Using the Tegatana (手刀, Hand Sword)

What Is the Tegatana?

In aikido, the tegatana is what carries the power you produce with your whole body to your partner. Tegatana means the hand with the fingers extended. With the fingers open, you can lead power freely in any direction among the five fingertips. The tegatana both sets the direction of the power and is the point from which that power goes out.

If you close the hand and try to lead power with a fist, you can move in only one direction. With the fingers open in tegatana, simply changing the direction of the fingertips changes the direction of the power.

There are three parts of the hand to know here: the shoteibu (掌底部), the fleshy heel of the palm; the tokotsubu (橈骨部), the bone on the thumb side of the wrist; and the shakkotsubu (尺骨部), the bone on the little-finger side. They come up often in the technique descriptions, so remember where they are.

Four Ways to Use the Tegatana

Four ways to use the tegatana. 1 Striking → 2 Controlling → 3·4 Kiriage and kirioroshi (cutting up and down) → 5·6 Tsuridashi

1. Striking: Used for shomen-uchi and yokomen-uchi. Raise the tegatana high and bring it down to strike your partner.
2. Controlling: Step forward and block and press down your partner’s shomen-uchi or yokomen-uchi with the tegatana. This is also the starting point for the movement that follows.
3. Kiriage (斬り上げ) and kirioroshi (斬り下ろし): Cutting up and cutting down. In time with the forward-entering body movement of irimi, cut the tegatana up in a large arc to break your partner’s posture. Conversely, when your wrist is grabbed, cut the tegatana sharply down to lead your partner downward.
4. Tsuridashi (つり出し): Lifting out. When your wrist is grabbed, as in katate-dori or ryote-dori, use the tegatana in time with your body movement to lead your partner upward in a large motion, as if lifting them out. It is used in body movements such as soto kaiten.