Alias · Escapes & Defence
Tate shiho gatame escape
Also known as Mount Escape Techniques — the canonical term used on this site.
Training background: Japanese — vertical four-corner hold
Japanese — 縦四方固 vertical four-corners hold escape
Tate shiho gatame escape is the judo name for the defence against the mount — the top-position pin in which the attacker sits across the opponent’s torso, controlling the hips and chest from the vertical orientation.
Etymology. Tate (縦) means “vertical” or “lengthwise”; shiho (四方) means “four corners” or “four sides”; gatame (固め) means “hold.” The combined term — vertical four-corners hold — names the pin by its geometry: the attacker’s body aligns lengthwise with the opponent’s, covering all four sides of the trunk. 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 the “mount.” The escape term carries the parent technique forward.
Mechanics. The escape’s priority is undoing the chest-and-hip coverage that the mount depends on. The defending player must create space — by bridging to disrupt the attacker’s vertical base, by trapping a leg to flatten them sideways, or by hipping out to recover guard — before the attacker secures the position with chest contact and submission threats.
Cross-reference. English-speaking no-gi and BJJ use “mount escape” or “mount bottom defence.” Full mechanical coverage on Mount Escape.