​​Oishi Susumu was a famous swordsman from the Yanagawa domain. It was next to the Mike domain and Oishi's family were samurai who guarded the border between the two regions. They were skilled shihan (masters) of Aizu Kage Ryu, a now extinct style of swordsmanship, and taught in both Yanagawa-han and Mike-han. Oishi Susumu himself was very tall. He measured 210cm and chose to use a sword (shinken) and bamboo sword (shinai) that were considerably longer than the typical length

Kenjutsu is a name used to describe the arts of swordsmanship practised by the legendary samurai warriors of feudal Japan. It literally means 'sword techniques'. In the edo period the Japanese sword known as a katana was the most revered weapon on the battlefield and the samurai spent much time in training to become skilled at using it. Off the battlefield, in training, the fearsome iron blades of the katana were substituted with tough wooden swords called bokutou (bokken). M