Tegatana dosa – Study Group Tomiki Aikido

A Study on Tegatana no godosa

Author: Eddy Wolput °1948 – 7th dan Aikido (JAA-Tokyo/Japan) – 5th dan Iaido – 5th dan Jodo

Some of the material in this study is not directly related to the Japan Aikido Association (NPO) program or the Shodokan approach. Additional martial arts are incorporated into this study. This interpretation of the 5 basic movements as taught by Kenji Tomiki just after Worldwar2 is mine. If you have an alternative interpretation, do not hesitate to publish it.

The Principles and Practice of Aikido – Senta Yamada

“There are five basic handblade moves which should be practiced with either hand.”

5 Tegatana Movements

The 5 basic “tegatana” movements are used in tandoku-undo (solo exercises also called tegatana-dosa.

Many versions of tandoku undo tegatana-dosa are created in the history of Tomiki Aikido. Some of the versions are very circular, other are more straight.

Tegatana no godosa

Kenji Tomiki incorporated the 5 tegatana-dosa as the basic movements of the hands and/or arms in solo exercises as well as in pairs. It is said that 5 tegatana-dosa are a natural movement and easy to learn. Unfortunately, the body does not always move the most effectively. We must reprogram our subconscious, the place in our brain where our motions are stored.

The arm and hand movements are always directed by the hara (koshi, tanden, yobu and mata). Without the hara, the movements will depend on the local muscle power or will be perceived as an empty act.

The 5 tegatana no godosa are not privileged to Tomiki Aikido. Other martial arts, with or without a weapon have similar concepts and most of them rely on the strength of Hara.

The mechanism of 5-tegatana-dosa

The perception of tegatana-dosa may be regarded as an action of the arm and hand. The mechanism may be described without giving details about the other body part. The driving force obviously comes from other areas of the body. The strength at the end of the target, in many cases called “tegatana” is not produced by the contraction of the muscles of the shoulder and arms. The muscles, in particular around the root, remain flexible but firm without contraction.

Root-transfer-end

When we consider mainly the physical actions of the arm and hand, we can divide the movement segment action in 3 parts:

shoulder or root: source of force for movements
elbow: transfer of force
target connection or the hand: end of the line of force or the point of transfer into the opponent

This segmentation can also applied to the hand’s action

Wrist: the root or source
Palm: the transfer
Fingers or edge of hand: the target connection

A movement can be practised as an isolated action, but in general a combination is used. The whole body is used to perform an efficient transfer of force into the target.

Rotation

Rotational motions of the body are important in Aikido. Rotation uses an axis, but body flexion uses an axis as well. Bending the body is to be avoided during training. However, certain movements require a certain amount of flexion.

The angle of bending is limited. When bending forward, other bodyparts can make the bending deeper.

There are 3 kinds of rotation in the case of tegatana no godosa:

Rotation around the central body axis
Rotation around the longitudal axis of the arm
Diagonal rotation by using the skill of kyokotsu or the upper body centre

Rotation around central body axis

Rotation around the central body axis.

Rotation happens only at shoulder and waist level.

Hips, legs, knees and feet are not an active part of the rotation.

Body rotation creates forces

Rotation around the central axis creates arm sweeping action.

Rotation around the longituadal axis of the arm

Rotation around the axis of the arm – creates an arm turn

The tandoku-undo Uchi/Soto gaeshi is an application of arm rotation that is the predominant factor. You will also notice an arm sweep action coming from a body rotation around the central axis.

Diagonal rotation

Moving kyokotsu to the side while turning the upperbody. Don’t lift the shoulder. Moving kyokotsu produces a diagonal stretch from the hip to the opposite armpit.

This movement enforces the power of tenshikei when you release the stretch.

Move kyokotsu to the side and up direction armpit

From the use of the rotate the body enters a state of tension. The tendons and the fascia are charged across the tension. By loosening the tension, the force can be directed at the arm. The shoulder becomes the root, the elbow the transfer and the hand is the target connector.

Jodan no gamae:
- the diagonal tension line passes from the rear foot through the knee to the hip (groin).
- from the hip (groin), the tension passes the tanden to the opposite shoulder.
- from the shoulder, the tension passes the elbow to the hand (tegatana)
Gedan no gamae: the tension passes the same hotspots as with the jodan no gamae.
When adopting jigotai, the same principles to create tension can be applied.

Tension lines and rotation

With these movements, there is no contractive force involved. There is a diagonal stretching. Releasing the tension and body rotation creates power in the tegatana.

This mechanism can be applied where diagonal power is needed.

Jigotai

From Judo and Aikido by Kenji Tomiki

Jigotai (self-defensive posture) is the attiude with the feet opened widely apart, the knees bent and the upper part of the body lowered. When the right foot is put forward, the posture is called migig jigotai (right self-defensive posture); when the left foot is put forward, the hidari jigotai (left self-defensive posture).

Fumiaki Shishida JAA-Shihan adopting Jigotai during throwing technique.

Mabu (Chinese) or Maho (Japanese) are similar names for Jigotai. Mabu is used in many Chinese martial arts as a tool to improve the skill of rooting. The effect of rooting is mentioned in the “Jigotai” remark of Kenji Tomiki: the upper part of the body lowered. Lowering the upper part is possible when the hara can sink into the legs. If you have the skill of rooting, you can perform this while you are standing in shizentai or natural posture.

Practising 5 Basic Tegatana-dosa

Uchi mawashi – Inside arm sweep – The cutting edge of the hand is leading the movement in the direction of the target.
Soto mawashi – Outside arm sweep – The cutting edge of the hand is leading the movement in the direction of the target.
Uchi gaeshi – Inside arm turn – palm outside and leaded by the tumb
Soto gaesi – Outside arm turn- palm inside up and leaded by the pink or little finger.
O mawashi – Big sweep- A combination of sweeping arm movement with a rotation of the arm and hand.

Don’t confuse the following exercises with the wellknown tandoku-undo tegatana dosa. In the tandoku-undo exercises, you will find the 5 basic tegatana-dosa performed in different stepping patterns.

We can practise 5 basic tegatana-dosa as isolated exercises to create the combined skill of using arm movement with waist movement. By using jigotai posture, we build up leg power usefull as power source during stepping exercises (tandoku undo – tegatana dosa)

Kenji Tomiki performing a Tandoku Undo movement.

Using a hidari-jigotai posture.

First we start from jigotai posture and perform uchi-mawashi, soto-mawashi, uchi-gaeshi and soto gaeshi.
Thereafter, hidari-jigotai and migi-jigotai is used to perform 5-tegatana no godosa.
Thereafter perform 5-tegatana no godosa form hidari- and migi-shizentai.
Finally, you can perform a stepping version from hidari- and migi-shizentai

Kenji Tomiki attached great importance to the study of basic postures – jodan no gamae, chudan no gamae and gedan no gamae. These are incorporated into an exercise – shomen uchi and shomen tsuki.

Jigotai posture – Uchi mawashi

Main movement is “uchi mawashi” using the turning of the waist.

Jigotai posture – Soto mawashi

Main movement is “soto mawashi” using the turning of the waist.

This exercise can be explained as a “kesa giri” exercise.

Jigotai posture – Uchi/Soto Gaeshi Katate

Main movements are Uchi Gaeshi and Soto Gaeshi

Jigotai posture – Uchi/Soto Gaeshi Ryote

Using both hands

Main source of the movements is the hara (koshi, tanden)

Forward Jigotai posture – Uchi mawashi – Soto mawashi

The distance between the 2 feet is about 2x the width of the shoulders.

Forward Jigotai posture – Uchi gaeshi – Soto gaeshi – Katate

The rotation of the body pushes the arm formard. Returning to neutrtal is used for the pulling back of the arm. The elbow is not activily used.

Forward Jigotai posture – Uchi gaeshi – Soto gaeshi – Ryote

The 2-hand method is a big movement exercise and includes a dropping power movement.

Forward Jigotai posture – O mawashi

During this exercise, the turning of the hand arond the longitudal axis, is an extra challenge in the coordination between body rotation and hand/arm rotation.

Forward Jigotai posture – Shomen uchi – Shomen tsuki

The 3 basic postures are used in this exercise. The shomen-uchi attack is almost a trademark of aikido.

Shomen uchi & tsuki & 5 tegatana godosa

Body weight shift

A moving body has 3 main methods to generate force:

Taïjū no idō – using footwork
Taïjū no dendō – using body weight
Tenshikei – diagonal tension

Some explanation was given in the previous paragraphs. But we didn’t gave attention to body weight shift. This can be explained in 2 basic methods.

First, there is the stepping method: ayumi-ashi and tsugi-ashi are the most basic.
Body weight shift is basically shifting the weight from one foot to another.

The 3 methods can of course be used in a combination format.

The body weight shift will be a study on his own.

8 Tegatana no dosa

Can we change the technical heritage of Kenji Tomiki? This question was addressed in another blog-post and there is of course no definite answer. If you are a true “purist”, changing is not a possibility.

On the other hand, Kenji Tomiki made many versions of his technical repertoire and gave the advice to research and improve.

Tandoku-undo or Tomiki’s solo-exercises has many versions and are practised as a multipurpose exercise.

The main ways of moving the body and hands were picked from Aiki skills, then simplified and abstracted and organized as exercise forms.
Teruo Fujiwara – student of Kenji Tomiki

An early version by Kenji Tomiki

A starting point – Tegatana no dosa

Tomiki Tandoku Undo is based upon 5-handblade movements. The movements are combined with a foot-movement pattern.

When Senta Yamada introduced “Judo or Yawara Taiso” in the late-fifties/early-sixties to the Western practitioners, he used 8 different forms. Those 8 forms are considered “multipurpose” exercises.

Tegatana soho 1 : Kihon no kamae – Fundamental posture, power is concentrated in tegatana (1)
Tegatana soho 2 : Uchi mawashi – Inside sweep (2-3)
Tegatana soho 3 : Soto mawashi – outside sweep (4-5)
Tegatana soho 4 : Uchi gaeshi – soto gaeshi – Inside turn and outside turn(6-9)
Tegatana soho 5 : Uchi mawashi tentai – Inside sweep with forward turning (demawari) (10-11)
Tegatana soho 6 : Soto mawashi tentai – Outside sweep with backward turning (hikimawari) (12-15)
Tegatana soho 7 : Ko mawashi – Compact method of tegatana soho 2 and 3 (16)
Tegatana soho 8 : O mawashi – Big turning forward and backward (17-22)

courtesy Adrian Tyndale

When practising these exercises, a full mental focus has to be put on the movements. It has almost no improvement on our movements if we just do those exercises as a robot. Don’t be afraid to include ideas and concepts from another source. Remember, when you practise randori, the real skill is the changes you can make as an answer to the movemebts of the opponent. When the time is there , you can test your movements in a “randori” game.

Lets start with compact “tandoku-undo’

Compact tandoku undo is a combination of 2 or more tegatana exercises (based upon tegatana go-dosa)

First you start with some warming-up exercises. In fact this is not really necessary because tandoku-undo can be used as warming-up. Although this is based upon the previous 8-tandoku-undo, there are certainly big differences.

If you don’t have a lot of space to practise, you can use a non-displacement version of tegatana dosa. Here an example – tandoku undo 1 – 3

If you have more space, about 4x3m, tandoku undo can be practised in 90°-180°-360° directions. Koshi-mawari is of course needed to create an efficient turning movement. Turning of the koshi is based upon the change between shumoku-ashi and chidori-ashi. Understanding the concept of ‘tenshi” to create “tenshikei” can help you to improve your movements.

Tegatana soho 1 : Kihon no kamae

In this tegatana exercise different kamae or body postures are used to practise forward movement as an attacking movement (shomen-uchi and shomen-utsu). The use of a 180° or 90° body turn is an extra supplement and can be seen in the old movies of Kenji Tomiki and Senta Yamada. In the more “sport” oriented method, the straight line method is mostly practised.

Koshi-mawari is integrated in this tegatana exercise. The turning of the koshi is always the first action before you do the striking movement. The turning koshi (tenshi) generate power to perform an efficient foot movement. A foot movement before the koshi turning and strike with tegatana is a mistake and makes you vulnerable to a counter-attack of the opponent. Stepping actions without a blow can be used to bring yourself in the distance of “rikakutaisei” or safe distance with the possibility to strike efficiently.

Tegatana soho 2 : Uchi mawashi & Tegatana soho 3 : Soto mawashi

Inside sweep and outside sweep are 2 movements with the arm and can be used to deflect an incoming blow from opponent. Because this is a multifunction exercise, uchi mawashi and soto mawashi can be used as a defensive action against grasping attacks. In this exercise the “fibonaci” concept comes to the foreground. Changing the direction (180° or 90° ) is done randomly, there is no fixed direction pattern. By using creativity, but keeping the concepts of uchi mawashi and soto mawashi, there are many possibilities to perform this exercise. The videoclip below is just an example and is not a fixed format.

Turning the koshi is always initiating uchi mawashi and soto mawashi. These sweeping actions are done without tensed muscles, the idea of an empty body (mugamae) is included.

Tegatana soho 4 : Uchi gaeshi – soto gaeshi

Although we often see sweeping actions with this tegatana exercise, the main action is about turning the arm inside and outside. The action resemblances the turning over of a book page.

Koshi and arm turning in any direction of a circle makes this exercise not an easy one. Combining the stepping, koshi turning and armturning demands a lot of synchronisation. Mental focus is needed in order to perform those movements.

Stepping and turning

There are a variety of angles within a 360 ° circle. If you describe a perfect spherical rotation (encompassing all 360 ° angles) with koshi in every situation, then all movements are always round, from whatever angle you start them.

Next tegatana soho (5-6-7-8) includes stepping actions with a multifunctional use. In “koryu no kata“, many examples of this simplified kind of movement and stepping are used in the various waza (codified techniques which can be used in different circumstances).

Tegatana soho 5 : Uchi mawashi tentai – demawari

A forward turning step with an uchi-mawashi arm movement. This movement is well-known from koryu-no-kata dai-yon. The final movement, the arm-sweep to the back is a movement performed during hiki-otoshi from basic-17 katachi/kata.

Tegatana soho 6 : Soto mawashi tentai -hikimawari

The first time when you try to perform this exercise you can have an unlogical feeling. You have to start with the front foot, putting backwards and turn koshi while you perfom a big soto-mawashi (outward sweep).

Tegatana soho 7 : Ko mawashi

A ver compact tandoku-undo exercise using uchi mawashi and soto-mawashi. You also can include a kind of uchi gaeshi and soto gaeshi.

Tegatana soho 8 : O mawashi

Big sweeping circle is the characteristic of this exercise. Many ushiro-waza use this movement. An example you will find in koryu-no-kata dai-yon.

Atemi and tegatana

Tegatana – handblade

In various schools of martial arts, there are different ways of delivering a blow. One can strike with the fist, handblade, elbow, knee or foot or even a combination.

The handblade or tegatana (lit. handsword) is the part of the body most often used in aikido to strike in attack or parry in defence. By concentrating the energy of your body into the cutting edge of your hand, blows of considerable power can be achieved. These blows are called atemi-waza, (lit. ate= to strike, mi=body).

Learning to give a powerfull strike with the tegatana is depending on the skill of taijū no idō or body weight shift and taijū no dendō or body weight transmission. See unsoku ho for further information. When your skill can be performed with rendo or continuous full body movement, you wil create “hakkei” or sudden power in your atemi.

5 handblade methods – Tegatana no go dosa

The origin of tegatana dosa exercises can be found in the 5 handblade movements developed by Kenji Tomiki. These handblade movements will be used in attack and defence.

5 tegatana

Metsuke and Shisei

Looking straight forward (metsuke) and a proper posture (shisei) are the basic requirements for using atemi waza. By applying metsuke and shisei and adding the use of gravity we create a starting point of a movement.

“The starting point of a movement”

When you have the sensation of gravity, you will also experience the point where stability is changing into instability. We also know we put a foot in the direction of the instability without a conscious thought. The body reacts naturally. The starting point of a movement with the feet forward, backward, to the side or diagonal will happen without any extra movement. This gives a great advantage when attacking of defending, because the opponent will not receive any indication when the attack or defence starts. If you attack with atemi, the starting point of a movement (in this case an atemi) cannot be intercepted by the opponent.

The movement starts from emptiness, the mushin mugamae concept.

Weapon work and atemi

A weapon is an extension of the body and must be handled with the patterns of the bodily movements. “Don’t use partial muscular movement between the joints”. Use a full body movement (rendo).

Although nowadays most practitioners make reference to swordhandling when doing tegatana dosa, but at the origin of tegatana dosa the link with the sword is not so obvious.The emphasis is more on atemi or methods to destroy the body postures of the opponent by using tegatana movements. In any case, it is ambiguous to make reference to swordhandling without a thorough study of a sword school.

tachi shomen uchi