Bō shuriken
棒手裏剣 · bō shuriken
Literally: rod shuriken
Rod shuriken: a straight iron or steel spike 12–21 cm long, which Japanese schools threw mainly in a direct, non-spinning flight (jiki-dahō).
Quick Facts
JapanAbout the weapon
Bō-shuriken (棒手裏剣, "rod shuriken") is one of the two main forms of shuriken. Its origin remains unclear. The first historically recorded school of shurikenjutsu is Ganritsu-ryū (around 1625), which also taught swordsmanship and combat with the spear, staff and naginata. The peak of the art's development falls in the peaceful Edo period (1603–1868). It is a straight spike of iron or steel, usually of square cross-section, sometimes round or octagonal; some pieces have a point at both ends. Length ranges between 12 and 21 cm, weight between 35 and 150 g. By pattern, kugi-gata (nail-shaped), hari-gata (needle-shaped) and tantō-gata (knife-shaped) are distinguished. The spike of the Negishi-ryū school, developed from the Ganritsu-ryū spike, has an octagonal head. It was mostly thrown with the right hand, because the samurai wore the sword on the left, and thrown in direct flight, with a half turn or a full turn. Ganritsu-ryū used the direct flight jiki-dahō, which, according to the source, was a Japanese peculiarity, whereas in China spinning throws prevailed. In most schools, shurikenjutsu was the final teaching for students who had mastered the whole curriculum, and this secrecy brought the art almost to extinction. After 1868 the art was kept alive by Naruse Kanji (1888–1948) of Negishi-ryū, author of the first book on shurikenjutsu (1943), Fujita Seiko (1899–1966), author of the manual Zukai Shurikenjutsu (1964), and Saitō Satoshi (1922–2014) of Negishi-ryū, who chaired the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Kobudō until his death. In 1979, the school Meifu Shinkage-ryū arose, which throws small pencil-like spikes.
Related weapons
- Variant of: Shuriken