Using a Sword to Study 31 Jo Kata

The 31 jo kata contains movements that, when practised with the jo alone, can feel hard to grasp. The cylindrical nature of the jo, round on all sides, means certain intentions aren't immediately visible. The weapon has no front or back, no cutting edge or spine.

I tend to favour aggressive movement in aikido weapons work. So when I practised movements 9, 10, and 11, something felt off. The sequence seemed too defensive for my taste. When I tried it with a sword instead, the movement took on a different character, more aggressive, more continuous. The sword helped me feel what I was looking for.

This is my interpretation. Others may see these movements differently. What follows is simply what has helped me.

The Setup: Movement 8 and Weight Distribution

Before examining movement 9, we need to understand what precedes it. Movement 8 involves a rotation, and how you manage your weight during this rotation determines what's possible in movement 9.

In solo kata practice, movement 8 is often performed as a retreating strike, stepping backward while executing the technique. This makes sense for safety when training in large groups, and it's how many of us learn the kata. The backward step naturally shifts weight to the rear leg, which then frees the front leg for the forward leap in movement 9.

However, in application with a partner, movement 8 is typically an advancing attack. You're moving toward your opponent. This forward movement tends to load the front leg, which creates a problem: to leap forward in movement 9, you would first need to transfer weight back to the rear leg. This extra weight shift costs time.

Whether stepping backward (in solo practice) or forward (in application), the critical point is to maintain weight on the rear leg despite the rotation. Movement 8 is fundamentally a rotation, not an advancement. The body turns, but the weight stays back.

This requires conscious control. The natural tendency when rotating toward a target is to shift forward. Resisting this tendency, keeping the rear leg loaded, allows movement 9 to begin immediately without a preparatory weight transfer.

Movement 9: Two Scenarios

Movement 9 responds to a descending attack toward the head. The kata shows one response, but practising with a sword helped me see another possibility, one the kata doesn't include. Both scenarios share the same lateral movement to the left, but with different intentions.

Scenario 1: The Successful Interception (Not in the Kata)

Imagine you have a sword rather than a jo. The sword has a front edge (the blade) and a back edge (the spine). As an opponent's weapon descends toward your head, you raise your sword to intercept.

If your timing is good, if you arrive early enough, you can catch the descending weapon on the back of your blade (the spine). This deflects the attack to your left side, redirecting your opponent's weapon and opening their right side for a counter-strike.

The movement to the left, in this scenario, moves the opponent. Your deflection doesn't just protect you. It redirects their weapon and disrupts their structure. From here, you could deliver a cut to their exposed neck or head from the right.

This is an offensive interpretation. The tip of your weapon never retreats; it remains threatening throughout. You've used the interception to create an opening and immediately exploit it.

In practice, we target the weapon for safety. In a martial application with a sword, the target would be the wrists or forearms, cutting before the opponent's weapon can protect them.

This scenario is not what the kata teaches. But exploring it helped me better appreciate the kata's actual scenario.

Scenario 2: The Recovery (What the Kata Shows)

Now imagine your timing is late. The descending attack is already too committed for you to intercept cleanly. Instead of catching it on your blade's spine, you find yourself underneath the attack. The opponent's weapon descends with force.

In this scenario, you cannot deflect the opponent. Instead, you must deflect yourself, getting offline while using the energy of the descending attack to power your recovery.

The movement to the left, here, moves you. You're evading, getting your body off the line of attack. But this isn't purely defensive retreat. The kata teaches how to use the opponent's descending force as energy for your counter-attack.

As the opponent's weapon comes down, its impact on your jo/sword creates rotational force around your hands. This force can be captured and redirected into your own ascending cut, turning the opponent's attack into fuel for your response.

This is what I see in the kata: a recovery from a late interception, using received force to power the counter.

With a jo, both scenarios look almost identical. The cylindrical weapon has no front or back. You cannot see which "edge" is engaging the opponent's weapon.

With a sword, I could distinguish the scenarios more clearly:

Early interception: The back of the blade (spine) catches the attack, deflecting it aside
Late recovery: The front of the blade catches the impact from below, receiving force that powers the ascending counter

The Two Phases of Movement 9

Movement 9 is not a single action but a continuous movement with two distinct phases. These phases are easier to feel with a sword.

Phase 1: Interception and Wrist Rotation

The movement begins with the weapon rising to meet the descending attack. The tip moves in two ways, but always forward: first the raising motion (like lifting the sword in the first suburi), then an inverted cut, cutting upward with the blade facing up instead of down. Without this raising action, the movement becomes just bringing the arms in front of you, which doesn't generate the same speed at the tip.

As the weapon rises, the wrists rotate. If you imagine holding a sword:

Before rotation: The blade faces backward (spine toward the opponent)
After rotation: The blade faces forward (edge toward the opponent)

This rotation happens as the tip continues moving forward. The weapon's end point never retreats. The thumb, which initially points forward along the weapon, ends up pointing backward as the hand rotates to face the sky.

With a jo, this wrist rotation happens but remains invisible. With a sword, you can see the blade orientation change: the weapon transforms from receiving position (spine forward) to cutting position (edge forward).

Phase 2: The Ascending Cut

After the wrist rotation, the movement continues as an ascending cut. This is like the first suburi, but inverted.

In a standard suburi, you raise the sword and cut downward. Here, the sequence is reversed: the energy flows upward. If you had successfully deflected the opponent's weapon in phase 1, this ascending movement would deliver a cut rising toward their neck or head.

Because you've rotated your wrists, the blade is now correctly oriented, edge leading, for this ascending cut. Without the rotation, you'd be striking with the spine, which makes no sense with a sword (though with a jo, it's invisible).

The ascending cut also captures any energy from the opponent's descending attack. If their weapon impacted yours during phase 1, that impact creates downward force. Your wrist rotation redirects this force, and your ascending cut uses it. Their attack becomes your power source.

I find it helpful to think of this movement as a diagonal suburi. The first suburi is vertical: raise the sword overhead, cut straight down. Movement 9 is the same pattern but diagonal and inverted:

Raise along a diagonal line (phase 1)
"Cut" upward along that diagonal (phase 2)

Movement 10: Controlling the Line

Movement 9, as the kata teaches it, doesn't complete the technique. The ascending cut (phase 2) doesn't finish the opponent. We acknowledge that the initial response wasn't fully successful.

Movement 10 repositions: stepping to the side with feet together, the weapon points toward the opponent. This controls the centre line.

With a sword, this becomes even more apparent. The opponent, continuing forward, would have to walk onto your extended blade. Even without actively cutting, the sword's presence controls space and limits their options.

With a jo, the same principle applies (the extended weapon threatens the centre line) but the jo's blunt end makes this less visually obvious than a sword's point.

This is a transitional position: not a finishing technique, but a moment of control that sets up movement 11.

Movement 11: The Finishing Cut

From the controlled position of movement 10, movement 11 delivers the conclusion: a hip-driven strike or cut.

The hips rotate, bringing the weapon from side position back to centre. The hands, which had been to the right of centre, return to alignment with the body, the position of maximum structural strength.

If, during your earlier movements (phase 1 of movement 9), you didn't succeed in deflecting the opponent's weapon, their impact on yours now works in your favour. As your hips rotate and your weapon descends, any rotational force from their attack adds to your own power. Their energy, which you couldn't use offensively at first, becomes available now.

This is the recovery completed: from a late interception, through repositioning and line control, to a finishing technique that incorporates the opponent's force.

The Sword as Pedagogical Tool

Why practise with a sword when studying jo kata? For me, it brought out intentions I wasn't fully feeling with the jo alone.

Blade orientation changes: The wrist rotation in movement 9 changes which "edge" faces the opponent. With a sword, this becomes visible. With a jo, the sensation is there but harder to track.
Offensive versus defensive intention: The difference between intercepting early (deflecting the opponent) and late (deflecting yourself) became clearer when I could see which part of the blade was engaging.
The ascending cut's purpose: Cutting upward with a blade gave me a clearer sense of what the ascending motion accomplishes.
Centre line control: A sword pointing forward made the threat to the opponent's centre line feel more tangible to me.

I don't always practice these movements with a sword. Much of my jo kata training uses the jo, naturally. But periodically returning to the sword, even just for this sequence, refreshes my understanding of what I'm trying to accomplish.

With the jo, I find I don't always maintain the same interception intention that the sword makes obvious. The movement becomes somewhat more defensive, less aggressive. The tip might not stay as consistently forward. Knowing what the sword version feels like helps me bring that intention back to the jo.

This is how I've come to understand these movements. Other practitioners, other lineages, may approach them differently. The 31 jo kata has been transmitted through various teachers, and variations exist.

I share this as one exploration. Trying this sequence with a sword was useful for me. It might offer something to others, or it might simply confirm what's already clear through other means.

The exploration itself has been valuable in my training.

Practical Takeaways

In solo practice, pay attention to where the weight goes during movement 8's rotation. Keeping it on the rear leg makes the transition to movement 9 immediate. Movement 9 has two phases: the interception/deflection and the ascending counter. The wrist rotation connects them. The sequence with a bokken shows the blade orientation changes.

In partner practice, both scenarios of movement 9 are worth exploring: intercepting early (scenario 1) versus being late (scenario 2). Movement 10's line control limits the opponent's options. Movement 11 can incorporate force received earlier.

The kata shows the recovery scenario (late interception), perhaps more valuable to practice than the "successful" early interception. Understanding both scenarios changes the intention when performing the kata.

Conclusion

Working with a sword on movements 9, 10, and 11 changed how I experience this section of the kata. Movement 9 became less purely defensive in my practice. I found myself maintaining a more forward intention, feeling the two-phase structure more clearly, and sensing the connection to suburi patterns.

Cross-References

Related Articles:

Why Iwama Emphasizes Weapons - Foundational context for weapons training
When Perfect Form Prevents Perfect Aikido - On the relationship between kata and application

Related Technical Content:

31 Kumijo Comprehensive - Detailed technical breakdown of the 31 partnered forms

About This Article

Metadata	Value
Author	Thomas Mangin
Created	2026-02-02
Last Updated	2026-03-17

This article was developed with assistance from Claude (Anthropic) based on concepts, insights, and detailed verbal explanations provided by the author. The ideas and interpretations come from the author's training and experience; the written expression is Claude's.