Kendo Kata: Roppon-me

In kata roppon-me (No.6), shitachi is going to learn kote-suriage-kote. Uchitachi is in chūdan and shitachi takes gedan to start with.

Uchitachi ChudanUchitachi Chudan
GedanShitachi in Gedan

What Happens in Kata No.6

Uchitachi

Shitachi

1.

Take Chudan

Take Gedan

2.

Take 3 big steps forwards onto the front foot.

Take 3 big steps forwards onto the front foot.

3.

Stay in Chudan

Lift the sword up putting pressure at the middle of the uchitachi's tsuka.

4.

Start lowering the sword down a little bit to prevent the shitachi's sword from coming up.

Keep going until Uchitachi takes the next action.

5.

Take Hidari-Jodan by taking a step backwards onto the right foot when your sword is just about to touch the shitachi's sword. (You cannot stop the shitachi coming up so you need to move out of the way to gain an opportunity to win.)

Chase uchitachi by stepping forwards onto the right foot. Your kamae should be hira-seigan against uchitachi's hidari-jodan.

6.

Bring the sword down to the chudan moving the left foot backwards after shitachi takes hira-seigan.

Lower your sword from hira-seigan to chudan as uchitachi comes down to chudan.

7.

When seeing an opportunity, execute a small kote cut stepping onto the right foot.

Execute kote suriage with the right shinogi of your sword stepping forward and diagonally to the left onto the left foot and cut the uchitachi's kote as the right foot comes forward. Your right foot is the front foot at the moment of cutting the kote.

8.

Take a big step backwards diagonally to the left onto the left foot lowering the kensaki and turning the sword to your left just a bit, i.e. the blade is facing down diagonally to the right.

As uchitachi taking a step backwards, take hidari-jodan stepping onto the left foot. When taking the hidari-jodan, have a feeling of pushing uchitachi backwards with the kensaki of your sword.

9.

Start moving the sword back to the chudan.

As uchitachi start moving his/her sword to chudan, start taking backwards onto the back foot to go back to the centre.

10.

Back to the centre in chudan

Back to the centre in chudan

11.

Kamae wo Toku: Lower the sword turning it to the right so the kensaki of your swords is approximately in front of your right knee.

Kamae wo Toku: Lower the sword turning it to the right so the kensaki of your swords is approximately in front of your right knee.

12.

After the five steps, take chudan and ready for Kata No.7.

After the five steps, take chudan and ready for Kata No.7.

Something to Keep Mind

In the old manual (Dai Nippon Teikoku Kendō Kata), it is said that uchitachi takes seigan (晴眼), which is not a mere chūdan.

In seigan mentioned here, the kensaki of uchitachi should point between the shitachi’s eyes. However, the current manual does not have such description. The current Kata Instruction says "uchitachi takes chūdan".

The kote both uchitachi and shitachi execute is a small kote. That means both do not lift their bokutō up above the eye height. It is more like small kote strike in the modern kendo.

* The important thing is that uchitachi must execute a kote cut properly even though it is small and fast. What that means is that the uchitachi’s kote strike cannot be too small and too fast.

And one of the common mistakes is that the uchitachi’s kote strike does not even reach the shitachi’s kote as a result of making the kote cut too small and fast.

If you don’t mess this part up, your roppon-me should look good.

The article is contributed by Ed, edited by Hiro Imafuji.

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