What is Kyushu Ashi?

Kyushu Ashi, written 九週足 in Japanese, brings together three words: kyu means nine, shu means week and ashi refers to a chart bar. Its traditional setting is the weekly chart.

In Kei’s guide, the method is introduced through the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Weekly book. It offered a manageable way to observe markets when chart analysis was done by hand. Instead of recording every fluctuation, the trader could focus on a weekly close and a reference opening price from earlier in the chart.

The result is a series of bodies without wicks. Each body makes the relationship between those two prices visible. As the weeks pass, the comparison rolls forward, helping you observe the broader direction with less visual detail.

How a Kyushu Ashi body is formed

Take an opening price and shift its reference position nine bars forward. At the destination bar, connect that earlier open with the current closing price. On a weekly chart, each bar represents one week.

1. Locate the opening price nine bar positions earlier.
2. Read the current week’s closing price.
3. Draw a body between those two levels.

If the close is above the reference open, the body is bullish. If it is below, the body is bearish. If the two prices are equal, there is no body height.

In the diagrams here, the shift is exactly nine positions: the opening price of Week 1 becomes the reference for Week 10. This follows the nine bar shift illustrated in the supplied guide.

One market, two ways to observe it

Consider a market whose Week 1 opening price is 100. By the end of Week 10, it closes at 117. The Week 10 Kyushu Ashi body runs from 100 to 117 and is bullish, even though its reference is not the opening price of Week 10 itself.

Notice how the regular candles show small pullbacks while the Kyushu Ashi bodies remain bullish. They are answering different questions. A bearish weekly candle describes that week’s movement; a bullish Kyushu Ashi body says the latest close is still above its earlier reference.

A run of bullish bodies can support an observation of broader upward pressure. It does not tell you how much risk to take, where to enter or whether the next week will continue higher.

Prepare the reference before the close arrives

The earlier openings already exist. You can therefore mark the reference level for a future Kyushu Ashi body before that future week has finished.

For example, if the opening price nine positions before the next week is 100, that week’s reference is 100. A final close at 106 produces a bullish body. A close at 97 produces a bearish body.

At the current week, projecting the next nine reference levels uses the opening prices of the latest nine bars, including the current bar. Each opening is placed nine positions after its own bar. The references may rise, fall or remain similar as that sequence changes.

Connect price observation with time

Nine is one of the basic numbers, or Kihon Suchi, used in Ichimoku time observation. Kei’s free guide also shows intervals of 16 and 17 around changes in Kyushu Ashi direction.

Rather than expecting a reversal on a particular date, use time observation to identify a window that deserves a closer look. Is the latest close still above the reference? Are the bodies changing direction? Does the wider Ichimoku structure support that change?

For this time counting illustration, the chosen starting bar is counted as bar one. Keep that inclusive counting convention separate from the nine position shift used to construct the bodies. Consistent counting makes your observations easier to compare.

A potential Henka Bi is a point to review market behaviour. It is not a promise that the market will turn. Learn more in Ichimoku Three Theories.

Turn understanding into a practical routine

Begin by drawing a few bodies manually. Then compare them with the regular weekly candles and the Ichimoku five lines. This makes the reference levels easier to understand before you rely on an indicator.

Common questions