He began his study of kendo at the age of 15 and when he joined the Japanese Army in 1932 held the rank of 3rd Dan in both kendo and judo. After teaching kendo to the members of his regiment he was assigned to a junior military academy as a fencing instructor. He served in Manchuria in the elite Yamash*ta Special Attack Force and was assigned to the Toyama Military Academy in Tokyo where he became
an instructor of combat swordsmanship, bayonet and knife fighting. He dedicated his life to the study and teaching of the life giving sword - katsujinken. However for the way of the sword to be effective in the spiritual forging of its practitioners Nakamura sensei taught that it must remain rooted in the realities of combat. For this reason he helped to maintain the tradition of Toyama Academy swordsmanship by founding the All Japan Toyama Ryu Iaido Federation and continued his lifelong research into the practices of Japanese swordsmanship. The outcome of these efforts was the founding of Nakamura Ryu Battodo in 1952. Among many other titles and ranks he was awarded 10th Dan Hanshi Battodo by the International Martial Arts Federation, 7th Dan Kyoshi by the All Japan Kendo federation, 8th Dan Hanshi Jukendo And 8th Dan Hanshi Tankendo. He continued to study, practice, teach and inspire until his death in Tsurumi on the 13th of May 2003. While teaching kenjutsu in northern China he was inspired with the thought that EJII HAPPO, the eight rules of calligraphy, could be applied to swordsmanship. As Nakamura Taizaburo practiced the ei character (this is to calligraphy what do-re-mi is to music), he saw in his mind that the eight strokes of the brush traced the trajectory of the word when cutting. The first brush stroke, soku, is the thrust of the sword tip, the second stroke, roku, is the left and right horizontal cut; the third stroke, do, is the vertical cut; and so on. Eiji Happo transformed to happo giri, which is lucky since the Chinese character ei means eternal. In addition, the number eight is a favourable symbol in Chinese mythology, indicating both prosperity and good fortune. Therefore, the eight ways of cutting are innumerable and unending. Nakamura Taizaburo began to organize his realization and ideas into a system of practical swordsmanship devoid of meaningless techniques. Source:
* Essential Principals of Nakamura Ryu Iaido by Nakamura Taizaburo.
