Practitioners of iaido are often referred to as iaidoka.

Few, more experienced, iaido practitioners use a sharp edged sword. Today it is taught as Eishin Ryu Batto Ho and included 10 Eishin-ryu kumitachi.Iaido is associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard or saya, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard. While new practitioners of iaido may start learning with a wooden sword depending on the teaching style of a particular instructor, most of the practitioners use the blunt edged sword. It contains 12 Waza, 7 Shoden Kata and 5 Okuden Kata. Dai Nihon Batto Ho (大日本抜刀法) was created in 1939 by Kono Hyakuren for the Japanese Naval Academy.Zen Nihon Batto Do Renmei (全日本抜刀道連盟) or ZNBDR was created in 1977 under Nakamura Taizaburo which practice 5 Shoden Seitei and 8 Chuden Seitei Kata.Nakamura-ryū (中村流), founded in the mid-20th century by Nakamura Taizaburō (中村泰三郎), who had previously taught Gunto no Soho at the Toyama Academy.In 1942, a running slash-type kata geared toward cavalry charges was added. In November of 1941, an official manual on Toyama-ryu was distributed widely within the Japanese Army. In 1940, Mochida Seiji (持田盛二) and Saimura Goro (斎村吾郎) added and revised the kata. Toyama-ryu was not taught generally but was reserved for officers, as they still carried swords. Morinaga selected 5 kata produced by Nakayama arranged in tachi-iai. This system of swordsmanship was developed for the military by a committee including sword masters Nakayama Hakudō (中山博道) and Takano Sasaburo (高野佐三郎), and Lieutenant Colonel Morinaga Kiyoshi (森永清中佐). Toyama-ryū (戸山流), was founded in 1925 at the Rikugun Toyama Gakkō (Toyama Army Academy) (陸軍戸山学校).Gendai schools developed after the beginning of the Meiji era:

Shinmei Muso Ryu Battōjutsu (神明夢想流抜刀術), founded by Hayashizaki Jinsuke (Minamoto no) Shigenobu(林崎甚助(源)重信) (c.( September 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification.

Iaido draw stance art