Takate kote 高手小手
A Japanese name for the classic upper-body tie with the arms bound behind the back, built from the old words for the upper arm (takate) and forearm (kote).
Takate kote, often shortened to TK, joins takate (upper arm) and kote (forearm). The Japanese dictionary Daijisen defines it as binding someone with both arms behind the back, rope taken from the neck and the arms secured from upper arm to wrist. Nawapedia traces the word in print to a 1923 text and to Itō Seiu’s writing of 1950, and Kitan Club ran an article on the beauty of the gote takatekote in 1953. In current use it names the box tie: arms behind the back with wraps around the chest and upper arms. Sources disagree on the details. Steve Osada links the term mainly to the Akechi Denki lineage, and Nawapedia notes that some insist the wrists sit high while others accept any back-tied arm position.