origin of hiki waza?

[aru-ma]

out of all the waza I've seen so far I still can't see how hiki waza is derived from old fighting style, some waza are very clear in their origns like do kote and men this includes some oji and shikake waza.

Does anyone here know how hiki waza came to be?

[kendokamax]

i guessed it just looked cool

[Eldritch Knight]

There has to be some time in history when samurai had to hit their opponent while running backwards... Maybe if they were fighting someone with a longer weapon, or if their opponent quickly appeared and didn't give them time to do much else.

[Hai_hai]

out of all the waza I've seen so far I still can't see how hiki waza is derived from old fighting style, some waza are very clear in their origns like do kote and men this includes some oji and shikake waza.

Does anyone here know how hiki waza came to be?

There are two answers.
One. It was an attack performed when your first attacked was blocked.
Two. It was created for kendo as something to do when you and your opponent were in tsuba-zerai

[hamish]

There are attacks in some styles of kenjutsu (Katayama-ryu for one) where you use your backwards motion to assist the cutting action, and to get out of harm's way.

Obviously, the best option from tsuba zeriai with a real sword is to push the blade into a part of your opponent, but it doesn't really work with a shinai!

There are techniques for dealing with tsuba zeriai in kenjutsu ryuha, so its not just a modern kendo construct.

[J. Schitt]

Nice response from Hamish.

Also, with a real sword, in those days, tsuba-zeriai would be an extremely dangerous position to be in!!!

So, to get away, by going backwards, you would need to do something to stop your opponent advncing and killing you.

What better than to dispatch the opponent first, or at least give them a good slash to think about, while you regrouped.

J.

[aru-ma]

There are attacks in some styles of kenjutsu (Katayama-ryu for one) where you use your backwards motion to assist the cutting action, and to get out of harm's way.

Obviously, the best option from tsuba zeriai with a real sword is to push the blade into a part of your opponent, but it doesn't really work with a shinai!

There are techniques for dealing with tsuba zeriai in kenjutsu ryuha, so its not just a modern kendo construct.

Thanks for the explanation, now that's one my unsolved mystery solved