Amaterasu (アマテラス)
Overview
Amaterasu is considered another fundamental sabi waza that is often learned after Thundersnake and Romance. Along with most sabi waza, Amaterasu is usually performed during the sabi. However, the individual parts of Amaterasu are often taken and used in choreographies.
Starting Stance
When starting your Amaterasu, you want to have both of your arms straight and pointed straight to your right at about a 45 degree angle. You want your right knee slightly bent to give your beginning form more structure and solidness.
Pull, Swing, Pull
From your starting stance, you want to pull your left arm down from your right arm diagonally across your body and come to a stop when your elbow comes to the left side of your body. This initial movement takes two beats. After finishing the initial pull movement, swing your right arm over to your left side along with your left arm pointing straight to your left at a 45 degree angle. Now, repeat the same pulling motion that you did in the first two beats but this time, pull your right arm all the way to your bottom right and straighten that arm. We are now at the fourth beat.
Left, Right, Together?
Now in this position, you want to take your left arm, which should still be pointing upwards, and swing inside towards your body, keeping your arms straight. You want that swing to make a full circle in front of your body and stop at the position you started the swing at. Now do this with your right arm as well. Once both of your arms are at their resting positions, you now want to swing both of your arms inward at the same time with your left arm in front. The first and second swings should take one beat with the third swing taking two beats. We are now at beat eight.
Right, Right, Left, Right
To start the next eight beats, both of your arms should be up in the air from the big inward arm swing from the previous section. You now want to drop your arms back to the resting position shown below. Just like the previous section, You want to swing your arms inward, this time two times to the right, then left, and then right again. These swings should all take one beat as well. We are now at beat 12.
Cross and Spin
This part is often considered the trickiest part of Amaterasu. After your last swing, you want to bring both of your arms up from your lower body to in front of your body in a cross with your right arm in front. This motion should take two beats. Once your arms are in the cross position in front of your body, you want to swing your right arm down in a counterclockwise motion while your left arm follows it. This motion should take two beats. We are now at beat 16.
Snake Thunder
Just like Thundersnake, after the cross spin, you’ll want to go into a Snake Thunder. We are now at beat 24. The guide for Snake Thunder can be found at Snake Thunder
Into Romance Keihou
There’s multiple ways to go into your Romance Keihou that you will learn as you learn new waza. It does not matter which method you enter into Romance Keihou.
One Point Advice
- When you are doing your Amaterasu swings during the first 16 beats, you want your arms to always be straight. Having your arms straight makes the circle made by the cyalume light streaks more uniform and makes the movement look big.
- As well as having your arms straight during your swings, you also want to bend your knee to the direction that you are swinging towards. This little movement also contributes to making your circle motion bigger and overall making the movement look big.
When all of this is put together, the waza will look as follows.
Next
Next, we will be looking at Muramasa