Keito Uke
鶏頭受け
Literally: chicken-head block
Also known as: Keito, Morote keito uke, Chicken head wrist block
Wrist-bent block shaped like a chicken head; in Shotokan it appears in the katas Unsu and Gojushiho, though sources also list it as a strike.
Quick Facts
Katas containing this technique
About
Keito uke (鶏頭受け), literally chicken-head block, bends the wrist so the hand resembles a chicken's head; JKA South Africa translates it as a chicken-head-shaped wrist block. Sources disagree on its classification, though. Shotokan technique lists place keito among the strikes and also know a rising strike, age keito; others describe it as a block, and still others as a pecking strike with clenched fingers to the throat, ear, temple or eyes. A different technique is the crane strike kakuto, in some transcriptions kokuto. In the kata Unsu, the two-handed morote keito uke appears right at the start, in the second, third, fifth and seventh movements, in the stance nekoashi dachi, alternating with the one-finger thrust ippon nukite. In Gojushiho Dai it replaces the large movement ryuun no uke with the smaller, rounded keito uke, and the kata also contains the variant keito nagashi uke. Which Gojushiho kata contains it depends on the organisation: the JKA has it in Gojushiho Dai, the SKI in Gojushiho Sho. Outside the katas it is practised only rarely in Shotokan, for self-defence.