What's the difference between Iaijutsu and Iaido?

Question

For what I've been found, this two arts have some similarities, but I can't fully understand it, this is pretty much the definition of each.

Iaido: The art of sword drawing. All katas begin and end with the sword sheathed. In some ways you could liken it to preparedness at all times, not just in battle.

Iaijutsu: The art of drawing the sword, is one of the Japanese martial disciplines in the education of the classical warrior. It's a combative sword-drawing art but not necessarily an aggressive art because iaijutsu is also a counterattack-oriented art.

I'll be grateful if someone could tell me a relevant difference!

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The exact answer would depend on which specific styles/lineages your talking about. (And there I am not able to provide specific info.)

But a general answer would be the difference is the meaning of 'do' versus 'jutsu'. Iaido would be a "way"; practicing for self-betterment being the more primary intent. Iaijutsu would be "martially effective"; practicing for literal effectiveness with live weapons being the more primary intent.

A google search for "do versus jutsu" will give you a huge number of hits.

Answer 2

Likely the most significant difference you'd see is that Iaido is practiced as a stand-alone art, while Iaijutsu would be one component of a Ryu (school/style) that has a larger scope. It's unlikely you'd find someone who practices Iaijutsu who doesn't also know Kenjutsu, but you could quite likely find someone who practices Iaido who doesn't know Kendo or any other martial art but instead practices calligraphy and dance.