Omote [表] Ura [裏]

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Omote, the characters/ideogram means "surface; face (i.e. the visible side of an object); front; outside; exterior; appearance; public; cover; foreground." Ura, the characters/ideograms mean "bottom (or another side that is hidden from view); undersurface; opposite side; reverse side; rear; back; inside; out of sight; behind the scenes; opposite; inverse."

Omote and Ura are also significant cultural words, terms or ideogram/character's that help us understand the culture and beliefs that are the foundation of many aspects of the martial arts.

In the martial arts I refer to those obvious things as omote and those things often revealed in addition or underneath the obvious things as ura. It is the obvious, the practitioner, who looks within the reflective mirror to display the inverse or back; behind things to see what is underneath or undersurface of the obvious things.

For instance, omote are the techniques you derive from the various movements of kata while ura are the underlying principles and methodologies you would extract from the experience of those technique-based basics of kata. 

You can also symbolize omote-ura by the Tai Chi symbol, i.e. the yang-yin.

I quote, "In the martial arts, omote refers to the techniques that are officially recognized as being characteristic of a given system, style or branch school. In signifying the surface, the term omote always presupposes that which is underneath the appearances. To every omote there is a corresponding ura, "behind" or "the other side (as in the reflection of the mirror - a Shinto icon in Japan)."

I quote, "To learn, practice and apply martial arts requires it be transmitted by following both sides, omote and ura. The main substance, the fundamentals, of the system, style or branch is provided solely through the visible forms and formulas, so the transmission relies on what is not visible from the outside, the ura."

Omote-ura model is about what is obvious vs. what is considered underlying the obvious, especially since this model is a yin-yang of martial disciplines. It is often misunderstood to mean both what is obvious and what is hidden, i.e. where hidden infers or implies secrecy (secret). This is just not true.

The Ura is actually the follow-on inter-connectedness of the obvious application toward principled based multiple methodologies, etc. to fully implement the system toward its ultimate goal. Look at Omote-n-Ura as the need to see both sides of the coin, i.e., like seeing the yin and the yang of things. It is about seeing that which you don’t know so you can understand the things you do know and grow from there as a natural stepping stone toward proficiency and mastery.

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