Customer Reviews

Ju-No-Kata: A Kodokan Textbook

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This is an authoritative and complete manual on the ju-no-kata (forms of gentleness). The photos and text make each move and each technique clear for both tori and uke. It is a technical manual useful for a judo student studying this form, or for anyone interested in the author since it includes a section with her photo album.

The author is the foremost authority in the world on this Kodokan kata. I wish it had been expanded even more from the original version previously published in Born for the Mat. The author's insights are valuable and it is good to have them recorded in this book.

Keiko Fukuda is the world's highest ranked female judoka (judo practitioner). Her grandfather was one of Jigoro Kano sensei's early instructors (for those who don't know, he's the guy who invented judo and started the Kodokan). While ju no kata is sometimes perceived as a woman's exercise (since they learn it during kyu [colored belt] ranks while men generally do not until dan [black belt]), both men and women can benefit from this excellent tome. You cannot learn any martial art from a book, of course, but I believe that this is essential material to refine and internalize techniques that you encounter on the dojo floor. The forms are aptly described, well illustrated, and easy to follow. Fukuda sensei also includes a fascinating write-up of her thoughts on the evolution and direction of the sport of judo along with some great pictures of her training throughout the years.

In many ways ju no kata is to judo what sanchin kata is to karate, an essential foundational exercise that expresses the principles and techniques of the art form. Unlike most components of judo, this kata can be practiced without a dogi (uniform) or tatami (padded mat) surface, since there is no throwing involved (or perhaps more accurately no falling). It is performed slowly with emphasis on the essential principles that make full-speed, full-power judo work effectively, and contains both offensive and defensive techniques. More specifically, the ju no kata technique refines a practitioner's sense of ju (gentleness/using an opponent's force against them), timing, body mechanics (e.g., proper hip rotation), tai sabaki waza (body movement/blending techniques), and mental focus. It also increases one's flexibility and conditioning if performed diligently.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction