I originally did some searching to help new students or to respond to questions or because of sites newer students sent me with questions. Wearing the traditional Japanese pants is part of Iaido from the beginning so it a challenge every new Iaido student faces. I tie my hakama in the manner Mitsuzuka Sensei taught me and show that to new students, but the following naganata site is the closest that I have found online,http://www.scnf.org/poh.htmlhttp://www.scnf.org/poh2.htmlWe use the square not style used when wearing armor. See the pictures at the bottom of the second page above (see footnote below (1). This Kendo site has something very nice coherent drawings of basically the way we do it,http://www.mushinkankendo.com/kendo_uniform.html—-Other sites that may be informative in the various ways that a hakama is put on. Many new students to Iaido may have trained in Aikido, where the hakama is tucked around a thinner belt. That’s akin to tucking your pants into your under wear or tucking your pants into your boots. Helps to hold things in but very informal. This is nice illustration and complete except we do not finish with a bow which by the way is tied incorrectly as shown (see the discussion in the footnote (1))http://www.freewebs.com/iaidotoyama/uniform.htm
The first sequence is musubi kiri, which is used for normal iai training. It’s quite simple to tie and can be done in a minute or two.
(right most green button on bottom right of page takes you to the next page, red button takes you back to the top page http://kimonoo.net/kituke.html )
The second sequence is jumonji musubi, which is used for formal gatherings and demonstrations (some disagree (1)).
———————————————(1)Lots of detailed discussion about the knot in front on this e-budo thread:http://www.e-budo.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-7306.html
“There are several ways. The warrior’s way of tying the hakama, also called shin musubi (true/correct knot) is a simple square knot with the ends of the himo (cords) tucked in, so they don’t move and/or get in the way.
The commoner’s method, called jumonji musubi (figure ten knot, so-called since it looks like “ten” in kanji) is to tie a square knot; then take one of the cords, fold it up and place it crossways (i.e., parallel with the directions of the cords as they go about the waist). Take the other cord and wrap it around the bundle you’ve just made of the other end, then fold it under the cords, if there’s any left over, so that the end is pointing up (not down! I dunno why that’s “wrong”), and voila! Lots of iaido people do it like that, but I have it on good authority (i.e., Yagyu Sensei) that warriors’d rather be caught without a hakama than to tie it like that. You could also tie the cords in a butterfly knot (cho musubi), but it would make you look like a jinja maiko (shrine maiden). Or a heck of a dork. Hope this helps.”
– Meik Skoss———————————————
