Utsuri-goshi? Front ura-nage? Front uchimata? No, it's yagura-nage!

In judo you’ll see often see special techniques become a trend. It starts off with one or two players popularizing the technique and then many people hop onto the bandwagon. We saw that happen with the one-handed sode, we saw that happen with the side takedown (or drop kata-guruma done without gripping the leg) and we saw that happen with the reverse seoi-nage.

One technique that's been in vogue lately is something that kind of defies classification in judo. Some have referred to it as a modern variation of utsuri-goshi. Some call it the front ura-nage. But it’s most commonly referred to as the front uchimata. Actually this technique does have a Japanese name. It’s called yagura-nage, which literally translated means turret (small tower) throw. And it comes from sumo, not judo. Watch a sumo demonstration of this throw.

It’s not clear who was the first judo player to use this throw but the one most commonly associated with it is World Champion Georgi Zantaraia of Ukraine. It’s one of his specialties. Many Europeans like to do this throw and you see it a lot in international competitions. Interestingly, very few Japanese do it and the only one who uses it on a regular basis is World Champion Naohisa Takato.

In his demonstration of yagura-nage, Shintaro does this throw as a response to a very high and deep grip by his opponent. This is often referred to as the Georgian grip (see pic below).

From this grip, your opponent can do various techniques, including the Khabarelli (the Georgians are famous for this), a belt-grip ouchi-gari, osoto-makikomi, hikikomi-gaeshi and many more. It’s a dangerous position to be in.

If you can break out of that situation, do so. But if you can’t, it’s possible to attack your opponent with yagura-nage. To do this you have to establish a strong grip of your own. Shintaro does this by wrapping his left arm tightly around his opponent’s waist, so that he’s practically bear-hugging him (see pic below).

Now, let’s look at Shintaro’s position from another angle (see below)

Before his opponent makes an attack, Shintaro moves in with his left leg, placing it in between uke’s legs (see below).

The positioning of his leg (in between uke’s leg) is what makes this technique not utsuri-goshi (switching hips). No doubt there is a switching of hips involved in the execution of this throw but in traditional utsuri-goshi, tori’s initial leg position would be behind uke’s, not in front.

The lift by tori is somewhat similar to the kind of lift you would do in ura-nage. In fact, it almost looks as if Shintaro is about to do a front ura-nage. Tori should arch his back a little as he enters into the throw (see below).

If Shintaro wanted to do a front ura-nage, he would be throwing uke in an anti-clockwise direction (towards uke’s right). With yagura-nage, he throws in a clockwise direction, towards uke’s left. At this point it’s very much a left uchimata throw (see below).

In this demo, Shintaro rotates uke slowly and lets him down gently. In a randori or contest situation, he would lift his attacking leg up high, switch the direction of his hips while uke is still in the air, rotate uke over with an uchimata-like action and finally land on him to ensure an ippon. This is a very heavy throw.

If you want to practice this throw properly, it’s a good idea to use a crash pad. Your uke will thank you for it.