Kumade
熊手
Literally: bear hand
Also known as: Kumate
Kumade, the bear hand, is a karate strike with the palm and knuckles of bent, unclenched fingers; sources define it differently.
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Kumade (熊手), literally bear hand, is a karate hand shape in which the fingers are bent but do not touch the palm; the striking surface is the palm and the first knuckles of the fingers. The strike thus lands on a spread surface, not narrowly like a fist. In Japanese the same characters also mean a rake, its curved tines recalling a bear's paw. English Wikipedia lists it, as kumate, among Shotokan's natural weapons alongside washide and seiryuto. Sources disagree on the term's scope: the Karate Cosmos wiki gives kumade as another name for heiken, a flat fist with the fingers bent at the second knuckle. It differs from washide, the eagle claw, which strikes with clenched fingertips, while kumade strikes with the palm and knuckles of unclenched fingers. We have not been able to document who introduced this hand shape into karate.