Gokyo (Fifth Teaching)
五教
A variant of ikkyo with a reversed grip, meant against a knife. It holds the wrist from above so the blade cannot turn back on the defender.
Quick Facts
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Common mistakes: reverting to the ikkyo grip, leading the arm off the line of the knife, and practising without a weapon, which empties the technique of its purpose.
💡 Key Tip
The grip from above is not decoration — it is the only reason gokyo exists alongside ikkyo. Train it with a knife or it loses its point.
About
Gokyo, the fifth teaching, in Japanese also ude nobashi, the extension of the arm, is the last of the five basic controls of aikido. It looks like ikkyo and leads the arm along the same path, but differs in the grip at the wrist: the defender holds the hand from above, thumb down, instead of from below. This small detail has a concrete reason. Gokyo is used above all against a knife attack, and the reversed grip makes it impossible for the attacker to rotate his wrist and turn the blade back toward the defender. It also allows the hand to be pinned to the mat on the way to the ground in a position from which the weapon can be levered out of the fingers. That is exactly why gokyo is trained at the higher grades and almost exclusively with the wooden tanto. In ordinary unarmed practice it appears rarely — without a knife it loses the reason it differs from ikkyo at all.