For our new beginners... Bokuto Kihon homework!

Since we have started the Bokuto Kihon kata, here is a video from the All Japan Kendo Federation with all nine kata. It's in Japanese, but you should be able to recognise the sequences you have done already. And as you can see from the screenshot above, there are captions with the numbers for each kata. The caption above reads, "Kihon 5, Nuki-waza". Then underneath it says what the attacks are: "Men nuki Do (migi do)", in other words "a strike to the head which is countered by escaping underneath to cut the right-side of the opponent's torso".

One thing lacking in the video is the kakari-te (attacker) calling out the names of the kata in advance, e.g. "Kihon go!", "Kihon yon!" etc.

So far we have done up to and including kihon roku (6), which is suriage waza ("rising slide technique"). Next week we will do kihon nana, kihon hachi, and kihon kyu.

The full name of these kata is bokuto ni yoru kihon waza keiko ho, which means "practice Method that utilises the wooden sword for practicing fundamental techniques." Hence we call it Bokuto Kihon for short! Below is a list of the whole sequence.

1. kihon ichi — kihon uchi waza: men, kote, do, tsuki (basic striking techniques)
2. kihon ni — ni dan waza: kote-men (2 step technique)
3. kihon san — harai waza: harai-men (sweeping technique)
4. kihon yon — hiki waza: men-taiatari-hiki-do ('pulling' techniques, i.e. techniques moving away)
5. kihon go — nuki waza: men-nuki-do ('escaping' or 'passing through' technique) 
6. kihon roku — suriage waza: kote suriage men (rising slide technique)
7. kihon nana — debana waza: debana kote (forestalling technique)
8. kihon hachi — kaeshi waza: men kaeshi do (returning technique)
9. kihon kyu — uchiotoshi waza: do uchiotoshi men (striking down technique)