Gyaku-do

[Nanbanjin]

I found an interesting post on gyaku-do on the Ichinikai website.



http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~ichini/bbs7/545318603515625.html
Name: Hide. 　　
Nocchi-san, this is the administrator Hide.

Please keep hitting gyaku-do! As EBICO-san says, if your opponents gyaku-do
is open it is quite alright to fire away. Recently as Magisuteru-san said, there are
many players who "defend by thrusting the left fist upwards". Against these players
gyaku-do is the only thing you can use. I think you should train so you can perform
gyaku-do from both "issoku-ittoh" as well as from "truba-zeriai".

Basic gyaku-do from issoku-ittoh is performed as follows.

　1. Move in one step with the right foot and press down firmly on your opponent's
shinai.
2. In that position make a large wind up.
3. Hit gyaku-do while moving the right leg forward in okuri-ashi.
4. Moving the left leg backwards to the left diagonal make a pulling cut.
5. Retreat a few steps using okuri-ashi, with zanshin in chudan.

I was wondering whether gyaku-do is used worldwide.
It can be very difficult to score with in Japan, and is a little frowned upon by some older instructors.

What is the case in your country?

[aru-ma]

I've seen few gyaku do scored in tha last few tournaents in melbourne, about 3 I think, but I have yet to score one on it, however , as I've heard it's very hard to score any type of do down here in Australia or maybe you can tell me otherwise.

And thanks for the discription on gyaku do :D

[Nanbanjin]

I've seen few gyaku do scored in tha last few tournaents in melbourne, about 3 I think, but I have yet to score one on it, however , as I've heard it's very hard to score any type of do down here in Australia or maybe you can tell me otherwise.

And thanks for the discription on gyaku do :D

Thanks for the reply.

I have seen a couple scored in Australia. Fenessy vs. Smith in the final in I think it might have been 93 in Melbourne? comes to mind.

In Japan older sensei sometimes refuse to score because when wearing a saya the left side is protected. I remember that when I was at high school in Japan it was pretty well impossible to score gyaku-do but some of the kids did it anyway I think just because it looks cool.

[tango]

In Japan older sensei sometimes refuse to score because when wearing a saya the left side is protected.


Interesting. I never thought about that before.

[Nanbanjin]

Interesting. I never thought about that before.
If you look at a picture like the one at http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tenjikai/tenjikai95-2/p/017.gif you get an idea where they are coming from.
The side looks fairly well protected by the saya.

A similar interesting point is the target area for men-uchi.
In Japanese Men translates face not head.
The reason we use the word "men" in kendo is because originally a "men" cut was considered a cut to the face, not to the top of the head.

To quote:

武道として剣道がどのようにしてできたか考えているうちに
面頬から面になったように
刀で頭（頭蓋骨）を切りつけたりしないように
やはり真剣では顔、額から鼻のしたぐらいまでを切るのが
必然であろうと思い。そこに打突部位が頭ではなく面と呼ぶ
理由がある

"When thinking of how kendo developed as Budo, just as the "men" we wear was developed from masks (as opposed to helmets), and just as cutting in with a blade was not done to the head (the skull), with a shin-ken (real blade) it was necessary to cut into the forehead and cut through to about the base of the nose. This is why the target area is called "men (face)" and not "atama/kashira (head)"."

c.f. http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~ichini/bbs7/781077320993976.html

[Nanbanjin]

Please ignore this post. I added it before I realised I could edit previous posts.

[tango]

Cool, thanks!