Kyosho Style Traditional Martial Arts is a style of traditional marital arts passed down in the Kyosho family, and later the Haseo family.
Background[]
The Kyosho Style Traditional Martial Arts is a kenjutsu style was developed by the samurai Isshin Kyosho during the Sengoku period. The style was unique in that it focused almost entirely on Iaido. Where a normal fighting style may borrow from Iaido techniques, the kenjutsu developed by Isshin Kyosho utilized Iaido techniques in its entirety. The style elevated Isshin Kyosho to legendary status, and he became known as an unrivaled swordsman with the ability to cut down any opponent in the blink of an eye with a single strike. The art began to be passed down through the generations of Isshin's family, with countless derivatives being developed to suit the needs of individual swordsmen. However, every variant would share the foundation that began with Isshin Kyosho even to the present day.
Overview[]
The Kyosho Style is a style of swordsmanship derivative of Iaido, specializing in lighting fast quickdraws and precision strikes to bring down an opponent. The Kyosho Style in particular focuses on extremely rapid bursts of powerful sword strikes straight out of the sheath, allowing one to overpower an enemy quickly and end the fight ideally within seconds. That said, long drawn-out engagements are a weakness of the style, as the sword strikes use a lot of energy in those short bursts, which can quickly lead to exhaustion. Some students of the art have been able to counter this weakness by incorporating different styles into the art.
Variants[]
There have been multiple variants of the Kyosho Style of swordsmanship, belonging to those who have incorporated their own style into it to make it more effective, or to fit their particular skill with a blade more. Though certain aspects can vary, the guiding principles of these variants remains the same.
Just Authority[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Kirei Kyosho. This variant is nearly identical to the original style developed by Isshin Kyosho. The style focuses entirely on Iaido techniques, achieving the pinnacle of the art. The style uses single strikes right out from the sheath to cut down opponents in the blink of an eye, emphasizing the exploitation of enemy weaknesses and striking through with a single precise blow that cuts clean through an enemy. The style is extremely conservative in its form and function, utilizing only single strikes in almost all engagements, with just one blow being necessary to end most engagements. Due to the extremely conservative nature of the style, Kirei Kyosho is able to utilize the variant to its fullest extent even in his old age.
Silent Remembrance[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Sakura Katsuragi. The style focuses almost entirely on non-lethal tactics, focusing on neutralizing an opponent with many carefully placed and non-life threatening cuts. The style emphasizes energy conservation even moreso than Yamato's Dark Slayer, and is thereby more passive in its execution. Despite the purely defensive nature of the variant, it can still come out extremely quick, and the measured strikes to ensure that no life is lost require the most precision out of any other variant of the Kyosho Style.
Dark Slayer[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Yamato Ovan. The style most closely resembles the original Kyosho Style, but with some differences to make up for its shortcomings. The Dark Slayer variant utilizes dodges and blade redirects to conserve energy throughout a fight, allowing for Yamato to fight for longer and against more than just single opponents. The style focuses on working to exhaust an opponent before delivering a precise and fatal blow to break through their defenses, all the while constantly looking for any opening to exploit to end the battle sooner. The style also utilizes scabbard and pommel strikes on occasion to take an opponent by surprise.
Relentless Vindication[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Takeo Tohno. The style emphasizes extremely aggressive blade-to-blade contact in order to wear down an opponent's posture and open them up to swift and decisive finishing blows. It focuses on aggressive parries and ripostes as well as various acrobatic maneuvers and strike and leave tactics. It does not make use of the scabbard in combat, instead favoring a two-handed grip on the sword.
Harmonious Resolution[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Shun Kisaragi. This style strikes a balance between relying on a two handed grip of Takeo's Relentless Vindication and the flurry of sword-draws used by Yamato's Dark Slayer, with a preference for the former rather than the latter. As result of the lack of complete mastery of kenjutsu and iaido of Shun, this style is still in development and he still needs to make it his own. Nevertheless, and maybe even because of his lack of training, Shun has proven a notorious level of out-of-the-box thinking and improvisation, most notably in his skill in dual wielding, which he used to turn almost unwinnable situations around.
Vengeful Resonance[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Ishi Haseo. The style resembles Yamato's Dark Slayer, but utilizes more confrontational blade-to-blade tactics, meeting an opponent's blade head-on and striking it away to allow for an opening to quickly cut down an opponent. It uses more energy than Dark Slayer, but also takes advantage of Ishi's more aggressive and proactive tactics, creating opportunities instead of waiting for them. It also utilizes the unorthodox reverse grip, resulting in shorter range but faster flurries, while in the offhand utilizing the scabbard mainly for defense, but occasionally for quick jabs to throw an opponent off balance.
Two decades after the SAO Incident in End War Online, Ishi employs much the same fighting style as he did at the end of SAO, but with some distinct differences. As the ultimate master of the Kyosho Style of kenjutsu, Ishi's swordplay has become practically transcendent. He employs the same unorthodox reverse grip on his sword as before, but the style is markedly even more aggressive than before. Every single movement Ishi makes in combat serves to continue a relentless offense in order to completely dominate any enemy, the speed and power of each strike matched only by how precise and measured they are at the same time, his blade becoming a blur that cuts through the air itself multiple times every second. He also utilizes hand-to-hand maneuvers mid-combat, able to launch strikes from nearly any direction, making him dangerously unpredictable. Ishi's style at this point has become perfect and indominable; the apotheosis of the Kyosho Style Traditional Martial Arts.
Crimson Radiance[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Asuka Shizuka. This style places an emphasis on deception and subversion, utilizing seemingly random blade sequences to trick an enemy into moving the way she wants them to, thereby opening them up for attack. The bladework with this style is extremely quick, but nonetheless ties sequences together in a steady flow. This style resembles Ishi's own Vengeful Resonance in its extremely quick and randomized flurries, but whereas Ishi's style is extremely aggressive and creates its own openings, Asuka's style instead relies on coercing an enemy into opening themselves up with aggressive bladework that can confuse and startle an enemy into dropping their guard or moving in a manner that Asuka can exploit. This is compounded by the fact that Asuka is left-handed, making her more difficult to deal with for those inexperienced with having strikes come from the opposite direction they normally would.
Sovereign Outcast[]
The variant of the Kyosho Style used by Yamato Haseo. The style still holds a reliance on quick draws, though Yamato draws his blade from his back instead of his waist. His style is highly aggressive, emphasizing heavy and hard strikes to quickly beat down an opponent, utilizing multiple quick draws to that end. In End War Online, he takes this to the extreme with his custom blade, Virtue, which utilizes an ignition switch in the scabbard to launch the blade out of its sheath at high speed, allowing for extremely powerful quick-draws.
After obtaining his father's Raikiri to replace his broken Virtue, the style remains mostly the same aside from the absence of Virtue's ignition mechanism. In response to this, Yamato utilizes extremely quick and hard quick-draws as normal, but holds the scabbard in his left hand as his father and namesake had. The style puts even more focus on quick-draws by making nearly every other strike into a quick-draw, sheathing the sword and coming out with an extremely hard and fast strike to beat down an opponent as he had before, this time utilizing his own raw strength. Using the Raikiri's unique properties allows Yamato to swing the blade as fast as he can swing his arm, and the constant sheathing results in maximum power to the blade at all times. The quick-draw techniques are unique, as well, with Yamato resheathing and unsheathing the blade at awkward angles in order to keep up a consistent flurry of blows.