Yusuke Kanamaru started learning seoi-nage at 6 years old, and throughout his distinguished competitive career, was renowned as a specialist of shoulder throws.

Although now referred to as seoi-otoshi, Kanamaru, when competing, knew his tokui-waza as a kneeling morote-seoi-nage. This beautiful technique formed the trunk of his Judo tree, and his primary goal was to throw every opponent with it no matter if they were right or left-handed.

Kanamaru grew the branches of his tree around this devastatingly effective technique. The branches are the throws developed to counteract his opponent's avoidance of, or reactions to the threat of his seoi-nage.

Kanamaru even created his own innovative and unique version of seoi-nage as a result, and in the following videos, he breaks down exactly how he came to develop each branch so that he always had an answer for every situation.

We can also see how he implemented techniques from his tree, in competitive situations at the highest levels of the sport, on his way to two World Championship medals.

If you want to learn about the philosophy and development of Judo trees, be sure to check out our video about Jigaro Kano's Judo tree.