Beginning formalities

At the beginning, Tori and Uke stand upright facing each other in a distance of about 5.5m (about 3 ken), while Tori stands on the left side and Uke on the right side toward Shomen (Photo 1). Both turn to face Shomen to make standing bows toward Shomen simultaneously (Photo 2) and turn to face each other to make seated bows (Photos 3, 4, 5- ①② , 6- ①② ). Then, after rising together, both Tori and Uke simultaneously take one step forward from their left feet to take Shizen-hontai (Photo 7) and further move forward quietly to begin Te-waza .