The “torite goho gata” and the “kihon kosshi sanpo” together make up the “kihon happo”. 捕手五法型 + 基本骨指三法 = 基本八法 (he, he). So now I’m going to study the kanji that make up the words “torite goho”.
Well, actually, I won’t spend too much time on “goho” 五法. I’ve covered “ho” 法 in my post on “kihon happo”, and 五 is the kanji for the number “five”. Here is the stroke order for “go” 五:
The radical for this kanji is the “one” radical 一 (ichi いち) and its onyomi is “go” ゴ. Its kunyomi is “itsu” いつ, as well as an irregular kunyomi of “satsu” さつ. For instance, the fifth day of the month is said 五日 (itsuka いつか). To refer to the month of May you say 五月 (gogatsu ごがつ), but to refer to the 5th lunar month you say 五月 (satsuki さつき).
捕 ho
This is the stroke order for this kanji:
The first three strokes are a variation of the “hand” radical 手 (te て). Its onyomi is “ho” ホ, and its kunyomi include “toraeru” とらえる, “torawareru” とらわれる , “toru” とる , “tsukamaeru” つかまえる , and “tsukamaru” つかまる . The pronunciation of “tori” is often affected by placing the hiragana for the syllable “ri” り after the kanji (i.e. 捕り), though this is not always necessary.
This kanji 捕 means “catch, get, take, seize, arrest, capture, nab”. Turns out there are several kanji that also mean to catch, take, or capture, but I won’t go into those here. The use of 捕 in compounds generally conveys the idea of catching, seizing, and capturing or arresting. Examples include ネズミ捕り (nezumitori ねずみとり) “speed-trap, rat-trap (“nezumi” means “mouse”)”, 捕球する (hokyuusuru ほきゅうする) “to catch a baseball”, 捕り縄 (torinawa とりなわ) “rope for tying criminals (literally “capture-rope”)”, and 生け捕り (ikedori いけどり) “to capture alive”. Incidentally, 捕手 “torite”( the compound I’m studying now), depending on its context, also means “catcher” (the position in baseball) and is pronounced “hoshu” ほしゅ.
手 shu
This is the stroke order for this kanji:
As previously mentioned, this kanji 手 also serves as the “hand” radical. It’s onyomi is “shu” シュ, and its kunyomi is “te” て. It also has the irregular kunyomi of “ta” た and “zu” ず. I’ll get to the use of these kunyomi in a minute.
This kanji 手 means “a hand, an arm, a worker, a way, a means, a device, a trick, an idea, a handle, a kind, the side, trouble, labor, care, skill, ability”. And as the word “hand” is used literally and figuratively in English, the same is true for the Japanese use of this kanji. Here’s a familiar example: 空手 (karate からて) “Karate (literally “empty hand”)”. Others include 手すり (tesuri てすり) “handrail”, 握手 (akushu あくしゅ) “handshake, to shake hands”, and 悪手 (akushu あくしゅ) “poor move (as in a game)”. Note how the word “akushu” can change meaning depending on what kanji is used. On the other hand, we can take certain compounds using 手 and use alternate kunyomi to change the meaning of the word. For instance, 上手 pronounced “kamite” かみて means “the upper part, upper course (as in a river), and stage left, however those same kanji 上手 pronounced “jouzu” じょうず mean “skillful, clever”. Also, 下手 pronounced “shimote” しもて means “the lower part or course, stage right”, but these same kanji 下手 when pronounced “heta” へた mean “clumsy, unskillful, awkward”. Apparently how you pronounce or interpret the kanji depends greatly on the context in which they are used.
捕手五法 torite goho
So, 捕手五法 can quite literally mean “five methods for capturing the hand”. And on the surface that’s what it looks like you’re doing when you do the torite goho (especially the first three). However, those who can do the torite well know that it’s more than what you’re doing with the opponents hand. So a knowledge of how to do the torite well can guide us to a more figurative interpretation of the kanji for “torite goho”. One could argue for “five methods for taking an idea”, “taking a trick”, or “capturing skill” whether it’s yours or your opponents. Or, if you’re into baseball, it could mean “five methods of the catcher” (hoshu goho). Yeah, that was a stretch, but I felt like going there. Besides, could you imagine the catcher doing ura gyaku to the runner trying to slide into homeplate. Now I’m just being silly. Anyway, ganbatte 頑張って!
