About Us

Sekai Dojo

The World is our Dojo

Sekai Dojo is a place of practice for Iaido under the tutelage of Guillaume Demesy Sensei (2nd Dan Muso Shinden Ryu), guided by the philosophy that the world is our dojo and our actions, values and principles should be the same in and outside of the dojo.

Musō Shinden-ryū (夢想神伝流) is a style of sword-drawing art founded by Nakayama Hakudō (中山博道) in 1932 that is taught and practised at Se Kai Dojo. The name Musō Shinden-ryū most likely comes from the name given to the Shimomura branch by Hosokawa, Musō Shinden Eishin-ryū (無雙神傳英信流).

Guillaume Demesy

2nd Dan Muso Shinden Ryu

Guillaume Demesy, 2nd Dan Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido, has been practising Iaido for over 30 years. He began studying Iaido and Aikiken in 1986 in Shung Do Kwan dojo in Geneva, under the guidance of Pascal Krieger (co-director of the European Iaido Federation and Menkyo Kaiden in Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo in 1997).

Who/What inspired you to start practicing Iaido?

I was 16 years old when I started practicing Iaido with a group of friends with whom I was doing short films. We decided to take on Iaido to learn more moves that we could reproduce in fight scenes of our movies. Most of my friends are still in the film industry, however I am the only one who continued doing Iaido.

Share with us some of the most memorable training experiences you had when practicing Iaido.

During winter we used to have what we called kangeiko 寒稽古 (かんげいこ), training in the cold. The training began with a very cold shower at 5am in the morning, followed by physical exercises. We end with specific training on our individual martial arts. (Pascal sensei taught various Japanese martial arts including Jodo and Iaido) The training lasted a full week. I always find it interesting to push my body to a certain limit and especially breaking the normality in our day to day life. I can say that I always had very good energy for the rest of the day after each winter training session.

How has Iaido changed or influenced your life?

Iaido has been and is influencing my life, even now. I think this is the beauty about our art as each of the concept we learn with a sword in our hand can be transferred to our day to day life. When I first started, focus and concentration were areas where Iaido taught me the most. Today I am more focus on concepts about the fight against one's ego, living the moment and knowing our needs. I am not sure if we evolve with Iaido or Iaido evolve alongside ourselves.

In your opinion what is the purpose or most important lesson that people can learn from Iaido?

The fight against our ego. This is fighting against ourselves and a battle worth winning. I am not sure it is actually possible as I am still right in the middle of this battle.

Guillaume sensei has been sharing his knowledge about Iaido in Singapore since 2010. First at Budo Academy, then at Mumei Shudan Dojo, and now at our very own Sekai Dojo after receiving the blessings from Pascal sensei to formally teach.