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.
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.
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*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.