Kata Guruma Masamichi Noro Variation

This Kata Guruma variation sits between Hiroshi Isoyama’s interpretation and the Kodokan Judō version. In Isoyama’s method, Tori has Uke on the shoulders and simply steps back in a direction perpendicular to Uke’s alignment, allowing Uke to free-fall without a rotational, wheel-like motion. By contrast, here, instead of stepping back in this perpendicular line, Masamichi Noro Sensei performs an enka, ending oriented in the same direction as Uke on the shoulders, then exits by stepping back in a direction parallel to Uke’s alignment, on the feet side, while Uke is tipped head-first. This change in orientation and footwork provides the impulse that generates the circular, wheel-like motion, bridging the non-rotational stepping back Isoyama approach and the fully wheeled Kodokan form.