Kamae - the Entering Wave

If you watch karate kata for the first time, at times you'll see a pause in the kata with a posture being held without movement. This pause is referred to as a Kamae.

Sometimes Kamae is defined as a pause in the kata movement to draw an opponent to attack, and the following movement complements the attack created. Sometimes Kamae is defined as a pause to gather oneself for the following techniques. Sometimes Kamae is defined as a deflection technique. All of which have personal validity depending on the context of the attack.

To me Kamae is the stillness of the water that erupts in Tsunami.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai

I see the quiet pause of Kamae formed inside an attack and by forming the Kamae the attacker finds the Tsunami within their own movement. The flow of the Tsunami through the Ocean moves without the water resisting, then when the land appears the power erupts.

It's all a question of angle of entry into an attack and the timing of forming the Kamae with full body alignment so the attack finds resistance before it reaches its own peak.

Force from stillness.