Kubotan
A plastic keychain rod about 14 cm long, created in the late 1960s by Takayuki Kubota to train Californian policewomen.
Quick Facts
United StatesAbout the weapon
Kubotan is a self-defence keychain rod created in the late 1960s by Takayuki Kubota. He drew on a small bamboo weapon, the "hashi stick," devised by his father Denjirō. It spread from 1969, when Kubota, at the request of Californian senator Edward M. Davis, a former chief of the Los Angeles police, created the weapon and began training policewomen with it. The name joins the surname Kubota and the word baton; the original trademark became a generic name, and under it a range of imitations with spikes or tapered ends, which the original design did not have, are sold today. The rod is at most about 14 cm long and about 1.3 cm in diameter, roughly like a marker pen, and weighs about 57 g. It is usually made of hard, durable plastic, such as Lexan. The body has six circular grooves, and at one end there is a screw eyelet or swivel joint with a keyring. It is held either in an icepick-style grip for hammer-fist strikes, or in a forward grip for jabbing, pressure on sensitive points and holds. It reinforces the fist on impact, targets the finger joints, forearm, bridge of the nose, shins, solar plexus, ribs, temples and neck, and serves as a lever on the wrist, fingers and joints; with keys hanging from the end it can also be swung. In a typical police hold, the attacker's wrist is gripped with both hands with the rod laid across the radius bone, and downward pressure brings the attacker to the ground. It is used similarly to the Japanese yawara, of which the kubotan is considered a modern counterpart.
Related weapons
- Variant of: Yawara