Teaching the 31 Step Jo Kata
Sept. 4, 1991
Mark J. Norton
Recently, I have begun teaching my students the Thirty One Step Jo Kata (San Ju-ichi
no Kata) as formulated and set down by Saito-sensei. I have drawn instructional
material from Saito book, Aikido, Vol. 1, Basic Technique and from his videotape
of the kata. The students were quite enthusiastic. Many of them favor the jo as a weapon
and welcomed the chance to learn a new form. I suspect some of them have become
weary of repeated pratice of the 21 Step Kata and Jo-suburi.
There is some similarity between the 21 and 31 step kata. This is deceptive and leads
to confusing the two. For this reason, I am resolved to repeat the 21 step kata
every time I teach the 31 step. By emphasizing what was learned earier, I hope to
minimize this confusion and force the students to remember them both. This was my intent
on the first 31 step class recently. Alas, half the class is new to weapon training.
They could not get even half way through the 21 step form. I split the class and
gave instructions to the new students to practice the 21 step kata while I taught the
more advanced students the 31 step moves. In the future, I will have to teach both,
with emphasis on one and review of the other. It is my hope that the newer students
will practice outside of class, perhaps with the help of the more advanced students.