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Nage-no-kata: history, the 15 throws and meaning 投の形

Two people, one mat, fifteen throws, each done to both sides. Nage-no-kata is not a fight: it is Kanō Jigorō’s demonstration of how a throw works — breaking balance, fitting in, finishing — so that it can be used in free practice.

Judo
Name“Forms of throwing”; one of the two randori-no-kata
Throws15 in 5 groups of 3, right and left (30)
RolesTori throws, uke is thrown
LevelOften required for shodan
1

Tokyo, 1870s. A student of Fukuda’s school falls, gets up, falls again. That is the method: fall after fall until the body understands.

2

Kanō cannot beat a senior. He tries sumo, then a lift he found in a book on Western wrestling — the fireman’s carry. It works.

3

1882. Twelve mats in a corner of a Buddhist temple. The Kōdōkan begins.

Illustrative scene, not a historical record.

History

  1. 1877–1882As a Tokyo University student, Kanō Jigorō trains in jūjutsu, first with Fukuda Hachinosuke, whose method was mostly taking fall after fall and then free practice (randori), later with Iso Masatomo, a kata specialist. Against a stronger senior he adapts a carry from a Western wrestling book — the origin of kata-guruma. [1]
  2. 1882In May or June, Kanō opens the Kōdōkan with twelve mats in space belonging to the Eishō-ji, a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, with only a handful of students. [1][2]
  3. The kataKanō builds Nage-no-kata to illustrate the principles of throwing so students can apply them in randori. It starts with ten throws; five more are added later, including kata-guruma and uki-otoshi. [3]
  4. 1906 · 1911In 1906 Kanō chairs the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai committee for jūjutsu kata. By 1911 the Kōdōkan, which began with fewer than a dozen students, has more than a thousand dan-graded members. [1]

Historical images

Kanō Jigorō
Kanō Jigorō, founder of Kōdōkan judo and of the Nage-no-kata.

Portrait of late Mr. Kano.jpg — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The sequence, step by step

A summary in our own words to help you follow and remember the form. It does not replace a teacher, and details differ between associations. [3]

Nage-no-kata: places on the mat (tori on the left of the joseki)JOSEKI (front of the dōjō)TUToriUkebow to the front, then kneeling bow to each othereach throw: right side, then left side
Nage-no-kata: places on the mat (tori on the left of the joseki) — Simplified diagram.
  1. Step 1/7

    Opening

    Tori and uke come onto the mat from opposite sides, tori on the left of the joseki. They bow as they step on, bow standing toward the joseki (ritsu-rei), kneel and bow to each other (za-rei), then step in, left foot first, into the basic natural posture (shizen hontai).

  2. Step 2/7

    Te-waza — hand throws

    Uki-otoshi: uke steps in three times; on the third, tori breaks the rhythm, drops to the left knee and throws with a steering pull. Seoi-nage: uke strikes down at tori’s head with a hammer fist; tori turns in and carries the blow forward over the back. Kata-guruma: the shoulder wheel.

  3. Step 3/7

    Koshi-waza — hip throws

    Uki-goshi (floating hip), harai-goshi (sweeping hip), tsurikomi-goshi (lifting-pulling hip).

  4. Step 4/7

    Ashi-waza — foot throws

    Okuriashi-harai, sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, uchi-mata.

  5. Step 5/7

    Ma-sutemi-waza — rear sacrifice

    Tomoe-nage, ura-nage, sumi-gaeshi: tori drops onto the back to throw.

  6. Step 6/7

    Yoko-sutemi-waza — side sacrifice

    Yoko-gake, yoko-guruma, uki-waza: tori drops onto the side.

  7. Step 7/7

    Both sides, then close

    Every throw is done to the right, then repeated to the left: 30 throws in all. The kata ends with the bows in reverse order.

Meaning

Every throw in the kata shows the same three phases: kuzushi (breaking uke’s balance), tsukuri (fitting into position) and kake (execution). The uke’s attacks are real enough — a push, a strike to the head — to make the timing honest.

It also teaches the other half of judo: uke takes thirty falls. Kanō’s first teacher made students fall again and again; the kata keeps that lesson inside the curriculum.

Variations between styles

Style / bodyWhat changes
Nage-no-kataStanding throws; with Katame-no-kata it forms the randori-no-kata.
Katame-no-kataThe other randori-no-kata: ground techniques (holds, strangles, joint locks).
Original vs todayFirst ten throws; five added later, including kata-guruma and uki-otoshi.

[3]

Principles and applications

Learn the falls before the kata. The Manual’s ukemi page shows how; a qualified judo teacher should supervise the throws, especially the sacrifice throws.

As uke, your job is to attack honestly and fall safely; as tori, it is to throw with control so uke can land well.

Common mistakes

  • Uke falling before being thrown.
  • Skipping kuzushi and forcing the throw with the arms.
  • Rushing the bows and the walking between throws.
  • Doing only the right side.

[3]

1905: “Kano jiu-jitsu” seen from the West

In 1905 the New York publisher G. P. Putnam’s Sons printed The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu (Jiudo), by the American writer H. Irving Hancock and Katsukuma Higashi, with photographs of the techniques. It was one of the first books in English to present Kōdōkan judo as a system of its own.

Plate 11 — 1905
Plate 11 (trick 4): a backward roll landing on the shoulder blade, “so that neither the head nor the point of the shoulder touch the ground”.
Plate 15 — 1905
Plate 15 (trick 6): when grabbed under the upper arms, switch to seize the opponent under his arms.
Plate 113 — 1905
Plate 113 (trick 49): head under the arm, hand on the thigh, lift across the shoulders — close to today’s kata-guruma.

What the book says — read as a period source, not as current teaching: that the Kano system, when adopted by the Japanese government, had 47 combat “tricks” and 15 “serious” ones, grown to 160 “as we teach it”; that a report by Colonel Oliver E. Wood, US military attaché in Tokyo, stated that of four thousand pupils of the Kano school not one was permanently injured; and that students should master falling before anything else. The book also has a chapter on kuatsu (resuscitation methods) whose claims modern first aid does not support — in an emergency, call your local emergency number. [4]

Images: H. Irving Hancock & Katsukuma Higashi, The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu (Jiudo), G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1905. Public domain. Scan: Internet Archive, copy from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Leaf through the whole book in the Library → · How falls are taught today: Ukemi →

Sources

Content written by Wabukan from the sources below (checked on 2026-10-30). External links are references only.

  1. Wikipedia — Kanō Jigorō — en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia — Kodokan Judo Institute — en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia — Nage-no-kata — en.wikipedia.org
  4. H. Irving Hancock & Katsukuma Higashi, The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu (Jiudo), G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905 — Internet Archive (copy from the U.S. National Library of Medicine), public domain — archive.org

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Updated: 2026-10-30