Hugo is the youngest contestant ever on Spain’s Got Talent and he certainly made a splash. Just watch as this little cutie steps out onto the stage with his Dad right there for support. Hugo can play the drums as well as someone three times his age. “Iaido is moving meditation,” he said.Hugo Molina looks like any other 2-year-old, but this toddler has a special talent unlike any other. Practicing iaido gave him moments to concentrate on something without affecting others. “No matter how tired I am, or how bad a day I had, I become reenergized.” It is always rewarding to come to practice iaido,” he said. “What fascinates me is its aspect of self-control. He has been taking iaido lessons for three years. “Maybe it is in my Japanese blood.”Ĭhris Cocks, a 29-year-old Canadian and English language teacher at the Haebaru Junior High School, was among the students. “I cannot recall what first fascinated me, but I started it so naturally, almost as a matter of course,” the 31-year-old Yokohama native said. Yoshihiro Iwashita, who started taking iaido lessons 17 years ago and has been attending Nakaima’s class since October, said that iaido was a part of his life. “I feel that the sword is the one that demands it,” he said. Thus, the ultimate goal of iaido is perfection of swordsmanship. “But it is only iaido that adds further beauty to swords with their movement,” he said.Īnd that was only possible through the wielder of the sword. He said that the swords’ beauty has the power to tug at the heartstrings of the viewers. “It is important to be humble and revere the mighty power of swords.” “What we always have to bear in mind is that swords are lethal weapons,” said Nakaima sensei. He was not a beginner, but a rokudan (six grade holder) when he experienced these mishaps. “Another time I inflicted a deep cut on my eyelid, almost reaching the eyeball.” “Once, I slashed my arm by mistake,” the 28-year veteran iaido master confided. “It is not uncommon to get hurt during practice,” he said. Iaido practice using real swords was not always wound-free, said Nakaima sensei.
When one set of practice moves was over, they moved on to the next set. The serenity was broken only by the swooshing sound of the slashing swords. They rose to their feet, pulling out swords from the sheaths and began to perform iaido - quick steps forward, to the side and back accompanied by many stabbings, slashes and beheadings. “At the moment you blink, you are off your guard, giving your enemy a chance to attack you.” “Once you take out your sword, you are not supposed to blink until the sword is back in the sheath,” he said. Placing their swords closer to them, they bowed one more time, this time to their swords. All of them bowed and sat down, quietly laying their swords before them. He stood on the wooden floor of the martial arena one Thursday evening, his students forming three lines, facing him. “But, to bring them to perfection, it would take 20 to 30 years,” he added. He said that his enemy was usually about his own height and size. “It may be imperceptible at first, but it will soon come into your sight if you practice long enough,” said Nakaima, who has been practicing iaido for 25 years. A practitioner challenges alone against an unseen foe with a sword. Unlike other martial arts, however, there is no visible opponent. “You must first dismiss all the worldly thoughts in your minds.” “The hardest thing in iaido is to face an enemy with an empty mind,” he said. In modern days, the ultimate goal of iaido is solely mental discipline, said Nakaima, a 33-year-old Naha hairstylist. His Iaido was later succeeded by Tamura Hyoe Narimasa, who taught the first three generations of Tokugawa shoguns, Ieyasu, Hidetada and Iemitsu. Divine power gave him the secret of Iaido. According to the International Iaido Federation, young Hayashizaki prayed to the gods at a shrine in Yamagata in northern Japan to help him find and kill a man who killed his father. Iaido, the way of sword, was formed during the Ashikaga period, about 440 years ago, by a samurai named Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu.