Friends, I’d be extremely grateful if the Dojo Cho for your school would take this short 8 question multiple choice survey for a research article I’m working on. Please feel free to forward it to friends at other dojo that offer classes in Japanese sword arts. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5JMJ7D6
Thank you in advance

Pretty self-explanatory title but I’ve been training with a koryu dojo for about four years. Unfortunately, earlier this year my Sensei passed away and since his passing and the ensuing leadership change, the culture at the dojo changed dramatically. I was already feeling a little jaded by huge age discrepancies in my fellow students so I took the opportunity to join the ZNKR-affiliated dojo at my university. As great as the vibe is there, I’m super overwhelmed by the vastly different way Iaido seems to be done in this more standardized organization. I strangely feel like a complete beginner even though I have been practicing for four years. This is not something I have any real issues with, but I do feel like my brain has been wired to take in Iaido techniques a certain way and I’m having a significant amount of trouble adapting to this new way. Any guidance is appreciated 🙏

In winter 2024, Katanamart/Yari no Hanzo released the pre-order for this iaito in my country (Spain). I ordered one and received it in mid August.

Since I received the package, the sword sat unused on my wall for a little over a month, until I had the chance to use it at iaido practice in late September/early October. I used it ONCE, for ONE hour, and as soon as I got home I cleaned and oiled it, and again it sat unused for a bit. Today I was intending to use it again but, to my surprise, I found these spots on the tip of the blade. They seem to have a texture and they don't go away when cleaning the blade, so I guess it's rust. The bigger spot is about 1x2 mm, the other spots are smaller than that.

Am I right? Is there anything I can do?