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I've trained with a bokken for many years, mostly though instruction by students in various arts and David Lowry's text. I'm at a point in my life where I would like to formalize my knowledge and receive more formal and direct instruction in a Japanese sword art, specifically Iaijutsu. However, finding an instructor/school is proving to be a challenge. So my question is this: is there a central body/organization in the US that focuses, at least in part, on promotion of Iaijutsu in the US?

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Unfortunately, "iaijutsu" is like "karate": an overarching description for many styles. I am not aware of an organization that does promotion of karate or iaijutsu in the US. Additionally, do you truly mean iaijutsu, or do you mean iaido? – Trevoke May 14 '12 at 18:28
Good point...I'm not actually married to a particular style (Eishin Ryu is what I'm familiar with, but that familiarity is purely academic). For this question, I do mean iaijutsu, though your question makes me think a question around the difference would be good for the site (I'm not versed enough to answer myself beyond the historical and philosophical differences between the two). – rjstreet May 14 '12 at 20:25
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The basic idea for the difference between -jutsu and -do is something I went over in this question: martialarts.stackexchange.com/questions/676/… :-) – Trevoke May 14 '12 at 21:07
How mobile are you? I'm not sure it would be too helpful to find a menkyo-kaiden holder in Minnesota if you're in Florida. If your question is simply about finding a teacher I'm afraid I would have to vote to close as too localized. – Dave Liepmann May 15 '12 at 3:02
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Sounds like a reasonable question, so long as we're sticking with the existence of organizations in the US for iaijutsu; if we start getting into individual instructors, that's off topic for this site. – stslavik May 15 '12 at 17:43
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I don't think there are any major umbrella iaijutsu organizations. The All United States Kendo Federation also supports iaido and you'll sometimes find (for instance) Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu or Muso Shinden Ryu instructors among the local kendo sensei. I used to study kendo and iaido in the Pacific Northwest and I thought the quality of the instruction available was very good; if I was in your position I'd start with the AUSKF dojo list and see if there was an iaido school in my area.

That said, depending on where you are, there may also be excellent independent teachers or teachers affiliated directly with Japanese schools or organizations.

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