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An
Okinawa weapon is a
weapon developed from
farming tools and employed in the fighting system known as kobudo. The
weapons arose due to restrictions placed upon the peasants that meant they
could not carry arms. As a result they were defenceless and developed a
fighting system around their traditional farming implements. There is
speculation as to whether all of these weapons were derived from the farming
tools, as examples of similar weapons have been found in
China, pre-dating the Okinawa adaptations.
The bo is a six-foot staff, tapered at either
end. It was developed from a farming tool called a tenbin: a stick
placed across the shoulders with baskets or sacks hanging from either end.
The bo, along with shorter variations such as the jo and hanbo
could also have been developed from walking sticks used by travellers,
especially monks. The bo is considered the 'king' of the Okinawa weapons, as
all others exploit its weaknesses in fighting it, whereas when it is
fighting them it is using its strengths against them. The bo is the earliest
of all okinawa weapons (and effectively one of the earliest of all weapons
in the form of a basic staff), and is traditionally made from red or white
oak.
The sai is a variation on a tool used to create
furrows in the ground, it appears similar to a short sword, but is not
bladed and the end is traditionally blunt. The two shorter prongs on either
side of the main shaft are used for trapping other weapons such as swords or
bo. The sai originally reached
Japan in the form of the jitte or jutte, which has
only a single prong. Both are truncheon-like weapons, used for striking and
bludgeoning. Sais are traditionally carried in threes, two are used in
combat and the third is used as a precursor to the actual fight and is
thrown at the enemy. There are many other variations on the sai with varying
prongs for trapping and blocking, and the monouchi, or shaft, can
be round or octagonal.
A
nunchaku is two sections of wood (or metal in modern incarnations)
connected by a cord or chain. there is much controversy over its origins,
some say it was originally a Chinese weapon, others say it evolved from a
threshing flail, one theory purports that it was developed from a horse's
bit. Chinese nunchaku tend to be rounded, whereas Japanese are octagonal,
and they were originally linked by horse hair. There are many variations on
the nunchaku, ranging from the three-sectional staff (san-setsu-kon
nunchaku), to smaller multi-section nunchaku. The nunchaku was
popularized by
Bruce Lee in a number of films, made in both
Hollywood and
Hong Kong.
The
tonfa is more readily recognised as the
police nightstick. It supposedly originated as the handle of a millstone
used for grinding grain. The tonfa is traditionally made from red oak, and
can be gripped by the short perpendicular handle or by the longer main
shaft. As with all Okinawa weapons, many of the forms are extensions of
'empty hand' techniques, adapted for weapons combat.
The final major Okinawa weapon is the kama; the
only one to possess a blade. It is the traditional farming sickle, and
considered the hardest to learn due to the inherent danger in practising
with such a weapon. The point at which the blade and handle join in the
traditional model normally has a nook with which a bo can be trapped,
although this join proved to be a weak point in the design, and modern day
examples tend to have a shorter handle with a blade that begins following
the line of the handle and then bends, though to a lesser degree than the
difference in orientation of the traditional model; this form of the kama is
known as the natagama.
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