Kaeshi-no-kata - AEJF list of waza

Please see below:

I doubt that there ever existed such a thing. It is likely misconstruction by non-Japanese speakers. Likely Tani demonstrated these as simple loose techniques, but I do not believe that ever this existed as a whole as a kata. The explanation on the sheet makes no sense. There is no difference between the Japanese terms "Kaeshi kata" and "Kaeshi-no-kata". 'No' is simply not always actually printed. Tani had no history in Kôdôkan jûdô, and he became a black belt in jûdô as late as 1920 while in England. I have never seen any authentic historic document that attests to such a kata actually having existed. The only documents about these techniques are British texts and date from later, and they can all be explained as being the result from misccommunication. The term kata and talking about and describing kata does not mean at all that something is a formal series of theory meant to be practiced as a whole. The term kata is used in Japanese to describe formal aspects of about anything in jûdô. You can talk about the kata of your belt or the kata of how to step on the tatami. That obviously has nothing to do with formal series of Kôdôkan grammar that have the word 'kata' as part of their name.

I agree that this kata, in either version, looks bogus. There are mis-translations and mis-spellings of the Japanese names; and why are there nine techniques, rather than ten? The kaeshi no kata which is referred to is probably that described by Alan Fromm and Nicolas Soames in their Judo: The Gentle Way (1982), pp. 71-72 and 108-09. It is said to have been introduced into England by Tani Yukio, and continued by his pupil Ōtani Masutarō (1898-1977); but was perhaps invented by Ōtani. It consisted of ten techniques (five counters to leg techniques, and five counters to hip techniques): of which at least four are the same as or similar to those listed for the All England Judo Federation kata.

David Waterhouse