Jitte

十手

The name Jitte (or 十手 in Japanese) means ‘Ten Hands’. This name expresses that mastery of this kata enables one to fight like ten men. This kata teaches techniques usable against armed attacks, especially the fighting staff (named ‘Bo’). Further more, also a particular type of Sai dagger is known as a ‘jitte’ (also transcribed as ‘jutte’), while the position of the raised fists more or less resembles this specialized weapon. This kata starts with the Ming Salutation (from China) or Jiai-no-Kamae posture, that is, left palm over right high fist. In the video embedded below (recorded on 26 June 2023), budoka Johan Oldenkamp, a former national runner-up from the Netherlands, performs this Ten Hands kata of Shotokan ( 松濤館 ) Karate-do ( 空手道 ).