Tessenjutsu (Combat with the Iron Fan)
鉄扇術Japanese combat with the iron fan tessen, a protective weapon of the bushi in the Edo period. It is not a school but a skill, on which we found only a few reliable sources.
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About Tessenjutsu (Combat with the Iron Fan)
Tessenjutsu is not a school but a skill: fighting with the tessen fan. The Daijisen and Nikkoku dictionaries define tessen as a fan with iron ribs, or an iron object shaped like a folded fan, and the Nipponica encyclopedia describes it as a protective weapon of the bushi in the early modern period that also served as a fan. None of these encyclopedias has the term tessenjutsu itself as a headword, and Green mentions it in his encyclopedia of martial arts only in one gloss, as the martial use of an iron fan.
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The sources disagree about the age of the weapon. According to Nipponica, the tessen was probably invented only in the early modern period as a weapon both convenient to carry and dignified, it does not appear in medieval literature, and old relics are not confirmed. Britannica, on the other hand, states that from the Sengoku period the ribs of the war fan gunsen began to be made of forged iron for military use and self-defense, and that in the Edo period the bushi used it mainly for self-defense. According to Daijisen, the gunsen is a different object: a fan with which a commander gave orders in a military camp. As part of the curriculum of an old school, we found tessenjutsu only in Takenouchi-ryu in the koryu.com guide. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai does not list it in its curriculum of this school, and no school with tessen in its name is a member of Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai. Books on tessenjutsu were published by Hatsumi Masaaki in 1983 and Mizukoshi Hiro in 1997.
History
According to Nipponica, the bushi always carried a fan for a dignified appearance, and according to it one military chronicle records a duel called ogikiri, in which the fan was handled like a sword. According to Nipponica, the iron fan tessen was probably invented only in the early modern period as a weapon both convenient to carry and dignified, it does not appear in medieval and earlier literature, and old relics are not confirmed. Britannica, by contrast, places the beginning in the Sengoku period, when the ribs of the war fan began to be made of forged iron for military use and self-defense, and states that in the Edo period the bushi used it mainly for self-defense. The Nikkoku dictionary attests the word tessen for the first time in a haikai from a collection of 1808. English Wikipedia recalls legends in which Minamoto no Yoshitsune parried blows of Benkei's spear with an iron fan and Takeda Shingen warded off an attack by Uesugi Kenshin at Kawanakajima with a fan, and itself adds that in Shingen's case it is not clear what kind of fan it was.
How it differs
The tessen is not the gunsen. Per Daijisen, the gunsen was a commander's fan for giving orders in a military camp, and per Nipponica its oldest attestation is an account of a Minamoto commander with a fan with the sun in the Heiji uprising of 1159. The tessen is, per Daijisen and Nipponica, a personal protective weapon of the bushi in the early modern period. No source links the tessen with arrests or office, the encyclopedias speak only of self-defense.
Technique
Daijisen and Nikkoku distinguish two kinds of tessen: a fan with ribs of iron and an iron object shaped like a folded fan. Britannica divides the tessen by the extent of the iron into fans with iron only in the outer ribs, with iron in the middle ribs as well, and entirely iron ones shaped like a closed fan. According to Daijisen, the war fan gunsen is a different object: a fan with which a commander gave orders in a military camp, usually with a black lacquered frame and with the sun, moon and stars on the paper. According to Nipponica, a medieval text gives the gunsen a length of one shaku and two sun, that is, about 36 centimeters. Japanese Wikipedia states that the tessen also serves as a training aid, and a training piece is called tenarashi tessen.
Training
We have not found a separate tessenjutsu school in the lists of Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai or koryu.com. The koryu.com guide lists it for Takenouchi-ryu alongside jujutsu, staff, sword, iai, rope tying and naginata, but Nihon Kobudo Kyokai does not name it in the curriculum of this school. English Wikipedia states, citing Mol, that training with the tessen was included by Yagyu Shinkage-ryu, while the koryu.com guide does not list tessen for this school. Hatsumi Masaaki published a book on hanbo, jitte and tessen in 1983, and Mizukoshi Hiro a book on tessenjutsu in 1997.
Today
No school with tessen in its name is a member of Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai, and tessen does not occur in the curricula of the schools that Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes. Of the koryu.com guides, only Takenouchi-ryu lists it. English Wikipedia claims that tessenjutsu is still practiced by several experts in Japan and cites no source for this.
Did you know
A study of 2022 in a Japanese scholarly journal on the history of sport states that in peasant fights around Chichibu before the uprising of 1884, a pairing of tessen and a throwing rope also appeared. English Wikipedia, citing Ratti and Westbrook, relates that Araki Murashige allegedly saved his life during a visit to Oda Nobunaga by putting a tessen into the groove of the floor and thus preventing the sliding doors from closing on his neck. Green cites the same authors, according to whom the extended weapon vajara was handled in kenpo according to the principles of kenjutsu and tessenjutsu.
Frequently asked questions
What is tessen?
A fan with iron ribs, or an iron object shaped like a folded fan. According to Nipponica, in the early modern period it was a protective weapon of the bushi that also served as a fan.
Is tessenjutsu a separate school?
No. It is a skill that some old schools taught alongside other weapons. The koryu.com guide lists it for Takenouchi-ryu, and no school with tessen in its name is a member of Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or Shinkokai.
How does tessen differ from gunsen?
Per Daijisen, the gunsen was a fan a commander used to command in a military camp. The tessen is a personal protective weapon that, per Britannica, arose when the ribs of the war fan began to be made of iron.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.