Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas

The Kodokan judo gokyo-no-waza: Its history and pedagogy

Carl De Crée — 2026-02-15

This paper aims to describe, contextualize and critically analyze the historical origin and background, circumstances, structure and logic that underpin Kodokan judo’s gokyo-no-waza and classification of throws outside of the gokyo. To do so, we have applied historical methods and source criticism allowing us to uncover hitherto unknown facts and to offer a critical analysis of the gokyo’s foundations and previously published hypotheses. With kata prior to the creation of the gokyo being the only crutch that Kano’s assistants could lean on when having to teach the Kodokan’s exponentially growing number of judo students, there was a dire need for a didactically organized teaching plan of technical progression. It is to that end that in 1895 some of Kano’s most senior students and himself came up with the gokyo-no-waza or “techniques of the five teachings” as their standard syllabus of throwing techniques. Today referred to as the kyu gokyo-no-waza, this first syllabus consisted of 42 techniques. In response to the evolution of judo, a revised syllabus, the shin gokyo-no-waza consisting of 40 techniques was launched in 1920 based on the input of six of Kano’s leading students. The techniques within the gokyo are organized foremost with attention to being easy for breakfalling. Between 1982 and 2017, the Kodokan expanded their syllabus to 68 throws by creating two categories of techniques outside of the gokyo, i.e. the habukareta-waza and the shinmeisho-no-waza. In this paper we propose to add a new category of 25 historically documented judo throws, which we have named the jidai-okure-no-waza [obsolete techniques] hence bringing the total recognized judo throws to 93.

Breaking down barriers: the beginnings of women's practice in Mexican taekwondo (1972-1992)

Edgar Iván López Gallo Gocchi — 2026-02-15

The female contribution has been fundamental for the successful development of Mexican taekwondo, not only in its competitive contribution, but also in its popularization and teaching. However, things were not easy for the young women who in the 1970s and 1980s began to practice this discipline, since they had to overcome the historical inequality related to the sex-gender system, machismo and the lack of sports support, factors that slowed down —although they did not stop— their martial and sports development. This article reconstructs the beginnings of taekwondo practice of six women, most of them members of the Moo Duk Kwan organization, and the difficulties they faced in their sport practice. The text begins with a brief introduction in which the objectives, hypotheses, a brief state of the question and the methodology used are presented, and then some changes in the lives of women in Mexico City at the end of the 1960s. It then focuses on the experiences of six Mexican taekwondo pioneers. Finally, some brief final considerations are presented.

The text begins with a brief introduction that, among other things, highlights the contribution of women in Mexican taekwondo and presents the sources used in the research; to then address the arrival of jiu-jitsu and judo in Mexico, first modern Eastern martial arts practiced in the country. He then presents some social and cultural changes in Mexico at the end of the 1960s, then focuses on the experiences of six Mexican taekwondo pioneers and a precursor to sports psychology. Finally, some final considerations are presented.

The spatial and spatiotemporal interpersonal coordinations in aikido’s jiyu waza

Estefan Gemas Neto — 2026-02-17

Over the past few years, interpersonal coordination has been increasingly recognised as an important concept in understanding sports performance. It refers to the interactions between individuals. The present study aimed to investigate the interpersonal coordination in jiyu waza. Specifically, it sought to identify the spatial and spatiotemporal measures that characterised interpersonal coordination in jiyu waza. Twenty aikido practitioners participated in the study, with a mean age of 30 years (± 5 years), with a minimum rank of shodan (1st degree black belt) and a minimum of 8 years of aikido practice. The task was jiyu waza, which consisted of a defending aikido practitioner avoiding being surrounded and/or hit by three opponents. Triangular area, triangular shape/type, and interpersonal distance, together with their respective measures of change rates (variability and velocity) were used as measures of interpersonal coordination. The x and y coordinates of the participants' displacement were obtained from 30-second filming (1800 frames at 60 fps) using the semi-automatic tracking software Kinovea 0.9.5. The filming was performed from above, considering the top of each participant's head as the tracking point. Results revealed that: (1) the attackers' interpersonal coordination’s in the form of scalene and obtuse triangles, with more variable areas, as well as the greater interpersonal distances between the defender and the triangles characterised the defenses; (2) the attacks in which the defender was attacked from the front, but was unable to neutralise it, were characterised by greater interpersonal distances that emerged with greater positive velocities; (3) the defender consistently failed to neutralise attacks from behind; these situations were characterised by the interpersonal coordination represented by the scalene and obtuse triangles. The findings of this study suggest that the triangular measures (area and shape/type) were able to capture the interpersonal coordination of cooperation between the attackers, and the interpersonal distance enabled access to the interpersonal coordination relative to the opposition in jiyu waza.

The Way of the (Imagined) Sword: martial heritage perceptions among kendo practitioners

Sebastián Chávez-Hernández — 2026-02-23

Contemporary kendo (Japanese fencing) is a product of Imperial Japan and the post-WWII era. With its expansion to the West and democratic reformation, people from Europe and America engaged with its cultural heritage. However, there are few studies characterizing their kendo heritage notions. Hence, 30 semi-structed interviews were conducted to kendoka (kendo practitioners) residing in Spain asking them about aspects constituting “correct kendo”. By employing a Grounded Theory approach and open coding, four sub-categories emerged: ritual demarcation, material identity, traditional past, and kendistic identity. The main findings on these were that following protocol is fundamental to maintaining harmony and respect among practitioners; that the full uniform projected an idea of the samurai past as traditional, Japanese and value-charged; that ceremonies and ritual situate kendoka in a non-mundane context of the practice; that training implements invite to think of them as fitting for kendo and developing a “kendistic habitus”; and that kendo aesthetics and morals made it distinct from “mere sports”. Thus, both historical and mythical aspects of kendo are thought and reproduced by kendoka through intellectual and corporal means, then deriving in an embodied heritage that has to be interpreted by practitioners to manifest kendo's legacy.