Good Year with the Horse

Philosophy

2026: The Year of the Fire Horse

Dear Iaidokas, the Chinese calendar is always worth a look at the turn of the year. 2026 belongs to the Fire Horse (丙午, in Japanese: Hinoe-Uma). The horse is the seventh station in the zodiac, fire its celestial companion element, and together they are considered the most restless combination in the entire 60-year cycle. In Japan, birth rates dropped noticeably in Fire Horse years, as those born under this sign were considered too unpredictable for a settled life.

Uma: Movement as a State

The horse (馬, Uma) does not stand for purposeful progress. It stands for the impulse itself, for movement as a state rather than a means. A galloping horse does not ask where it is going — it is absorbed in how it moves.
This translates directly to training. Anyone who understands Ri-ai (理合), the inner logic of technique, will recognise: a kata that is only outwardly correct remains empty. Ri-ai does not only ask how the sword is moved, but why exactly this way and not otherwise. Once you look at a kata with that question in mind, the difference is immediate. This is less philosophy than craft. And a form that genuinely answers that question needs no proof beyond itself.

Fire as Driving Force

The element fire (火, Ka) in the Japanese worldview stands not for destruction but for clarity. Within the Gogyō, the five elements, Ka represents determination and inner warmth. Uncontrolled fire destroys; fire that burns steadily can be put to use.
In training, this means for example: execute Nukitsuke (the opening movement) with intention and ease, not with effort. Do not perform Zanshin as a pose, but understand it as a continuing Ki that remains present after the cut. That is what distinguishes a lived kata from a recited one.

More on Ri-ai | Gogyo | Zanshin | Nukitsuke | Ki
理合 Ri-ai, literally: principle (理, Ri) and accordance (合, Ai). Ri-ai describes the inner logic of a technique — the question of why a movement is performed exactly this way and not otherwise. In Iaido, this means the martial reasoning behind every phase of a kata: angle, distance, timing. A kata without Ri-ai is correct form without content, not unlike a folkloric dance.
五行 Gogyō, the five phases of transformation in Chinese and Japanese natural philosophy: wood (木, Moku), fire (火, Ka), earth (土, Do), metal (金, Kin), water (水, Sui). They describe not static substances but dynamic states and their transitions. In Budo they serve as a conceptual framework for qualities of movement and energy.
残心 Zanshin, literally: remaining mind (残, Zan: remaining / 心, Shin: heart, mind). Zanshin describes the sustained attention after completing a kata. In Iaido it is the moment after the cut in which body, gaze and awareness remain fully present.
抜き付け Nukitsuke, the opening movement in Iaido: drawing the sword from the scabbard (Saya) combined with a simultaneous cut. Nukitsuke is not a preparation for the technique — it is the technique. Speed, angle and intention are present from the very beginning.
気 Ki is life energy, breath force, inner energy. Ki runs through all of East Asian philosophy and medicine. In Budo, Ki describes that quality of movement which goes beyond the mechanical: the intention, the presence, the energy that makes a technique alive. Ki cannot be forced, but it can be trained.

Looking into the Year — onwards

The Zen monk and philosopher Dōgen (1200 to 1253), founder of the Sōtō school and author of the Shōbōgenzō, formulated a principle that remains valid in Budo to this day: 修証一等 (Shushō-ittō) — practice and realisation are one. Not preliminary stage and goal, but the same thing.
For Iaido this means: the kata is not a path towards something. It is the goal. Kata by kata, repetition by repetition, in the dojo, in the Year of the Fire Horse as in any other, with full intensity.
A good training year 2026,
the dojo management.

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