SAKATA GOHO · 酒田五法
Sakata Goho
Five ways to recognise resistance, reversal, momentum and a pause in price action.
Explore the five methods →Watch the video lessons ↗A tradition of observing price
Sakata Goho is a Japanese chart analysis tradition associated with the rice trader Munehisa Homma and the city of Sakata. Its five pattern families provide a vocabulary for describing price behaviour. Historical attribution and pattern definitions vary across accounts.
Japanese references: SMBC Nikko, Hoxsin.
Start with one candle
The body joins the open and close. The wicks reach the high and low. Read those four prices first, then compare the candle with its neighbours. This guide uses teal for a rising candle and red for a falling candle; chart colours vary.
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
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Candlestick Basics 2023
Watch the playlist, then return to the diagrams below to identify the structure on a chart.
THE FIVE PATTERN FAMILIES
Recognise the structure before the signal
01 · REPEATED ATTEMPTS AT A HIGH
Sanzan · Three Mountains
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
Three peaks near the same area can reveal resistance after an advance. If the middle peak is higher, the familiar variation is Sanzon, or a head and shoulders top. The inverted structure describes a possible bottom.
The useful question is whether buyers can still defend the lows between those peaks. A break of that support strengthens the reversal interpretation; another rise through the peaks challenges it.
Japanese references: Monex.
02 · A CHANGE OF CONTROL OVER THREE CANDLES
Sansen · Three Rivers
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
A morning star moves from a large bearish body to a small, hesitant body, then a bullish recovery. An evening star reverses that sequence. The final candle shows whether the pause became a meaningful change in pressure.
There are two interpretations to recognise: some descriptions use Three Rivers for three troughs or an inverted Three Mountains; others emphasise three candle reversals. Here, the diagram illustrates the latter. Neither interpretation makes every three candle grouping a reversal.
Japanese references: Hoxsin.
03 · STRONG MOMENTUM CAN BECOME STRETCHED
Sanku · Three Gaps
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
Three successive upward or downward windows describe an unusually forceful move. The traditional reading raises the possibility of exhaustion after repeated gaps. It does not establish that the next candle must reverse.
In this schematic, a window is empty space between neighbouring high–low ranges. Four candles create three windows. Three rising candles with overlapping ranges belong to a different structure.
Japanese references: Monex.
04 · PROGRESS THAT BUILDS CANDLE BY CANDLE
Sanpei · Three Soldiers
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
Aka Sanpei shows three bullish candles with progressively higher closes. The bearish counterpart is commonly called three black crows. Look at the bodies, wicks and where the sequence appears within the larger move.
Steady progress early in a developing trend differs from three candles after a prolonged, stretched move. Long opposing wicks or shrinking bodies can weaken the impression of control.
Japanese references: Gaitame Online.
05 · A PAUSE WITHIN AN EXISTING TREND
Sanpo · Three Methods
Original educational schematic · Teal: bullish · Red: bearish · Not historical market data.
Rising Three Methods begins with a strong bullish candle, pauses with three smaller countertrend candles contained within its range, then resumes with a strong bullish candle. Falling Three Methods mirrors the structure.
The pause is the important part: a contained retracement differs from a loss of the original range. The final candle supplies continuation evidence. Some explanations use Sanpo more broadly for waiting through consolidation and observing the subsequent breakout.
Japanese references: OANDA.
Why the market and timeframe matter
Continuous FX trading produces fewer session gaps than markets with daily trading breaks. Check the actual high–low separation and your chart’s session settings before calling a move Three Gaps. Patterns can fail; use the surrounding trend and price levels to test your interpretation.
Japanese references: OANDA, Gaitame Online.
Turn a pattern into an observation
- Locate it. Record the symbol, timeframe and preceding trend.
- Describe it. Write the opens, closes, wicks and relevant boundaries before naming the pattern.
- Define the next evidence. State which close would support the interpretation and which level would contradict it.
- Review it. Save a screenshot and compare the next completed candles with your original notes.
Check your understanding
Three bullish candles close progressively higher, but their ranges overlap. Does that make Three Gaps?
Reveal the explanation
No. There are no full range windows in that description. It may resemble Three Soldiers; inspect the bodies, wicks and preceding price structure before deciding.
The English explanations, examples and illustrations on this page were independently created for Ichimoku Master, with the Japanese references linked above. They are educational descriptions, not a mechanical trading strategy.
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AUTHOR
Kei
Kei is a Japanese forex trader and mentor who has traded since 2013. He teaches Ichimoku in English from the original Japanese texts, with a focus on chart analysis, trading psychology and risk management.
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