Tomoe-nage is often translated as "stomach throw" or "circle throw", but these are not direct translations. What does tomoe mean, and why is the throw called this?
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Related: martialarts.stackexchange.com/questions/9238/… martialarts.stackexchange.com/questions/9329/… – ukemi Aug 15 at 13:12
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Tomoe (巴) refers to a circular anti-symmetric symbol commonly found in Japanese heraldry. The usage in the judo throw specifically refers to the two-tailed version, futatsu-domoe:
This is very similar to the Chinese taijitu ("yin-yang" symbol) ☯, or Korean taegeuk (famously appearing on South Korea's flag) 🇰🇷.
Tomoe-nage is named as such because Kano thought the positioning/movement of tori and uke's bodies resembled this symbol during the throw:
The origin of tomoe-nage
Randori techniques resembling tomoe-nage are found in the jujutsu textbook Shikatsu Jizai, Sekkotsu Ryoho, Jujutsu Seirisho as sutemi-tori and tachi-sutemi-tori.
Master Kano bestowed this technique with the name tomoe-nage. In Judokai chabanashi (from Judo, published by Judo Kai Honbu, 1916), it says:
"Master Kano was an expert at tomoe-nage. This was originally a Tenjin Shinyo-ryu technique named Ando-gaeshi, after an certain Ando who was skilled in the technique.
It was at that time probably named along with uki-waza, or called Kano-nage or Kano-gaeshi.
Master Kano once said that he named this technique after its resemblance to two objects moving in a circular form"
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1Just for the record, I support self answers like this to archive learned knowledge. – Sean Duggan Jun 14 at 11:09
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This throw is referred to as ma-sutemi-nage in an article on ju-jitsu in this volume of Transactions and proceedings of the Japan Society (1892) – ukemi Jul 29 at 13:55
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