Techniques List

This is a Kenjutsu School, created during the Sengoku Jidai (war period) and basically serving to oppose one person or a group. The strength of this style of blade is such that its practitioners must swear to fight only to protect the weak and oppressed, and this without joining any faction in particular, in order not to cause a an uneveness in the wars.

Oniwabanshû

The Oniwanbanshû, the spies of the shôgun, have protected the castle of Edo for almost 300 years. They really existed, but the techniques here are those of the manga.

Hirazuki

The techniques of Tsuki, i.e. attacks where the sword is used to pierce and not only slice, are one of the nine different forms of attacks.

Nikaidô Heihô

The Nikaidô Heihô is a style of the Kenjutsu that takes its name from the Japanese character for "peace" and "calm", i.e. "Hei", which is the "hei" of "heihô". In fact, this style has this name because of its 3 main katas, where the two swords form the numbers 1, 8 and 10 in Japanese, which, combined, draw together the ideogram in question. But the fame of this style comes from its terrible power, able to hypnotise the opponent if he doesn't possess a very strong ki himself.

Watôjutsu

This style of sword associate the speed and slicing of the Japanese sword to the soft and powerful moves of Chinese combat techniques. This continental variant of the Japanese Kenjutsu is very powerful. Besides, the association of the sword techniques to those of close-combat, double its efficiency and make its peculiarity.

10 Swords Techniques

The "Ten Swords", the elite of Shishio's men, reunite in order to assassinate all the most impotant men of the Meiji government, with no distinction. Their combat techniques are diverse and more terrifying than any others.

Kamiya Kasshin

This school was created by Kaoru's father, a man who believed in the "sword that protects life", by opposition to the sword that kills. The techniques of this school have for only objective to prevent the adversary from continuing fighting, and not to kill him. They are mainly defensive techniques. The wooden swords (bokutô, bokken) and even the shinai are used, instead of real swords.

Muteki - The Invincibility School

The Yaminobu are, in the manga, ninjas similar to the Oniwabanshû, and also on the shôgun's side. Their chief used a martial arts style called "school of invincibility", based on a combination of three different attacks: strangle, turn and throw; leaving no escape for the enemy.

Saihi Kanuma

The Other Techniques