Iaijutsu – the Art of the Duel

Iaijutsu is the art of drawing a katana from the sheath, striking a target and returning the blade to the sheath, the saya, in one, clean movement. Historically, it was known as battojutsu and was practiced in several ryuha (martial schools) that taught kenjutsu as it allowed the swordsman to make an effective draw regardless of spacing or position. Sensei Yoshio Sugino is demonstrating a rising draw from a seated position in this picture, a technique included in the Katori Shinto-ryu school.

In Legend of the Five rings, we have slightly historical/slightly fictional idea of the Iaijutsu Duel. Two samurai stand slightly apart, showing their stance, swords sheathed. They Focus, then there’s a sudden strike, and one or both parties is almost always dead. That’s a little different from a traditional duel.

Here’s a video to show what I mean – one of the best examples of actual samurai dueling on film, I believe.

You can see in this representation, the samurai start with swords out, unsheathed and there’s more room to charge.

I’m bringing this up because of a conversation I had with Jeremy last night about the wonkiness of the Iaijutsu rules inside of L5R. The Crane Clan are the undisputed masters of the Iai duel. Getting into a duel with a kenshinzen of the Kakita School is almost suicide in-setting. Their Techniques (okuden) focus on the duel, making them devastating opponents. Because the Crane have the ear of the Emperor, this style of dueling has become accepted as the proper way to handle matters of honor between samurai.

However, this tends to kill player enthusiasm for iaijutsu duels. If you’re not a Crane, dueling isn’t your prefered medium and your character tends to do much better if the fight starts with your sword out. If you are a Crane, you want to push people into a duel, rather than a traditional swordsmanship fight.

In-game, Kenjutsu and Iaijutsu are two different skills. That means for most characters, in order to be skilled swordsmen, you have to pump character and experience points into two skills. The Crane get a pass at this, as their first okuden allows them to substitue their Iaijutsu skill for the Kenjutsu skill whenever they want as do the Dragon - their Mirumoto ryuha, a contemporary and opposing school, allows the bushi to substitue their kenjutsu skill for their iaijutsu skill whenever they want.

But that leaves your non-Crane or non-Dragon character in the position of having to pump points into two skills with no real advantages and, in my opinion, creates an odd feeling in-setting where other ryuha simply can’t compete in the duel.

I don’t think that’s right at all.

So, the question becomes – what do we want to do about this? Jeremy suggested removing Iaijutsu duels from my version of Rokugan completely – something I’m not adverse to at all. The Crane school techniques provide benefits outside of the duel, so it wouldn’t destroy that school’s effectiveness in combat. Duels would more closely mirror the actual, historical truth, rather than a highly fictionalized version of it, while still allowing the “flavor” of the schools in the fight to shine through – Crane would still be amazingly fast, starting with their swords sheathed; Dragon bushi would still be unnerving and unpredictable with their two-swords school.

What do you want to do about it, as players? Would you like to keep Iaijutsu duels in place, are they a favored part of the setting? Would you mind replacing them with a one-on-one fight? Do you have another suggestion? Comment here or hit my inbox on facebook or just bring it up the next time I see you – let’s figure out what we want to do with this part of Rokugani culture.