Iaido is the martial art with which samurai learned to deal with sudden attacks. In many cases, drawing the sword immediately turns into a parry or a quick lunge at the opponent's face. This is followed by the decisive two-handed blow. What remains is chiburi, shaking off the blood from the sword, and noto, where the sword is calmly but vigilantly pushed back into the sheath.

Nowadays no more blood is shed, at least as long as the iaidoka makes no mistakes in handling his weapon! Control and utmost perfection are central. The Netherlands has only a few hundred iaidoka. This often people who were already teachers in other budo disciplines before they started with Iaido. There are also only a few tens of thousands of practitioners in Japan itself. One of the most important styles is the Muso Shinden Ryu, which is also practiced at Kendo Kai The Hague.

The katas that are most trained at Kendo Kai The Hague - and also worldwide - are the Seiteigata (official name: Zen Ken Ren Iaido): This is a series of twelve katas designed by committees of the Japanese federation (Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei). These committees included respected masters of the most important Iaido styles; the goal was to create a kind of anthology of age-old techniques. In today's Iaido, the Seiteigata usually serve as basic training for iaidokas: first you learn Seitei, and then you become acquainted with the koryû ('old style').