Alias · Escapes & Defence
Kami shiho gatame escape
Also known as North-South Escape Techniques — the canonical term used on this site.
Training background: Japanese — top four-corner hold
Japanese — 上四方固 upper four-corners hold escape
Kami shiho gatame escape is the judo name for the defence against the north-south pin — the top-position control in which the attacker lies chest-to-chest with the opponent but rotated 180 degrees, head over the opponent’s head.
Etymology. Kami (上) means “upper” or “above”; shiho (四方) means “four corners” or “four sides”; gatame (固め) means “hold.” The combined term — upper four-corners hold — names the pin by its geometry: the attacker’s body covers the opponent’s chest from above the head rather than from the side (which would be yoko shiho gatame, side control). The pin sits in Kodokan judo’s osaekomi-waza (pinning techniques) catalogue and remains in active judo vocabulary; in BJJ and no-gi grappling the same configuration is universally called “north-south” or “100-kilo position.” The escape term carries the parent technique forward.
Mechanics. The escape’s priority is undoing the chest-coverage and head-control that the pin depends on. The defending player must either bridge to break the chest contact or hip-out to a recovered guard before the attacker secures submission threats like the north-south choke or transitions to a more dominant pin.
Cross-reference. English-speaking no-gi uses “north-south escape” or “100-kilo escape.” Full mechanical coverage on North-South Escape.