Senban shuriken
A flat shuriken made from a metal plate with a square hole in the middle; Bujinkan tradition ranks it among the three secret treasures of the Togakure-ryū school.
Quick Facts
JapanAbout the weapon
Senban shuriken is a flat throwing shuriken, a metal plate with a square hole in the middle. The word senban denotes a nail puller; flat shuriken were made from such tools, coins and spools, hence the hole. Everything else handed down about this weapon comes from the Bujinkan circle. According to the Bujinkan Kiryū dojo, it was brought to Japan from China by the legendary figure Chō Bushō, and senban shuriken, together with the hook gloves shukō and the breathing tube shinodake, belongs to the "sanpō hiden," the three secret treasures of the Togakure-ryū school. Historians, however, question the school's claimed history: Watatani Kiyoshi, in the lexicon Bugei Ryūha Daijiten, notes that it was embellished to make the school look older. We have not been able to find independent evidence of the Chinese origin or of its inclusion among the three treasures. In shape the plate resembles a thread spool with a square hole. According to the same Bujinkan source, it developed from square plates called teppan, whose corners were gradually sharpened. A specimen of the Shōshō-ryū school, described in the publication Nihon no Budō, measures 9.3 cm in diameter and weighs 82 g. The throwing technique is called senban nage jutsu in the Bujinkan tradition. The sharpened plate was meant to wound an opponent both on a thrown hit and in close combat.
Related weapons
- Variant of: Shuriken