Japanese in Karate 15 "Kiba-dachi" "Shita-zuki" and "Hiji-uchi"

Next “tachi” (stance) is “Kiba-dachi”. “Kiba” means a trooper/soldier on a horse. And “dachi” is “tachi” = stance.   “Kiba-dachi’ is the stance that you imagine like riding a horse and you have to fight, so your bottom is down(sitting pose) but you need to put the power into both legs (not to fall from the horse!)  In Japan, I always did the following basic movements with “kiba-dachi” in the training.

★Seiken shita-zuki

“Shita” means ‘under/below’ and “zuki” is “tsuki” = punch. “Gedan”下段 and “shita”下 are almost the same meaning. “Gedan-zuki” is the punch toward the lower level and “shita-zuki” is the punch from the lower level with the knuckle palm side up.

★Hiji uchi

“Hiji” means ‘elbows’ and “uchi” is ‘strike’ so “hiji uchi” is ‘elbow strike’. It is also called “enpi” in karate.

★ Hiji jodan uchi  / Hiji mawashi uchi

“Jodan” is ‘upper level’. “Mawashi” is ‘turn something around’. This is the elbow strike when you move the elbow around from the side to hit (the upper part of) the opponent.

★Hiji age uchi

“Age” means ‘to lift up’. This is the elbow strike when you lift up the elbow to hit the opponent.

★Hiji oroshi uchi

“Oroshi” means ‘to pull down’. This is the elbow strike when you first lift up the elbow and pull it down to hit the opponent.

<Extra Japanese knowledge>

下  this kanji means ‘under/below/lower’ and the Japanese word is “shita”. This kanji has the second reading, which is “ge”. When the word is combined with another word and makes a new combined word, the reading is usually the second one.  Therefore, for the word ‘lower level’, it’s actually “shita”下 + “dan”段 but the reading changes to “ge dan”         下段

hiji jodan uchi                                    hiji age uchi                                        hiji oroshi uchi