This will be the last entry in the Kobudo series. Of course I'll be talking about Kobudo in the future, but this series as a quick-reference/intro is done with this entry. I hope you enjoyed it.
The tonfa is a simple wooden bludgeoning weapon used in kobudo. It consists of a wooden stick with a handing protruding from the side about two thirds of the way down the length of it. This is very similar to the baton seen in popular media being used by law enforcement except that tonfa are used in pairs.
Holding the longer side of the tonfa along the forearm allows the karate-ka to block attacks that would otherwise damage their arms, such as attacks with weapons. The same techniques used in Shorin-Ryu will work if adapted to the tonfa.
The nunchaku is a pair of hard wooden sticks with a cord attached at the end. Unlike many modern recreations, historical nunchaku were likely not joined by chain since most karate practitioners were poor farmers and metal was rare and expensive on Okinawa at the time. The centripetal force produced by swinging the nunchaku generates a surprising amount of power and damaging force.
It is often said that nunchaku were originally used in the rice thrashing process. However, it is more likely that they were derived from horse bridles or pull carts.
Originally a farming tool used to cut crops (mostly rice and sugar cane), the kama can obviously be a very effective weapon that was already owned by many Okinawan farmers.
The blade is relatively short and extremely sharp, although tournament kamas are typically sold with dull blades the past few years in order to decrease the chance of injuries.
In some other styles there is a short cord at the end of each handle and the kama is sometimes swung by it. In Kobudo however, the karate-ka always has a firm grip on the handles.
The sai is a three-pronged truncheon sometimes mistakenly believed to be a variation on a tool used to create furrows in the ground. This is highly unlikely as metal on Okinawa was in short supply at this time and a stick would have served this purpose more satisfactorily for a poor farmer.
Sai are typically utilized in sets of three (one in each hand and one in reserve for throwing purposes). Contrary to what many think, in Kobudo (the Okinawan weapon style) the sai are often held with the long metal prong along the forearm to be used in blocking and other defensive techniques. The two shorter prongs on either side of the main shaft are used for trapping (and sometimes breaking) other weapons such as a sword or bo.
In Okinawa the sai was used by domestic police to arrest criminals and for crowd control, the use of the sai was perfected in 1668 by Moto Chohei, an Okinawan prince.
My name is John Opalenik. My students know me as Sensei O. I am a Sandan in Shobayashi-Ryu and have been training for over 20 years.
I am a teacher and a writer in addition to my responsibilities as a Sensei.
Be sure to check previous articles even if you've already read them. I edit the articles to add and include information newly discovered by the author.
*Note* Karate is an art that for many reasons has a lot of information and misinformation out there. While I don't post anything on here unless I get it from a credible source, don't feel argumentative if you have heard information different from what's on here. I in no way consider myself to be anything close to the end-all, be-all of karate knowledge.