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Kenneth Poulsen
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Specific old words and translation

Greetings all,

I have a couple of words relating to Japanese and Karate (Historically), that I hope you can help me with :).

• HikeTe: The original meaning of this I have read and heard to be "Pulling Hand". Are there a specific old Kanji or word for "Pushing Hand" also, or could the Kanji for this actually mean both?

• I have not heard or seen the word describing "The other hand", when talking about Pulling Hand - what is the name(s) of this hand, in relation to its functionality, like HikeTe describes the old functionality of the other hand?

• There is an old Japanese word describing what I assume to be "Floating" or "walking on glass", but I do not remember it. I think it is primarily used in a Busines or money context today - but I am not sure. I hope someone here has a better memory than me :). In a Martial Arts context, it would describe something like "moving your de-structured and unbalanced opponent around with you, while you are balanced and grounded". The word describes how it looks when your opponent walks like this.

• KaraTe to the best of my knowledge means "Empty Hand", as in "not holding/grabbing on to something", or "the hand itself is not occupied or busy with anything, even though the arms and body are" or "Holding no weapon". What would/could be the opposite word for this, when we are talking in an old context (around 1900). Functionality wise it would be in the area of "Busy Hands" or "Filled hands" or "Occupied hands" or "Busy and holding/grabbing on to - but no weapons involved" or something like that (It should not be ToriTe, that to the best of my knowledge means "Escaping from" or "releasing" a hand that has grabbed on to you.)

• Many other martial arts incorporate the direct use of "Back-pressure" into their techniques. What is the expression of this in Karate? (I would think it is a part of Kime, but Kime includes other things as well - I am looking for the specific word that describes Back-pressure. Koshi O Hineru describes to the best of my knowledge the movement of the hips necessary for Back Pressure - but the movement in itself does not guarantee Backpressure). It could be in relation to "Connecting with your opponents structure", or "lowering your body weight" or "tucking your hips under you" as well?

• Is there an old expression describing the use of "doubling or tripling the number of simultaneous parts of the body used at the same time" to ensure success in a technique, even though you are smaller or has less strength than your opponent?

• I have heard of an expresison  from some of the older Okinawa Karate, describing something like "Stiff arm" as a way to test for Sanchin. Could someone help me understand this better - hopefully in an older context as well :).

• Is there an old word or expression describing something like "Intermediary Dachi" or a dachi used to get from one position (dachi) to the next, without breaking your grounding and balance?

I hope you can help with a couple of the above - and I would like to appologise for any misspelling, that perhaps has occured in the above :).

Kind regards

Kenneth

Kiwikarateka
Kiwikarateka's picture

Hi Kennth, I can speak Japanese at a conversational level, and while I am by no means fluent, I think I can help with some of these terms.

Kenneth Poulsen wrote:

• HikeTe: The original meaning of this I have read and heard to be "Pulling Hand". Are there a specific old Kanji or word for "Pushing Hand" also, or could the Kanji for this actually mean both?

Hikite (引き手) literally means "pulling hand" (though apparently it also can refer to handles, e.g. a door handle). The first part of the word "hiki" comes from the verb "hiku" which means "to pull" and "te" means hand.

Kenneth Poulsen wrote:

• I have not heard or seen the word describing "The other hand", when talking about Pulling Hand - what is the name(s) of this hand, in relation to its functionality, like HikeTe describes the old functionality of the other hand?

I've seen the other hand referred to as the "thrusting hand" (tsuki te, 突き手) or "blocking/receiving hand" (uke te, 受け手), it depends on what the other hand is doing. I did some googling and the term "Oshi te" (押し手, lit. pushing hand) seems to have use in Karate and Okinawan dance as well, in a Motobu Ryu article they refer to three "hand techniques" from Ryukyuan Imperial Court dancing,  "pushing hand" (oshi te, 押し手), "praying hand", (ogami te, 拝み手), and "kneading hand"(koneri te, こねり手).

Motobu ryu article: https://www.motobu-ryu.org/%E6%9C%AC%E9%83%A8%E5%BE%A1%E6%AE%BF%E6%89%8B/%E6%9C%AC%E9%83%A8%E5%BE%A1%E6%AE%BF%E6%89%8B%E3%81%AE%E6%8A%80%E8%A1%93%E4%BD%93%E7%B3%BB/

Kenneth Poulsen wrote:

• Many other martial arts incorporate the direct use of "Back-pressure" into their techniques. What is the expression of this in Karate? (I would think it is a part of Kime, but Kime includes other things as well - I am looking for the specific word that describes Back-pressure. Koshi O Hineru describes to the best of my knowledge the movement of the hips necessary for Back Pressure - but the movement in itself does not guarantee Backpressure). It could be in relation to "Connecting with your opponents structure", or "lowering your body weight" or "tucking your hips under you" as well?

I'm not sure what you mean by "back pressure" (I've never heard this term in English before) but I looked up "koshi o hineru" and "karate" (腰をひねる) and came up with this article (https://kikunokatsunori.hatenablog.com/entry/2019/02/16/102859) which mentions "hip twisting power", the term is definitely correct for describing that movement of twisting the hips. The article is talking about how punching power is created by adding various power sources together: kicking the ground, twisting the hips, centrifugal force, "back power" (as in the back of the body), twisting and extending the arm, and the weight of the arm itself. Another link that came up was a yahoo answers page (https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11130016046) in which someone is asking "about karate waist rotation", the term "koshi o hineru" is also used here by multiple people.

I didn't read the articles in depth but the term "kime" didn't come up at all. When talking about "tucking the hips" I'm not sure which term or phrase would be used. I skimmed through a detailed article on sanchin (http://www.kyokushin-kyoto.com/archives/48415850.html) and didn't spot anything succinct that matched the term "tucking the hips" or "rolling the hips" but it's quite a long article and I'm not very good with anatomical terminology.

"lowering your body weight" would probably be something like "taijuu o otosu" (体重を落とす) lit. to drop your body weight.

Kenneth Poulsen wrote:

• I have heard of an expresison  from some of the older Okinawa Karate, describing something like "Stiff arm" as a way to test for Sanchin. Could someone help me understand this better - hopefully in an older context as well :).

I can't say I've heard of using a stiff arm to test sanchin or a phrase quite like that. We tend to refer to 'testing' Sanchin as "shime" which isn't quite right as the word refers more to the actions of the person being tested ("shime" comes from the verb "shimeru" which literally means "to tighten") more than what the tester is doing.

I hope this was kind of helpful, at some point I'll try to get round to doing some more reading and chat to a Japanese practitioner or two to see what's what.

Cheers, Mat

Kenneth Poulsen
Kenneth Poulsen's picture

Thank you Kiwikarateka - your answers, and especially your links was and is of much value!

There were specific areas, where my knowledge was "blank", and the knowledge I tried to get to fit together just did not fit together. When reading those links (and the other pages), they actually started to make sence, and actually gave som very good and plausible answers to those areas.

The question I had about:

"There is an old Japanese word describing what I assume to be "Floating" or "walking on glass", but I do not remember it. I think it is primarily used in a Busines or money context today - but I am not sure. I hope someone here has a better memory than me :). In a Martial Arts context, it would describe something like "moving your de-structured and unbalanced opponent around with you, while you are balanced and grounded". The word describes how it looks when your opponent walks like this."

... This can be seen different places in the videos in the page you linked to about Motobu Udundi Ryu - in the Technical section about Tuiti (The first video, around 0:35 is the first clear example, right before he moves ukes hand behind his head).

The question about Back-pressure. The best explanation I have seen for this is in this video about Bruneian Martial art, Silat Suffian Bela Diri:

 

Please notice the Entering/Connecting, the Lowering of his structure (hips), the rotation of the hips - and the resulting strength he displays. This is exactly the same principle I find I can use in the older versions of the Heian katas. This is also the strength needed for a smaller person to affect the stance on a much larger person through the wrist and elbow . The name of this principle (back-pressure) is what I am searchning for in Karate.

Hanshi Annesi also works with Backpressure in this video, it seems like it is an acknowledged principle in Aikido?:

 

Again - your answers was much appreciated, and I would look forward to your take on the other questions :).

(I am going to use the new knowledge in an ongoing discussion with Iain about the interpretation of the word Countering, and the philosofy behind the Heian katas)

Cheers, Kenneth