The instructors at the Higashi Wakahisa Iaidō Circle are members of the Zen Nihon Kendō Renmei [All Japan Kendō Federation]. Therefore, as well as Musō Shinden Jūshin Ryū, we also practise the Zen Nippon Kendō Renmei Iai, also known as Zenkenren Iai or Seitei Iai.

With the establishment of a new government in the Meiji Restoration, wearing swords was banned and sword-based martial arts thus went into decline. Furthermore, after the defeat of Japan in World War II, martial arts were totally banned by the occupying Allied Forces in August 1945. However, with the entry into the Peace Treaty in 1952, the All Japan Kendo Federation was formed to promote and widely spread the traditional martial arts.

The All Japan Iaidō Federation was established in 1954, but as iai is inextricably linked to kendō, in 1956 it joined the All Japan Kendō Federation as the Iaidō Department and adopted the same dan grade and title system as kendō.

As there were many schools of iai, in the past, each iai practitioner would only perform individual demonstrations. However, at the inaugural All Japan Iaidō Tournament held in 1966, winners were determined by judging their performances against one another. In 1969, seven kata were established based on the representative iai schools in the Federation; later, three more were added in 1955 and two more in 2000, bringing the current total to 12.