Ju no Kata in Judo with Patrick Parker Sensei

Ju No Kata (forms of gentleness) as taught by Patrick Parker Sensei, head instructor at Mokuren Dojo. Footage from seminar at Windsong Dojo in Oklahoma City on September 20-21, 2012. Parker Sensei discussed and explored the connections between Kano’s Ju-no-kata and Tomiki’s “separated Judo” (Aikido). Parker Sensei’s notes on Ju no Kata are below, as well as links to the seminar.

Ju-no-kata

Notes from Pat Parker:

I have only explored ju no kata for about 15 years, and it has been on a back burner much of that time. As such, my skill and understanding of this thing are very, very modest. I have seen many instructors over the years with much more experience and insight into this kata. However, some of my particular insights may be interesting or unique because of my exploration of the relationships between Ju no kata and Tomiki aikido.

Ju no kata expresses the same principles as the Tomiki walking and releases, but those exercises are on the simpler end of the spectrum. Instead of the motions and principles being separated out of their context, like in the walking, or focusing on a particular type of connection like in the releases, Ju no kata keeps everything in a rich, complex context. Ju no kata is fundamental, but not basic. Kano could have separated all of these ideas out of their context and illustrated them in a much more abecedarian, straightforward way, but instead, he chose to trust the students with the complexity involved in the context.

Ju no kata is also abstract, sort of like a Rorschach blot or perhaps a Mandelbrot – different folks can see a lot of different things within these movements. This tends to make kata like this somewhat autodidactic (it teaches itself to you over time) and individualistic (it teaches different folks different things in different orders). Some kata are less abstract, like goshinjutsu, and as such, are less open to interpretation.

Despite the abstract, individualistic, autodidactic nature of the exercise, it was not designed to be abstract performance art for aging masters or retired competitors. It is well documented that Kano intended Ju no kata to convey practical randori knowledge and skills for relative beginners.

Structure of the kata

This kata is divided into three sets of five forms each. The timing of all the forms is gonosen – meaning uke acts and then tori reacts. Most of the techniques have more than one interchange of initiative in a renzoku fashion (like in randori). The three sets appear to be mostly organized by increasing complexity and degree of motion – that is, techniques in later sets tend to have more interchange of initiative than those in earlier sets.

Large, abstract attacks

The attacks are often large and abstract, or dramatic. I am not sure why that is done that way, but a handful of possibilities suggest themselves:

Kano’s physical education theory – Kano thought slow, large motion appropriate for beginners.

To preserve the intended message – When you get into making the kata “more realistic” you may be getting away from the intended message of the thing.

Focusing attention. By removing the possibility of the partners trying to make the thing “more realistic,” it frees them to pay attention to the principles and elements that Kano was trying to emphasize.

Theatrical/aesthetic – I don’t think this plays much of a role in this exercise, because Kano says it is intended to convey practical randori knowledge, but these attacks may have been done this way to make it fit some aesthetic ideal for performance purposes.

Why no falling in Ju no kata ?

Although ukemi and falling skills are an important part of judo, there are no falls in Ju no kata or in its sister, gonokata. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Kano intended Ju no kata to be doable by relative beginners without requiring special equipment (gi or tatami).

Ukemi is simply not the emphasis of Ju no kata – it is involved with other aspects of judo. In fact, this is a satisfactory explanation for much of the unusual nature of this kata – you can assume that the weirdness is intended to isolate or shine a spotlight upon whatever principle is under study.

Hand/wrist posture in Ju no kata

There are numerous instances in this kata, where one of the partners places his hand on the other partner with his hand/wrist/arm in what we would consider a very strange posture or position. But it turns out that as he follows the partner’s motion, the arm automatically unwinds to a good, strong position. This sort of thing also occurs in some of the aikido chaining exercises.

Alternately, there are places where uke places his hand on tori in a good, strong posture, but by yielding and moving with it, tori forces uke’s grip/wrist posture to degrade. Aikido examples of this would include ushirowaza maeotoshi (release #5) or the ichikata kotegaeshi in response to rear collar grab.

The whole and the sum of the parts

One question that arises in my mind – is it sufficient to practice this thing in pieces, a technique here, a set there? Perhaps doing one technique during each class as warmup/cooldown, or is there a lot of additional value in doing the whole kata in kata mode at one time? Can it be taken to pieces and made into fifteen exercises or does it need to be done as a whole? I’m not sure.

But for the purposes of this exploration, we are going to examine the techniques as 15 individual exercises without worrying much, if any, about transitions between techniques and kata formality.

Naming conventions

I find it easier to learn and keep these things in mind if they have familiar names. Traditionally in Ju no kata , the techniques are named based on uke’s attacking action. For reference, I have added the names of the judo or aikido techniques that tori is approximating at the end of each form.

References

My references in preparing this, have included…

The kata notes on judoinfo.com
Kano’s Kodokan Judo book
Kawaishi’s 7 Katas book
Fukuda’s Ju-no-Kata book
Kodokan Planning and Production Ju-No-Kata video
Numerous performances on YouTube – particularly interesting were the old black&whites of Kano&Yamashita and of Abbe, and a recently released video of Miyake

1. Tsuki Dashi (To avoid a thrust) ushiroate

Set I – Technique 1

The name is usually translated as something like “stabbing with the hand” but it appears to me to really mean something akin to “avoiding a thrust” or “how to avoid a clash.”

Uke advances in right tsugi-ashi. He raises his right arm, straight with fingers extended, palm facing inwards. The thrust is at the point between the eyes.

Smooth, metronomic rhythm. Uke’s third step should put his arm wrist-deep into tori’s head. You can do the attack as 3 distinct steps with 3 levels of the hand, or you can do it as a smooth raising of the hand that takes as much time as 3 steps.

Kawaishi says you can do it in ayumiashi instead of tsugiashi – that would make it more like uke’s entry for owaza or dynamic junana.

Uke is using tegatana just like in Tomiki’s older taiso films – so see Nick’s taiso vids. The smoothest, most direct arc from A to B is a deceptive delivery of the attack. Interestingly, you see this sort of motion in Shotokan karate – Funakoshi starts out his Tennokata with four repetitions of this swinging a punch in a smooth arc from the hip instead of a straight line from a chambered position.

Tori steps to the side and catches the outstretched wrist with his right hand, thumb down. He pulls uke forward and up till he comes in front. He grabs uke’s left wrist with his own left hand, thumb up. Tori stretches uke’s body up and back; he doesn’t bend his own knees.

Instead of grabbing uke’s hand directly, put your hand between your face and uke’s, then follow his arm to his wrist. This doesn’t have to be emphasized in the kata performance, but it makes much more sense than catching a hand out of the air. this catch has to be done after the evasion has moved your body out of the way to avoid an awkward crossing of the line twice.

The initial evasion is a tiny turning step forward w left foot and then when tori grasps uke’s arm, tori’s right leg floats back as uke passes in front. Some of uke’s energy drives tori’s right foot back and the rest is deflected into the hole.“pulling uke up and forward” tends to make uke react similar to release#1 instead of release#5.

Honestly breaking uke’s balance should break his metronome-like rhythm. In most modern JNK films, the rhythm remains the same, suggesting that tori is not really effecting an offbalance. But in most of the old, B&W vids, the rhythm is smooth up to contact, then broken, suggesting they are effecting real offbalance on uke. Either way could be justified. If tori is not doing an offbalance, he could be doing the tactile invisibility thing.

If tori does the offbalance properly, uke will raise his own arm and tori does not have to “lift uke’s arm to the diagonal.” This phenomenon is also seen in releases – the offbalance causes uke to open his waki.
Uke frees his wrists by turning to the left and himself catches the wrists as they both turn. Uke turns tori and brings him in front of him. Note that uke has both thumbs uppermost.

The turns are essentially aikido release #5. Note that the basic explanation of why we do release 5 instead of 1 in aikido is because uke is trying to get behind you and grab you – just like in tsukidashi. The interesting thing is, it’s done from a leaning-backward position. It is largely a matter of getting the long axis of rotation aligned with the axis of rotation of the technique.

Tori executes a similar escape. Tori releases uke’s left wrist and pulls his right arm straight up. Tori steps back a pace (left foot first) and holds uke bent back with body extended. Uke taps his body twice with his left hand, then tori returns uke to the upright posture.

Notice that when uke and Tori are both broken backward, uke can reverse/release, but when uke is broken and Tori is not, uke cannot release.

Also notice that after the initial evasion, tori’s right hand is in an awkward position to control, but at the end of the kata it is in a strong position. In fact, you could probably say that what allows uke to do the release in the first place is tori’s awkward grip and tori’s broken posture.

Aesthetically/emotionally – I hate this bent-back position. I noticed a while back that I absolutely hate bridges – not that I can’t do them, I just dislike how they make me feel. A massage therapist suggested that might be because as martial artists we’re used to protecting/closing the centerline. Thus, this kata serves as a sort of counter to that tendency to close the centerline – so it promotes flexibility and balance.

Also, aesthetically, when two bodies pass each other closely in a fluid, it creates eddy currents swirling between their tracks. Notice that this form resembles this kind of near-miss and swirl.

2. Kata Oshi (Shoulder Push) kotehineri

Set I – Technique 2

Uke places his right hand on Tori’s back between the shoulder blades, tips of fingers just beneath the neck, and pushes. Tori yields, keeping his legs straight. His hands slide down his legs and round them until his is resting his palms on the back of his calves. Uke has moved to the side of Tori, level with his head. If Tori were straight uke would be in front of him. Uke is bent over considerably, but not as much as tori.

Tori does not suddenly drop out from under uke, but yields by degrees (tiny step by tiny step), always providing uke just enough resistance/feedback so that uke feels like they can continue to push. This draws uke into a similar broken posture.

By yielding, tori forces uke to either lose contact, stop pushing, or else degrade his wrist posture toward kotehineri (or both). Also, by moving past uke’s hips behind him, tori tricks uke into changing his action from a strong forward push position to a weak backward push action

This hint is not necessarily “proper kata”, but sometimes I like to practice the push on tori’s right shoulderblade instead of upper spine. This makes uke’s push is assymetric with respect to several of tori’s anatomical planes/axes. If uke were to yield on all these planes, he would bend at the waist and turn on his vertical axis, placing his path of retreat about 90 degrees to the line of attack. this makes a similar action/feel to the sankata bearhug escape. Proper kata says that tori stays facing forward and slips backward past uke, who then has to turn all the way to face tori.

Tori catches Uke’s right hand with his own right hand, Tori’s thumb is in the centre of uke’s palm. Uke is preparing to thrust at the point between the eyes with his extended left fingers.

Taking a grip with your thumb in uke’s palm is a recurring theme in this kata.

Uke tries to avoid the lock on his right arm by the thrust and by twisting. As he does this both students straighten up, but not fully. Uke twists in towards Tori. Tori catches uke thrusting his left hand similarly. Tori steps a pace back (right, left) and draws uke’s hands diagonally upwards to get maximum stretch on uke’s body.

Tori holds uke on the appropriate foot to facilitate the other foot moving like Tori wants. I tend to teach this by saying, “Hold uke on this foot and loop the other arm over his head.”

Uke gives the signal by stamping lightly on the mat. Tori returns him to the upright postion, stepping forward a pace to do so. Tori stands still, and uke stands about 2 feet away, facing him for the next move.

Aesthetically/emotionally, this movement gives me the feel of pushing on something that slips and slides and turns on the ground so that it is always changing the direction of the push until (If I don’t compensate) I’m pushing upside down and backward. this sort of feel happens a lot in judo newaza and aikido defensive groundwork.

3. Ryote Dori (Both Hands) makikomi

Set I – Technique 3

Uke grips both Tori’s wrists. Tori bends slightly forward. Tori releases right wrist by twisting it in and up. Note extended fingers and slight twist of body.

You should see a circular wave in ukes body – back and away, then sideward, then forward. Follow and facilitate this wave with your hands and you can draw uke upward onto his toes (the real meaning of “tsurikomi” – the pull that lifts him up). Interestingly, you can see this same sort of spiral wave in the okuriashibarai of nagenokata – but only if you do it very large and very slowly.

In this move, you put the wave on uke with your right hand. in the next technique, you put it on him with your left hand.

Tori brings right arm over and releases left wrist by drawing it back. Tori’s fingers are extended, preparing to grab uke’s right wrist. Tori has caught and drawn out uke’s left wrist and is preparing to lift uke in a makikomi action. Tori should ideally not grip the judogi here or any time during Ju no kata ! He just puts his arm round uke’s arm.

Notice, when you turn 180 degrees, it always takes three steps – just like in walking kata. Some toris will take a tiny back step with the left leg when they draw hands back. This gives more room for the 180 degree turn, but makes the footwork less efficient for entry to makikomi.

When you turn in and take your grip for makikomi, there must be no slack in the connection. You must turn, set the fulcrum (your hips) and take your grip such that there is no slippage between uke and tori. Any slack will cause uke to slide up and down on the fulcrum. This applies to all koshinage.

Uke has his left hand on Tori’s left hip to help him maintain good balance. Tori lifts by bending his back till he is at a 90 degree angle, legs slightly bent. Uke arches his back at the end and straightens his ankles. His feet should be facing up at about a 40-45 degree angle. Good lower back exercise. Tori does not throw (and never does in Ju no kata ).

As tori lifts uke, uke straightens his body, even to the point of arching his back just a bit and extending his neck. Legs go together and uke places his free hand on tori’s hip for stability (This is called “closing the gate”). This allows the experiment to go further than if uke is flopping around or drooping over tori’s back. So closed-gate and arched back sort of makes uke into a piece of standardized equipment for tori to use in this experiment.

Ryotedori makikomi is largely an exercise in getting the fulcrum (tori’s hips) to the sweet spot and playing with “the edge” – that is, the place where one more ounce of pressure would necessitate uke falling. Both uke and tori learn a lot from repeatedly moving just to the edge and (literally) looking over the edge. this throw happens hands-feet-hips

This extension of uke’s back all the way to the edge facilitates learning good ukemi, because this is the same motor sequence as with a reflexive fall. The back and neck should extend all the way until the point-of-no-return and then uke’s body curls. This often makes for nice photos of hip throws where uke is face-down looking at the ground till the last minute.

Tori lifts uke straight-legged – tremendous hamstring stretch/ strengthener. The eccentric controlling contraction of the hams will make you sore. This points out a property of Ju no kata – it is not the kata of flaccid, wimpy noodle-yielding. It is more a kata of flexible, appropriate use of strength and power -of when and how to switch from one to the other.

Uke gives the tapping signal with the left hand and Tori lowers him gently to his feet again. Tori stands still. Uke moves back a little.

Aesthetically/emotionally, this makes me feel like a daredevil – not reckless, but fearless in going all the way to look over the edge to examine this curiosity. Almost as to make tori “prove that he has the hip throw” all the way up to the point of no return before giving yourself to the ukemi.

4. Kata Mawashi (Shoulder Turn) seoinage

Set I – Technique 4

Uke comes and stands about 1 foot behind tori. He places his right hand on the top back of Tori’s right shoulder, his left hand on the top front of the other shoulder and turns Tori round. Tori gives way by pivoting on his left foot. When they face each other, Tori’s left hand slides down the inner sleeve to grasp finally at the elbow.

As tori turns, his left hand brushes uke’s left hand off his shoulder. Uke withdraws that hand, because it is in danger of tori spinning into an armlock like oshitaoshi, or rolling behind uke as in ushiroate (both implied actions would be good ones to practice some).

Same circular wave-like motion as in ryotedori – tori pushes uke’s shoulder away, then sideward, then draws forward and upward. Notice tori could turn and grab uke’s lead elbow as would be expected for a seoinage, but there is slack between elbow and shoulder so it would be harder to effect that wave motion in uke. This is much easier at the shoulder. So do the wave thing at the shoulder, then slide down to the elbow. Again, hands-feet-hips

Grip the elbow and not the cloth at the elbow. Uke holds onto tori’s elbow too as part of the “closed-gate” thing.

It always takes 3 steps to turn 180 degrees – 6 steps to complete this whole turn. When uke turns tori, tori starts the steps with his left foot – opening his left hip

Notice that almost all of tori’s motion is vertical axis rotation – there is very little hip drop unlike most modern seoinage teachings. Seoinage in nagenokata is done the same way – rotating but not dropping much. When contrasted with the later Ju no kata technique where uke drops dramatically, it seems to suggest that seoinage is not really a “get below uke’s center” technique. It is more of a huge, heavy spinning horizontal flywheel that catches uke’s sleeve as uke is rotating vertically and throws him diagonally off line.

Tori comes through and grasps Uke’s shoulder as high as possible, pulling him forward. He has his knees bent a bit. Tori’s left foot finishes level with his right.

Curious grip for seoinage – over the shoulder instead of through the crook of the elbow. Why? I don’t know for sure, but it suggests that the grips are not really

Notice that the right hand is placed on uke’s shoulder instead of taking a grip, suggesting this hand is not the power hand here (as taught in modern seoinage). The tegatana on the shoulder appears to be another gate maneuver. This total lack of a grip takes seoinage out of the realm of hand throw and forces it to be done with whole-body action.

This also demonstrates that tori’s right arm is acting like a tension wheel on a lawnmower belt – instead of a grabbing-power thing, it just takes all the slack out from between uke and tori. You can also see this tension wheel idea at work in some variations of ukiotoshi and sumiotoshi.

It also forces you to not only get your hips to the sweet spot to act as a fulcrum, but there is a sweet spot for your upper body and arm contact – to get enough friction without gripping so that you can tilt and control uke.

He holds uke tightly to him and lifts him in seoinage. Uke points his feet and arches his back so he is in the same position as he was in makikomi.

Notice again, there must be no slippage of the fulcrum (tori’s hip) up and down on uke.

Uke gives the signal with his left hand and is lowered.

There are different feels to this and the next technique…

Aesthetically, this move feels like uke ties himself to a huge spool, which then winds up all the slack, reeling uke in, and then turning upside down. This is different from our typical model for thinking about seoinage (grabbing a jo below its center of balance and letting it tip over)

5. Ago Oshi (Jaw Push) kotehineri

Set I – Technique 5

This technique takes the form of a combination of the first two techniques – tsukidashi and kataoshi. Uke approaches the same as in tsukidashi, but from the side, but tori’s response and finish is much the same as in kataoshi.

Tori faces Joseki in shizenhontai and uke stands just under 6 feet away. Uke advances in right Tsugiashi and rasies the right arm as he advances, like in Tsuki-dashi. Uke’s aim is to push Tori’s jaw with his fingers. When the hand is about to touch, Tori catches it with his right hand (thumb on palm and pressing away and forward). Tori takes his right foot through in a very big arc, turning so that he twists Uke’s right arm. Uke tries to relieve the pressure by turning to his right, supplementing this with a thrust of his left fingers towards Tori’s eyes.

Even though judoinfo says “when the hand is about to touch,” uke actually does touch and push tori’s jaw. in tsukidashi, tori evades in time, but in agooshi, the attack actually touches tori’s jaw and then tori responds. Demonstrates rolling with a blow.

Tori catches the left arm in a similar fashion as it comes through and makes uke twist much further then he intended. Uke pulls his arms in as they become fully extended in order to avoid a kata-oshi finish. Tori pushes uke’s hands to the top of his shoulders, but secures the same postion as in kata-oshi otherwise as regards spine and balance.

The usja tech specs say that tori pulls gently in the direction of the attack, effecting an offbalance.

In kataoshi, uke makes all the turning motion as tori slides behind into kotehineri. In agooshi, tori makes all the turning motion, keeping uke in the same line of attack.

Similar finish to kataoshi, but uke is broken backwards with bent arms – why this difference? I don’t know, other than the judoinfo text above suggests that it is a modification by uke (he pulls the arms in) to avoid the same terrible ending as in tsukidashi. It is interesting that it illustrates that you can control uke through straight or bent arms – similar to how we teach to apply whatever armbar uke wants – bent or straight.

Kawaishi ends these two exercises just the same – arms extended.

Uke gives the signal with a foot and Tori returns him to the upright postion. Tori return to the positions in which they began the kata.

Aesthetically, the emphasis in agooshi is rolling with the force of the atemi – rolling and staying viable

6. Kiri Oroshi (Dropping Cut) kotegaeshi

Set II – Technique 1

Uke advances to face Tori about 3 ft apart. Uke pivots on his left foot and faces away from Joseki and stands in Shizenhontai. Uke swings his right arm to the side and straight up. Uke pivots on the left foot to turn to the left and then, advancing the right foot, strikes down at the head as if with a sword blade.

Similar in form to the first znkr kendo kata – the initial attack is another ma-ai game, like the beginning of tsukidashi.

Tori steps back (left, right) and the blow passes in front of him; he catches the hand as it passes with his right hand (overhand grip on the wrist).

In this exercise, tori steps back to evade. in uchioroshi later, tori leans back to evade. Except in the old black and white kano-yamashita video, Kano steps back on both of these.

Catch from underneath the hand, and rotate your hand into the overhand grip. Again, you dont have to emphasize this in the performance of the kata, but it makes much more sense than catching a hand out of the air from above.

Notice how uke’s attack potential is greatest when it is at shoulder height – that is the point at which evasion is critical. Before that, the attack is shorter, and after that the attack is receding from you.

Tori takes a big step with the right foot and presses uke’s arm back and down. Tori should have bent knees and a wide stance. Tori draws up his left foot and again advances with the right; uke steps back with his right foot, his arm fully extended. By keeping his balance Uke nullifes the effect of Tori’s push, and Tori’s own position becomes weak as he comes right in front of Uke.

Tori takes 2-3 tsugiashi steps forward to offbalance uke. Notice it is not set in stone – In the YouTube vids, Miyake does 2 steps and Abbe does 3 steps. This is not just an interesting glitch – it speaks to the nature of kata – what is being programmed? It is not like “make two steps of 22 inches each at 22.5 degrees…” but more of something like “Tsugiashi until uke is extended backward into offbalance.” the principles are programmed but not all of the motions. The strategy is programmed but not necessarily all the tactics.

Uke frees his right wrist from Tori’s weakened hold by turning his right thumb down and pushing Tori’s elbow with the power of his body. His push begins to turn Tori. Tori continues to turn, moving his right foot in a big curve. Tori finishes his turn, note that the left foot was a pivot!

Uke initially pushes with a weird hand (hineri) but the turn makes it into a normal hand – but then, by trading hands and continuing the motion, tori allows uke’s arm posture to continue to the other extreme- gaeshi. This feels like uke’s hand is describing a French curve between hineri and gaeshi, and tori has to learn to move on that French curve from one end to the other without interrupting it.

Uke twists his hand free as he pushes tori’s arm. Tori, on the other hand, follows uke’s arc to the end of his range and the grip switch is easier – suggesting that it is better to make grip switches at the end of the line instead of standing inside uke’s arc of strength

Notice that the grip switch happens not only at the end of the line, but behind the plane of uke’s feet – inducing a backward kuzushi.

Tori straightens up and catches Uke’s left wrist with his own left hand (thumb down). Tori moves right behind Uke (left foot, right) pulling Uke’s arm to unbalance him to his left rear. Tori steps well back with the left foot and pulls Uke’s arm up and out; his right hand goes up towards Uke’s left shoulder. Tori holds Uke off balance directly to the rear.

This ends with ukes left arm held high – unlike in the later technique, uchioroshi

Uke gives the signal with the right hand and Tori puts him back on balance.

7. Ryokata Oshi (Pushing Both Shoulders) gedanate

Set II – Technique 2

Uke moves to Shizenhontai about 2 ft behind Tori. Uke raises his hands, pointing the fingers and keeping the backs of the hands close to his chest until the arms are fully stretched. He brings his hands on to Tori’s shoulders and presses down. Tori gives way by crouching down, keeping his back straight until he is crouching as low as he can go. His heels are off the floor.

Tori steps directly behind her own right heel with her left foot (rear goblet step in aikido, but very small), bends deeply at the knees, and turns to face uke. Uke drags her right hand around tori’s back to tori’s left shoulder.

Aesthetically/emotionally, I detest the drop here – because of bad knees and laziness. But the distinct drop appears to be deliberately communicated here – as if it is an important point. This contrasts strongly with the earlier seoinage, which is done without a dramatic knee bend. The low posture can be seen as starting the wave-like motion of this thing – dropping to get uke to rise

Notice, it says “low as you can go” – not “sitting on your heels” – I’ve seen demonstrators do this form in a full squat, others in a semi-crouch, and others barely dropping.

Tori turns in a series of small steps, beginning with the left foot. When he is facing Uke he holds Uke’s right wrist with his left hand and turns in the same direction, pulling uke forward. As he does he adds his left hand, slightly further up Uke’s arm than his right hand.

Is there an application for this sort of turning duck-walk? I don’t know.

Tori brushes uke’s arm off of her shoulder with a left knifehand, executes same turn again, and grabs the wrist with both hands.

Rising a little, Tori goes forward with small steps, pulling Uke after him.

Tori keeps the grabbed wrist directly overhead or slightly forward of her head.

To forestall any forward throw, Uke pushes at Tori’s hips and pulls back. After pulling Uke 3 or 4 steps altogether Tori stops.

Both run forward several steps until uke pushes tori’s low back to stop her, stand her up, and lock her spine (ushiroate)

Utilizing Uke’s resistance, he turns to throw off Uke’s left hand and makes a big step with his left foot and then the right foot, bringing him to Uke’s right rear in Jigotai, knees bent. He has increased the pull on Uke’s arm, and with his straight left arm he unbalances Uke to the rear. Tori must show great firmness in the final pose. Uke gives the signal with the left hand and Tori puts him back on balance.

Tori turns to diffuse the spinelock (i’ve seen films of some tori turning left and some right to diffuse the lock), then steps back to the side with right leg, then into gedanate
this rolling around an obstruction motion is common in newaza

Aesthetically, this has the form of a wave – similar to the technique in itsutsu no kata. Tori’s weight drops and swirls, rushes forward and rises, then swirls and drops as it returns. There is also a horzontal wave form as tori flows and rolls around uke’s back push

8. Naname Uchi (Diagonal Strike) uranage

Set II – Technique 3

Uke comes to face Tori about 3 feet away. Uke raises his right hand, fingers extended, over his left shoulder. He brings the outside edge of the hand towards the point between Tori’s eyebrows.
Tori leans back to let the blow pass. With his left hand (fingers extended) he sweeps Uke’s right hand out, controlling Uke’s balance. Tori extends his right hand fingers (separating middle and ring fingers a little) and thrusts at uke’s eyes.

Tori brushes uke’s nanameuchi aside and tries shomenate.

Uke withdraws his left foot and deflects Tori’s hand with his left hand, and then grasps the wrist. Tori steps forward with the left foot to recover his balance and releases Uke’s right wrist. With his left hand (thumb below) he grips Uke’s left wrist and pushes, so that he frees his right wrist and begins to take Uke off balance.

Uke tries to deflect tori’s shomenate into sumiotoshi. Tori steps forward with the left foot to stop the sumiotoshi, breaks his hand free, and tries his own sumiotoshi

Uke saves himself by applying his right palm (fingers down) to Tori’s left elbow. Uke begins to push Tori round in a curve. Uke has freed his left wrist by his push and is turning Tori, who begins to sink as he turns on his left foot. Tori passes right under Uke’s right arm and takes his right foot behind Uke, coming against him so that the bodies form a T. Tori’s right arm encircles Uke’s hips and presses him against Tori’s right hip. Tori’s left hand comes on the left side of uke’s abdomen. Tori raises Uke by straightening his knees (though not fully) and pushing his hips forward. So he is leaning back. His upper legs are parallel with his back to avoid spinal strain.

Uke pushes (upsidedown) on tori’s elbow to stop tori’s sumi-otoshi.

Tori turns to face uke, enters uranage bent 90 degrees at the hips, then walks hips under by bending knees. Tori is pulling uke onto his near foot (uke brings his feet together) as he pulls himself in to uranage

This throw happens hands and shoulder – then feet andd hips

Notice that as tori turns with the elbow push, he is not ducking under, he is yielding to uke’s pulling force. Uke pulls tori into the grips for uranage.

Uke is stretched, like a plank of wood. He is helpless against the uranage and stretches his arms up and claps twice. Tori sets him down

The sweet spot happens when uke’s center of mass rests on the top of tori’s pectoral muscle – it’s not a bear hug and vertical lift. Uke should lie diagonally on top of uke’s pec.

This is an interesting move because it happens from top down instead of feet upward. Tori sets the fulcrum, confirms the grips, then gets the feet in place for the lift. It is also interesting b/c tori sets up an impossible lift – bent 90 degrees at the hips, then fixes it on the fly.

9. Katate Dori (One Hand Holding) hidari koshinage

Set II – Technique 4

Tori stands facing Joseki; Uke comes beside and slightly behind him to the right. Uke grips Tori’s right wrist from the top with his left hand.

Tori takes his right arm forward and up, stretching the fingers. Uke holds on. Tori frees himself by bending his elbow, applying a lever action against Uke’s arm. Uke brings up his right hand and (fingers down) pushes Tori’s arm still farther, stepping forward to help his push.

Tori gives way and moves to the left, shifting his left foot, but twists the upper part of his body more than the lower, so creating an opportunity to slide in his left arm round Uke’s waist along the belt line. His right arm clasps Uke’s left elbow to him. Tori withdraws his right foot a trifle and lifts Uke with Uki-goshi.

Left-sided hipthrow! Interesting because our usual practice is to only teach one side of most major throws like hipthrows. We don’t get much left hipthrow practice. This form counters that tendency.

Feet – then hands – then hips

Uke holds his body in a horizontal straight line. Tori may take him up till the feet are higher than the head if Tori’s physical condition allows. Uke gives the signal with his right hand and Tori puts him back on his feet.

10. Katate Age (One Hand Rising)

Set II – Technique 5

Uke comes to face Tori and stands about 6 feet away. Uke and Tori simultaneously raise their right arms out to the side and then up, coming on to tiptoe. In little steps, slow at first then quickening, they come together; after 3 or 4 steps they meet at the right shoulder.

Very similar to tsukidashi – the differences must contain the interesting bits.

This is a more advanced ma-ai game than in tsukidashi because tori is moving forward too.

Why the festinating gait instead of three discreet steps like in tsukidashi? One thing that this does is it makes the state of uke’s and toris feet indeterminate at the instant tori needs to evade. This means tori must be able to fix his feet rapidly during the last entry step. This fix is more easily done with tiny steps than with big steps. Likewise, it would be easier for uke to fix his feet because he is taking small steps, so uke doing small steps makes tori’s window of opportunity smaller.

Notice the collision is shoulder-to shoulder rather than hand-to-face. Why shoulder-to-shoulder? I don’t know.

Tori avoids a collision by quickly taking his right foot back and turning away. Uke, carried by his impetus, makes a big step with the right foot, coming in front of Tori. Tori holds Uke to him with his left hand on top of the arm and pushes Uke down to his right.

Tori is already center off line – he just has to turn his right foot back out of the way.

Uke reacts back. Tori has suddenly released his pressure and changed to a push in the opposite direction.

Tori is now pushing in the same direction in which Uke is trying to move, so they are both in ‘Harmony’.

Uke braces himself against this new attack by Tori; Tori again lets go so as to permit Uke to come upright. Tori’s left hand is now on Uke’s left deltoid, his right hand on Uke’s right elbow.

Here the kata is demonstrating uke over-correcting against a push and tori taking advantage.
Notice the kata notes language… “Tori has suddenly released his pressure and changed to a push in the opposite direction.” This is implying a different sort of initiative besides gonosen. Tori has already released his push and reversed it when uke starts his resistance. What intuition did tori base this action on? He must have realized that uke was correcting with his feet, so the throw was not going to happen and the resistance was inevitable. This is also very similar to our kata form of shomenate.

As Uke comes up Tori shifts his right hand to Uke’s right wirst and pulls him out and up. Tori moves his left hand to the shoulder point and steps back (left, right) pulling Uke up and back until Uke is fully stretched out and completely off balance. Uke gives the signal with his left hand and Tori returns him to the upright position. They return to the positons in which they began the kata.

Notice, that if tori pulls back when uke is on either foot, uke will step/stumble/turn. The time for the backward pull is during a double-weighting. Another great example of this is shomenate, and perhaps the chest push at the beginning of itsutsu.

Instead of jerking back on uke, tori raises his contact point at the moment of double-weighting. This is similar to the “raise the elbows” trick in deashibarai

11. Obi Tori (Belt Grab) – hidari koshinage

Set III – technique 1

Uke comes to face Tori about 3 feet away. Uke raises his hands out and over and comes forward in a big movement to grasp Tori’s belt (wrists crossed, left on top). A small step forward (left, right) is allowed, but not imperative.

Tori takes his hips slightly back and pulls aside Uke’s left arm by applying his right palm to the wrist. Then Tori applies his left hand with the inside edge against Uke’s arm and the thumb separated. Tori turns Uke to Uke’s right. Tori may pivot on the left foot to help the movement.

To keep balance Uke follows with his left foot in a big curve; Tori changes his right hand to the shoulder and keeps Uke turning. As Uke comes right round he pulls at Tori’s elbow and then moves his right foot back to complete the turn (no break is to be made in the turn). Tori gives way to the pull and makes a half turn by bringing his right foot through. Uke pulls at his left shoulder to unbalance him.

Tori twists his upper body so Uke’s pull fails to unbalance him. He slides his left arm in for a left ukigoshi. Tori holds Uke tightly against him and raise him in Ukigoshi. Uke’s body should be straight and feet should be level with or higher than the head. Uke gives the signal with right hand. Tori sets him down

Uke reaches for tori’s belly with both hands. Tori deflects uke’s left hand with his right hand at the wrist, then takes a left upside-down grip on uke’s left elbow, turning uke for ushiroate.
Uke turns to the right (continuing tori’s push) and scoops tori’s right hand, turning tori for ushiroate.

Tori turns to the left (feet don’t move), swims inside uke’s left arm, then applies left koshinage

12. Mune Oshi (Chest Push)

Set III – technique 2

Uke comes to face Tori and stand close to him. Uke raises his right hand, fingers straight, to shoulder level, takes his shoulder a bit back, and then pushes firmly at Tori’s left chest. Tori gives very slightly and deflects Uke’s hand up by grasping the wrist. He pushes Uke in the same way Uke pushed at him (right hand).

Uke moves to deflect the hand. Uke carries Tori’s right hand up and gets his own right hand down to grip Tori’s wrist. Tori grabs Uke’s left wrist and lifts it firmly on high; he then takes his right foot back (and the left slightly forward if necessary) and moves his left arm down and through, carrying Uke’s arms with it.

The first turn after the two chest pushes is a release #4 motion.

Tori passes through with small steps, carrying Uke round with him. Extended fingers, obviously. Tori swings his left arm up and his right arm down, continuing to turn and taking Uke with him. Shoulders brush all the time. A 2nd half turn nearly complete, Tori frees his left wrist and grasps Uke’s wrist.

Tori pulls Uke’s right arm straight out to the side and carries his left arm diagonally upward to the side. Releasing his right hand grip he slides the hand down Uke’s arm. Uke begins to be bend over his right back corner. Tori takes a big step with his right foot, ending up with his hips behind Uke’s. He bends his knees a trifle if necessary. Uke is bent over backwards and gives the signal with one foot. Tori puts him back on balance

13. Tsuke Age (Uppercut)

Set III – Technique 3

Uke comes to face Tori about 3 feet away. Uke takes his right foot back in a big step and swings his arm out, extending the fingers until the hand is level with the head.

Uke brings his right hand down as a fist, steps forward with the right foot and directs the fist at Tori’s jaw.

Tori leans back a little and as the fist goes past he pushes it on the way with his right hand. Tori then brings up his left hand and pushes Uke’s right elbow so Uke begins to turn.

Tori makes a big step to his left front, Uke turns on his left foot taking his right foot through in a curve.

Tori gives Uke no chance to recover balance, but pulls his arm at the elbow and as Uke braces back Tori threads his right arm through and steps right behind Uke, taking the hips through and lowering his body into Jigotai.

Uke’s arm is caught in Ude-garami. Uke gives the signal with free hand. Tori releases him and sets him on balance.

14. Uchi Oroshi (Head Strike)

Set III – Technique 4

Uke takes his right hand diagonally across the body to the shoulder, slowly opening the fingers. When the hand comes above the head the fingers are fully extended. The palm turns out as the hand swings away to the side. The arm comes down and the fingers begin to contract. The hand is brought up the front of the body, becoming a fist. Without a break in the smooth movement, Uke stretches his fist up and steps forward to bring the back of the knuckles on Tori’s head.

Close-fisted attack here – open-handed in kiri-oroshi

Tori leans back so that Uke’s fist misses and travels down; Tori establishes ‘harmony’ by pushing Uke’s arm further in the direction it is going and takes a big forward step, pushing forward and down on Uke’s wrist, making Uke withdraw his right foot to keep balance.

Tori steps back in kirioroshi but leans back in this one… except in kano-yamashita, kano steps back in both.

When Tori’s forward push is spent, Uke uses his left palm to turn Tori round by pushing his elbow, thus freeing his own right wrist. Tori recovers and allows himself to be turned (his arm is raised), pivoting on his left foot. Uke brings his right foot forward again. Tori slides his right foot in a very big curve, using Uke’s own left arm as a connecting rod to unbalance him. Tori goes well down in Jigotai.

Tori takes Uke’s left wrist and keeping Uke tilted off balance, moves behind him (left foot, right foot)

Tori gets right behind and establishes a form of hadakajime, his feet wide, knees bent and body turned rather to the left. He must keep Uke’s body and arm extended, allowing a potential lock on the elbow. Uke gives the signal by tapping. this ends with ukes left arm held low, against hip – unlike in kirioroshi

15. Ryogan Tsuki (Poke Both Eyes)

Set III – Technique 5

Uke faces Tori 3 feet away. Uke raises his right hand up his right side (palm down, fingers extnded with middle and ring fingers seperate a little). He takes his shoulder back a little. Uke steps forward and thusts towards Tori’s eyes.

Tori avoids by stepping back with the left foot and turning out of the way. He grips Uke’s wrist and carries the hand on, pulling Uke forward. Uke comes forward with the left foot and in his turn grips and pushes Tori’s wrist, twisting his own right wrist free. Tori pushes with his right palm at Uke’s elbow as it straightens out. Uke cannot maintain his hold and is turned to the right, pivoting on the right foot.

As Uke comes round, Tori thrusts towards his eyes, advancing the left foot slightly. Uke steps well back with the right foot, turns to the right and grasps the attacking wrist just as Tori did earlier. Tori recovers balance by advancing his right foot; he grips Uke’s wrist to free his own left wrist.

Uke pushes at the elbow and Tori begins to turn away, drawing in his left foot a little at the beginning but thereafter twisting mainly the shoulders without moving the feet more.

As Uke turns Tori, he draws up his own right foot. Tori leans a little back and slipping under the arm moves into Ukigoshi; his foot movement should be minimal.

Tori lifts Uke in Ukigoshi, Uke straightening out. Uke’s feet should be level with or higher then his own head. Uke gives the signal and Tori returns him to his feet

THIS ONE ALWAYS MAKES ME WANT TO DO THE STOOGE ROUTINE 

This hip throw happens foot-hand-hip – perhaps illustrating that in more dynamic conditions (like the end of the kata), foot-first setup is better than hand-first setup