Aikido Bokken Kata 1-5

For my own reference. It’s hard to do a clean step-by-step table, mainly because some actions are combined. Some vocabulary can be found here.

Kata 1 (attacker wins)

# Attacker Defender
1 From chudan, strike shomen From hasso-gedan, retreat and take center by striking shomen followed by a tsuki
2 Enter to the left, moving the bokken into “house” on right side to protect against the tsuki and strike with left yokomen Retreat to left hamae and parry chudan
3 Enter and strike with a right yokomen, flick uke’s bokken away to take center Surrender after retreating againt to right hamae and attempting to parry chudan

Kata 2 (defender wins)

# Attacker Defender
1 From chudan, strike shomen From hasso-gedan, enter left, putting bokken into “house” defense and strike left yokomen
2 Retreat to left hamae and parry chudan Enter and strike with a right yokomen, flick uke’s bokken away to take center
3 Surrender after retreating againt to right hamae and attempting to parry chudan

Kata 3 (defender wins)

# Attacker Defender
1 From chudan, strike shomen From hasso-gedan, step back and deflect attacker’s strike on upward movement of bokken from hasso to jodan, then strike shomen.
2 Step back and deflect defender’s strike on upward movement of bokken from gedan to jodan, then strike shomen. Enter to the left, moving the bokken into “house” on right side to protect against the shomen and strike with left yokomen
3 Retreat to left hamae and parry chudan Enter and strike with a right yokomen, flick uke’s bokken away to take center
4 Surrender after retreating againt to right hamae and attempting to parry chudan

Kata 4

# Attacker Defender
1 From chudan, strike shomen From hasso-gedan, enter to the left and strike at attacker’s right knee
2 Seeing the strike against the knee, abort the shomen and parry Circle bokken up (maintaining superior blade position to uke’s), enter and tsuki
3 Retreat to left hamae and parry chudan Drop bokken tip to pass to (your) right of uke’s bokken, enter and tsuki
4 Retreat to right hamae and parry chudan Enter to the left, and strike with left yokomen
5 Retreat to left hamae and parry chudan Enter and strike with a right yokomen, flick uke’s bokken away to take center
6 Surrender after retreating againt to right hamae and attempting to parry chudan

Kata 5 (Attacker wins)

# Attacker Defender
1 From hasso, flick in bokken to take center and tsuki From chudan, bokken is knocked to (your) right. Blend with the momentum to enter and strike left yokomen
2 “Windshield wiper” bokken to the right to knock down uke’s yokomen, then enter for an upward slash to uke’s right flank (I’m sure there’s a technical name for this strike), finish in right hamae, with the tip of the bokken pointed upwards but in uke’s direction Seeing the slash, turn and step back, bringing the bokken to jodan, then step in to strike left yokomen
3 Enter and bring the tip of the bokken down to uke’s throat to force surrender.

3 Responses to “Aikido Bokken Kata 1-5”

  1. Adi Zukerman Says:

    How does the shomens and such differe from what Shihan Berrios showed us? Itai did some bokken work out in Cali and he said some of the basics were pretty different.

  2. Cheng Says:

    I didn’t notice too many differences in the strikes: shomen is shomen. Stances are slightly different and have names, but that’s about it. The kata, of course, are pretty different, in that the aikido kata have a more “fencing” aspect to them.

    What differences did Itai see? The bokken kata above would be the same for any Aikikai/Aikido Schools of Ueshiba dojo, I think.

    I haven’t seen kendo, so I don’t know what they do. There’s a iaido class in the dojo, but I never took part, and I think they’d work differently, as I’m under the impression there’s a strong emphasis on drawing and cutting, rather than movement, parrying and cutting.

  3. Aikido Man Says:

    Using bokkens in Aikido is a great way to understand timing and distance, also trusting your uke to help if you make a mistake with your bokken…