Jodan

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Jodan or, more formally, Jodan-no-Kamae, is one of the five stances in Kendo, Jodan, Chudan, Gedan, Hasso and Waki. It is literally the Upper (Jodan) Stance (Kamae), where the sword is raised above the head in front of the body in readiness to strike. It is the most aggressive stance of the five.

There are commonly two types of Jodan, left (hidari) and right (migi), referring to which foot is out in front. As a more rare case, only one hand is used to hold the sword. Even rarer, the positions of the hands on the hilt of the sword are inverted.

In normal practice or competitions, left (hidari) Jodan is the most common. Its advantage is the reach of the strike, the intimidating posture and the speed of the strike. Its disadvantage is the weak defence, since the throat (tsuki)and trunk (do) are open. In order to protect the vulnerable area, a Jodan user must have a very fiery spirit to "scare off" the opponents. It is also more difficult to judge the striking distance (ma-ai). Therefore, this stance is only used as the normal stance during practice or competition by experienced Kendoka.

Both Jodan positions are used in Nihon Kendo Kata.

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