From the starting position, turn to face the right and sit down in seiza. The enemy, who is seated some distance2 away to your left, stands up, draws their sword, and approaches to cut you with a vertical cut from above.
Look at the enemy as they rise from seiza, and swiftly place both hands on the sword. Note the difference in wording compared to the previous two kata, where you place your hands “quietly” on the sword — rather than attempting to deescalate the situation3, you react to a sudden threat. The right hand will be grasping the tsuka from the side in preparation for a parry, and not from below as if to cut. Without hesitation, raise your hips and the toes of the right foot. While extending the hips, step to the inside of the right knee with the left foot, angling the foot slightly outwards. The manual goes on to say that one should be drawing the sword close to one’s chest while standing up. This was previously interpreted as drawing upwards as early as possible, almost scraping the floor with the kojiri while raising the hips. However, this has since been clarified as meaning to leave the sword in the horizontal position — only releasing the habaki and drawing about a hand’s width — while stepping with the left foot, and then to draw directly upwards while standing up. There is no time to be saved by drawing partway earlier, and if anything the ukenagashi technique benefits from a faster draw. More importantly, the right hand must not draw too far forwards: the purpose of the initial short draw is only to bring the hand to where it must be in order to end up on the line of the right shoulder at the final position by drawing straight upwards. This position is not past the left knee right before standing up. If the hand moves straight upwards from this position relative to the body, the simultaneous rotation of the upper body will ensure the correct parrying position with the shortest possible trajectory of the draw. No additional thinking required.
A good ukenagashi technique generally has three components:
While rising into the incoming cut, the left hand draws the saya back and performs a strong sayabiki, pulling the left shoulder back during the parrying motion. The right hand, keeping a relaxed grip on the sword, pushes upwards into the cut to receive it with the shinogi, the edge angled diagonally upwards and backwards. Here, the right arm will be angled about 45° upwards and on the shoulder line. For ukenagashi to work, the arm should be not quite fully extended when the swords make contact, with the final push happening as the incoming blade is sliding off one’s own: the feeling is almost one of punching into the cut while keeping the grip and wrist flexible. Any sooner, and the sword will not yet be covering the body; any later, and the enemy will be able to push through. Either way, the result would be what is colloquially known as “Game Over”.
When the cut is received, the right foot steps forwards and to the inside of the left foot. This will bring the body just off the cutting line, and it is important at this point that the right foot is pointing directly to the enemy. Because this position is to the right of the centre line on which the enemy is standing and cutting, the angle will be approximately 30° to the left (“11 o’clock”). This position is often demonstrated with the hips facing straight ahead, only turning towards the enemy after the step. This is wrong and due to a too-literal interpretation of the manual, where the movements are described in two sentences because it would be difficult to read if they were printed on top of each other. It would also get one killed, as part of one’s body would be left on the cutting line. The right foot is pointing towards the enemy because the hips are.
The timing has to be such that the hips rise while the sword is drawn, so that the blades make contact just as one reaches iaigoshi with the right foot still in place. As the enemy’s sword is sliding off, the right foot steps, thus bringing the body off the cutting line. This means that the technique must be executed in a very compact timeframe in order to be effective.
Using the force of the deflected cut4, let the kissaki swing around in the same plane to the upper right by changing the relaxed, side-on ukenagashi grip into a cutting grip without moving the hand. This is done by tightening the grip with the little and ring finger, which will also straighten the wrist. Simultaneously, turn your body to face the enemy, and take hold of the tsuka with the left hand in the centre in front of your forehead. Note again that this is happening as the right foot steps in, not afterwards. Otherwise, there would be a pause between the deflection and the furikaburi, and the momentum would go to waste. You would also die, as stated before.
Without pause, cut diagonally down along the kesa line from between the neck and left shoulder while stepping straight back from the enemy with the left foot. At the end of this step, the left foot is aligned in the same direction as the right, and both feet are on the same line parallel to the centre line. Throughout, the hips should stay at the same height, with the knees slightly bent in iaigoshi.
There has, in the past, been some confusion regarding the timing of the cut and the step. Some argued that, because the enemy was already at cutting distance, unless one cut first and started stepping backwards only when the cut impacted, the cut would miss altogether. What this argument fails to consider is that the enemy attempts to cut a seated target, and that one only stands up when their attack is already committed to. In order to cut a seated opponent from a standing position, it is necessary to incline the upper body forwards. Since this changes the ma-ai when one stands up, one now has to step back in order to cut with the monouchi. In any event, the wording in the manual is to cut “at the same time as” stepping back5, and, as a rule, in ZNKR iai this means for the leading foot to stop before the cut does: specifically, at the moment the sword impacts the target.
It is common for beginners to end up with the left foot overstepping past the line of the right foot and opening the stance during the cut so that the hips and left foot point to the left. This is usually caused by turning the hips during the cut, and is easily avoided by taking care to first face the enemy in seitai, and then to step straight back from there to create proper distance while cutting. There is for many a temptation to put the hips into kesa cuts, but in ZNKR iai, all two-handed cuts are performed completely facing the enemy throughout the cut. Doing otherwise could very easily cause the hasuji to deviate during the cut, and the sword to get stuck in the body. For the same reason, the left hand moves completely vertically down along your centre, and only the right hand across to create the diagonal angle.6 At the end of the cut, the kissaki will be slightly below horizontal and to one’s left, in order to have only just exited the enemy’s body at the waist.
From the position at the end of the kesa cut, point the edge forwards and place the monouchi above your right knee by bringing both hands to the front left. This is done by extending one’s left elbow so the left hand is gripping the tsuka from above, while opening up the grip on the right hand and turning the palm upwards to support the tsuka from below. Usually, one can think of the sword’s centre of gravity 10-15 cm in front of the tsuba as a fixed point around which the sword rotates with minimal effort.
Briefly let go of the tsuka with the right hand, and turn the hand around to again take hold of the tsuka with a reverse grip, with the base of the palm supporting the tsuba. Bring the left hand to the koiguchi, and again turn the palm of the right hand facing up, thereby sending the kissaki around from below to your left, and perform gyakute-nōtō starting from near the tsuba. The right hand will have to rotate during nōtō to end up gripping from above, from where the sword can be easily drawn again if need be. As you are nearing the end, lower the left knee to the floor to make contact at the same time as completing nōtō.
“parrying; receiving and deflecting” ↩
Usually taken to be 3-5 metres, but in any event far enough that they will have to stand up in order to approach and attack. ↩
By escalating it into the enemy’s face until they see the error of their ways. ↩
Or the force of your imagination. ↩
[…] 左足を右足後方に引くと同時に敵の左肩口から、袈裟に切り下す。 ↩
There is a saying that the left hand provides power, and the right hand control. ↩