Omote; 表
Omote has a general meaning of “outer” or “surface.” But like many things in Japanese culture and language, it has a couple layers of understanding occurring all at the same time.
The term in aikido specifically, and Japanese martial arts in general, refers to a technique that occurs before the attack generates power and usually controls the opponent across the center. If you look at the gif, you can see the aikidoka (aikido practitioner) is controlling the uke’s arm by bringing it across the uke’s centerline. This is a counterpoint to ura techniques, which will be discussed next week. Most techniques thus have an omote and ura version of them.
However, many Japanese arts also refer to the hidden meaning of the terms omote and ura. There is a connotation of “obvious” and “hidden.” This can occur in a couple of different ways.
Interpretations of omote
Sometimes the omote of a specific technique is the obvious physical parts of the technique, the stance, the actions, etc. Learning the techniques at this level, might be thought of as the equivalent of a black belt. It is after this level of basic understanding is achieved when many of the “hidden” parts of the technique which allow it to work are then studied or revealed.
There’s also a level of omote in more koryu Japanese martial arts. These are the outer techniques that are taught to the casual student. There are some techniques in the curriculum that are hidden and only taught to those high level students that will continue the system.
Do you have a favorite martial arts word that doesn’t directly translate into English? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll cover it next week. Or better yet, submit your own Martial Word Wednesday and get published.
Editor’s note: Martial Word Wednesday is our latest weekly series! If you want to uncover more knowledge about terms often used in traditional martial arts, be sure to click HERE to check out Jarred Wilson’s previous entry discussing the suffix “-do”!
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