It’s a chilly evening in Emeryville, where half-a-dozen martial arts students at a community center are practicing with katana. They kneel, jump and slash, then slowly mimic wiping blood off their ...

The town of Maruyama, in Yamagata Prefecture, bills itself as the birthplace of iaido. A martial art that focuses on drawing a sword from its scabbard and striking in one smooth, swift motion, iaido ...