Tenouchi

Tenouchi is the overall use of the hands when striking or responding to an attack. It includes the way of gripping the hilt, the tightening and loosening of the grip, and the adjusting of the balance between the two hands. It is not simply "grip" — it is the dynamic management of grip through a strike, and it is what separates a strike that lands from a strike that scores.

Execution: Hold the hilt as you would hold a small cup — from the fingers, not jammed into the web of the hand. Thumb and index finger support and position; little and ring fingers are the cutting fingers, described in kendo as kime no te, which produce the snap of the tip at the moment of contact. Grip tightens only at the instant of impact and releases immediately after. The swing itself comes from the shoulder with a naturally bending elbow; the sharpness comes from the hands.

Teaching & faults. Taught alongside suburi from day one and refined for years. The common formulations — "wringing out a towel", "squeezing" — cause genuine confusion, and the practical correction is the thumb sliding down onto the middle finger rather than rotating the wrists and elbows inward. Faults: constant tension (slow, fatiguing, injurious); dominating with the right hand; gripping at tora-kuchi. A grip that never releases also cannot recover — which in your art means it cannot resist a strip.