Different jodan stance?

[Holmgren-san]

I just got back from a summer camp at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and I have a question about a jodan stance that I've never seen or heard about before. A hatchidan visiting from Japan was using this, here's how it looked:

1. The left foot is in FRONT of the right foot about two feet.

2. In jodan(which is the only kamae I've seen this in), the right hand is above the forehead and the left hand is outward in a forward/left direction(to better explain this, imagine your back is facing to the south, then the bottom of the tsuka is facing to the northwest)

3. Often times, Yamanaka sensei(the sensei using this stance) would strike using only his left hand, taking his right hand off the tsuka just before starting the strike. I imagine this requires a phenomenal amount of skill.

Does anyone know the name for this?

Thanks,


Holmgren-san

[AlexM]

Does anyone know the name for this?

jodan-no-kame...

Sounds like regular old jodan to me. The kind you see from most people who practice jodan.

What did you think that jodan was supposed to look like?

[Halcyon]

yep. this is the regular (more common) jodan, aka hidari (left) jodan.

what kind of jodan have you been seeing? migi jodan?

[DCPan]

1. The left foot is in FRONT of the right foot about two feet.

2. In jodan(which is the only kamae I've seen this in), the right hand is above the forehead and the left hand is outward in a forward/left direction(to better explain this, imagine your back is facing to the south, then the bottom of the tsuka is facing to the northwest)

3. Often times, Yamanaka sensei(the sensei using this stance) would strike using only his left hand, taking his right hand off the tsuka just before starting the strike. I imagine this requires a phenomenal amount of skill.

Does anyone know the name for this?

Thanks,


Holmgren-san

Morote-Hidari-Jodan.
- Morote = both hands
- Hidari = Left

[Holmgren-san]

Originally Posted by AlexM
jodan-no-kame...

Sounds like regular old jodan to me. The kind you see from most people who practice jodan.

What did you think that jodan was supposed to look like?

Originally Posted by Halcyon
what kind of jodan have you been seeing? migi jodan?

Well, I've only been doing kendo for 2 1/2 months so I could be wrong but, I always thought the "regular old jodan" is where you have your left hand in front of your forehead and you right hand is up above you head so that the shinai is pointed upward at a 45 degree angle. Like when you do the "Ichi-MEN-kamae" practice, I thought it's where you hands are once you do "Ichi", just like I said before.

Anyway, that's the way we learn it at our dojo, and the way everyone was doing it at the summer camp(aside from Yamanaka sensei).

Please help me out on this, I'm more than confused now.

[Lester]

Is this it: http://www.shinzen-dojo.net/galerie/tran_kendo1g.gifif so, this is hidari jodan. Nothing special at all.

[Holmgren-san]

Lester, yeah that looks alot like it, just with Yamanaka sensei, the left foot was farther forward and the right hand was above the forehead, not the left hand. But everyone has there own slightly different ways of doing it, so nevermind.

But anyway, that looks like it.


Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Some people like their hands a little lower, some higher, some have the shinai more vertical, some almost flat back. Because most people don't play jodan, they think of jodan as this very narrowly defined stance like you learn in kata, but it's a range just like chudan.

[Hai_hai]

Lester, yeah that looks alot like it, just with Yamanaka sensei, the left foot was farther forward and the right hand was above the forehead, not the left hand. But everyone has there own slightly different ways of doing it, so nevermind.

But anyway, that looks like it.


Thanks for clearing that up for me.

You'll learn the 2 different jodan no kamae in kata. The other jodan no kamae has the right foot forward.

[DCPan]

The other jodan no kamae has the right foot forward.

And that one is called Morote-MIGI-Jodan (i.e. MIGI = right).

[Pan-Chan]

You said it was a hatchi-dan sensei correct? Well at my dojo, our head sensei(roku-dan)has said that once high level kenshi master the basics to a point in which they are satisfied for the time, that they will start playing around with different things to create a unique style. So since the sensei is hachi-dan it may have been that he was just trying out something he made up.

But what you described as to what he was doing sounds like the regular jodan to me, as well.

[AlexM]

The jodan you described is pretty much how I've always seen it in kendo. The exception being shitachi in kata #1. The rest of the time jodan is left foot in front of the right and hands to the "northwest" as you put it (that's the "classic" version anyway). Competitive jodan players use that same stance: If you hold the shinai straight above your head it'll be tougher to hit your opponent's kote.

[Kichigai]

Yeah - same old Jodan. Probably just the uchidachi and shidachi affiliations for Kata (and the sides in which the sword is held) makes it seem new.