), Gothenburg Jodo Open (Innokentiy Polyakov in mudan category) and Gothenburg Iaido Open (Andrey Arefyev in godan category), as well as silver and bronze medals, including bronze at the European Iaido Championships (Anna Ereshko in mudan category). This year began with successful participation of club members in the International Goodwill Iaido competition Masamune Taikai in Birmingham.
Presently most of the time is given to the practice of All-Japan Kendo Federation iaido and jodo. Since 2007 the more advanced students are also studying koryu (old-style) iaido and jodo. More specifically these are Shinto Muso-ryu jojutsu of Nishioka Tsuneo-sensei, practiced within the European Jodo Federation, and Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu iaido of Oshita-sensei. Each of these styles has a curriculum extensive enough for many years of practice.
Besides Moscow an associated “Eishinkai” group is practicing in Ulyanovsk. We maintain contact with iaido and jodo practitioners in other cities and regions of Russia as well as in Ukraine and Europe.
Our sensei
Club instructor
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