Uchidachi starting in chūdan and shidachi in gedan, both sides advance starting with the right foot. Upon reaching ma-ai, shidachi, sensing an opportunity, begins raising their kensen towards chūdan to threaten the centre point between uchidachi’s hands. In response, meanwhile, uchidachi lowers their kensen a little, but when the swords are about to meet, retreats with the right foot to raise the sword into hidari-jōdan as they fail to suppress shidachi’s threat.
Shidachi immediately follows with a big step in okuri-ashi, staying in chūdan but raising the kensen to threaten uchidachi’s left fist in jōdan to project seme. Because of this threat, uchidachi immediately steps back with the left foot to assume chūdan, then, seeing an opportunity, makes a small cut aimed at shidachi’s right wrist.
Shidachi, while stepping to the left with their left foot, performs suriage using the right (ura-) shinogi with the feeling of drawing a small semicircle with their sword, then strikes uchidachi’s right wrist while stepping forwards with the right foot.
Uchidachi lowers their kensen (angling the edge diagonally to the right) and takes a large step diagonally backwards to their left, so shidachi steps forwards with their left foot and raises their sword into hidari-jōdan to display zanshin.
While raising their swords into ai-chūdan, both sides return to the centre point starting with the right foot, then lower their kensen and return to their respective starting point.
This kata is probably adapted, at least in spirit, from the third form of the earlier Butokukai kenjutsu kata, but if so, not much of the original kata is recognisable today.
Firstly, since gedan is the counter-kamae of chūdan in the in’yō-gogyō system, and because shidachi consistently assumes the yō kamae in response to uchidachi’s in1 in the tachi kata 4-6 (nanahonme being balanced in mutual chūdan), uchidachi’s initial kamae was changed to chūdan.
Secondly, it no longer makes as much sense for uchidachi to retreat to wakigamae, as they are already in chūdan with shidachi’s kensen threatening from below, and the following cut to the leg having been removed due to the leg not being a valid target in the new kendō system. Instead, they retreat into jōdan, and uchidachi follows and asserts control by moving into “hira-seigan”. From here, the kata shows very strong influence from the Tōkyō Kōshi Gogyō no Kata, with shidachi’s pursuit of uchidachi through different complementary kamae, the kote-suriage-kote with small techniques, and uchidachi’s manner of retreat all being clearly recognisable from that set.
Although chūdan is a balanced kamae with equal amounts of in and yō, it is also adaptable and able to take on a stronger aspect in either direction depending on the opponent’s kamae. This is why uchidachi’s initial chūdan is considered an in kamae in opposition to shidachi’s lower gedan, while shidachi’s chūdan counters uchidachi’s jōdan with a stronger yō aspect. Moreover, the kamae was not referred to as chūdan in the original edition of the manual, but always as seigan. Compared to the modern chūdan, seigan was slightly higher to project stronger seme to the eyes (hence the name), and therefore could be considered to tend a little to in. In hira-seigan, the kensen is even higher but projecting seme upwards at the opponent’s hand, and this makes it a yō kamae in this context.
Here, the recurring pattern of joint moral and technical progress from the first three kata is again starting to become discernible: although the previous two kata ended with the (symbolic) death of uchidachi, now shidachi has progressed enough to achieve victory by only “lightly” injuring (as the small kote cut is not enough to sever the hand as in tachi nihonme) their enemy and subduing their fighting spirit to make them admit defeat.
Shidachi applies very strong pressure from below towards uchidachi’s hands while slowly raising the kensen from gedan, demonstrating why gedan is considered a counter to chūdan. Uchidachi tries to cover the opening and press back down against this seme, but ultimately fails.
Instead of leaving an opening for shidachi to attack, uchidachi retreats into jōdan hoping to create an opening to themself attack from there, but shidachi leaves no such gap in their kamae or distance, instead immediately following into an anti-jōdan chūdan at an uncomfortably (for uchidachi) close distance.
Their plans having been foiled again by shidachi’s seme, uchidachi is forced to step back once more into chūdan. Here uchidachi is counting on shidachi to adjust their kamae by bringing the kensen back down and slightly to the left into the centre (if they do not, they will be leaving an opening for a men cut), thus potentially leaving an opening for a quick kote strike. Grasping this opportunity, uchidachi makes a small cut to shidachi’s right wrist — a large cut would not be fast enough to make use of that very small opening2.
Shidachi is expecting an attack and immediately counters it with a small suriage going into a small cut at uchidachi’s own right wrist. As in the previous kata, the suriage must be made with the shinogi of the blade to be effective and to avoid damaging the edge. It must also not be a harai-like sweeping strike, as the impact of such a technique on the side of the blade would risk breaking it. The suriage is a small semicircular sliding action along the side of uchidachi’s blade to move it off centre, as the left foot steps out to the side to bring the body off uchidachi’s centre line. When the sword continues from the suriage into a small and quick counterstrike, the right foot simultaneously steps towards uchidachi on the new centre line.
Although their wrist has been cut, uchidachi can still fight, and takes a big step back from shidachi, pulling the injured hand back and away with the sword hoping to make distance to reposition themselves and attack again. Shidachi, however, will still not allow uchidachi that opportunity and follows without pause to control the centre in front of uchidachi, then raises their sword into jōdan to display zanshin and cement their victory. Only then does uchidachi give up and the kata can end.
This is the “triple-kill method”3 (三殺法 sansatsuhō): killing the sword, killing the technique, and killing the spirit.
“Killing the sword” means to deny the enemy the full use of their sword, by not yielding control of the centre or by countering their kamae. The most obvious example might be uchiotoshi or harai techniques that literally strike or sweep the sword away, but in this kata the sword is killed by the aforementioned, more subtle, means.
“Killing the technique” is what happens during the suriage, when uchidachi’s attack is rendered ineffective by shidachi’s counter. Although outright blocks are not used in modern kendō, they fall under this category, as do ukenagashi, nukiwaza and so on.
Finally, “killing the spirit” is what forces uchidachi to finally give up in this form. Backed into a corner with no way to fight back, they have no choice but to surrender. It is an example of kuraizume, which is more expressly utilised in tachi sanbonme.
Through effective use of the triple-kill method, one can achieve complete victory even without killing — or indeed even necessarily injuring — the enemy. It is when one is able to do all three that one’s kendō is most effective. This is the lesson of the sixth long-sword form.
A student using jōdan against a senior is considered very improper; Nakayama Hakudō once called it “the height of insolence”. The yō aspect of upwards-attacking kamae is also considered more positive than the downwards-cutting in stances, so this symbolism is probably why shidachi is assigned yō kamae in these kata. ↩
It is sometimes said that uchidachi is pressured into making a reckless attack by shidachi’s repeated seme, but there is not much to learn from defeating an opponent who makes mistakes. Uchidachi, the teacher, attacks at the first potential opening that naturally arises. ↩
Or “three methods of killing”, but that’s not as catchy. ↩