Kunai: From Harvesting Tool to Ninja Combat Knife

Japan is a country with ancient traditions in the manufacture and use of blades of various types. In addition to all the famous samurai swords, which are "sung" in thousands of works of art, including painting and cinema, the kunai belongs to Japanese traditional blades. This is a knife with different blade lengths. The minimum length is 18 cm, the maximum is about 30 cm.

It is generally accepted that the kunai is a knife that appeared on the basis of devices that were not originally intended for combat at all. The progenitor of such a Japanese combat knife is the tool of the peasants, with the help of which they harvested crops in the fields.

Over time, the length of the kunai changed, and it became one of the attributes of the ninja. Such a knife could be hidden under a cloak, worn discreetly and used at the most inopportune moment for the enemy.

It is noteworthy that the kunai is sharpened only in the part of the tip. Its edges are not sharpened. This option made it possible to wield a kunai in a variety of ways, up to the version of the spearhead. This made it possible to make a special ring, which was actually a structural part of the described Japanese knife and through which a fastening rope could be threaded.

When films are made about Japanese warriors, about how ninjas can climb almost a sheer wall, they usually use the kunai. It is believed that with the mastery of a pair of such knives, you can act as a climber. True, today, far from everything can realize such abilities in practice, which indicates either the loss of an important secret, or an excessive exaggeration of the function of the kunai as a tool for a climber or a fighter storming a fortress wall.

The video shows the process of making a "golden kunai".

"Military Review" recalls that the unauthorized production of cold weapons in the Russian Federation is prosecuted by law.

Comments

[Andrey Moskvin]

I am more fascinated by the tonfa, the forerunner of the cross-handled police baton, originally the handle of a millstone.

[Flooding]

Quote: Andrey Moskvin

I am more fascinated by the tonfa, the forerunner of the cross-handled police baton, originally the handle of a millstone.

manriki husari - an indispensable weapon of the Japanese police in the XVII-XVIII centuries

[Andrey Moskvin]

Manriki-hussars were with two-meter chains to neutralize the enemy with a throw. Continuation from the field of ninja - kusarigama with a sickle. I am aware of these crafts.

[Flooding]

Quote: Andrey Moskvin

Manriki-hussars were with two-meter chains to neutralize the enemy with a throw.

the throw mainly used the predecessor of the manriki gusari - kusari with a chain up to 4 meters and one sinker.
in manriki hussars, the chain is shortened to about 1 meter (even allegedly to two feet).
I don’t know how this weapon relates to the ninja. but it was used by the Japanese city guards / police.
and according to legend, the head of the guard of the central gate in Edo Masaki Toshimitsu Dannoshin, a famous swordsman of his time, invented the manriki husari.

[Mikhail3]

Truth? Apophygeus. The manriki kusari is a special police weapon designed to capture sword-wielding ronin. There were no analogues, there is not and cannot be), because no one, except for the police, who were obliged to catch this scum, and not kill it, does not need such a thing.
Kusari appeared at the moment when Japan opened up to the world, and the government decided to destroy the samurai class, because it did not want to retrain for a new military science. Fools with heavy swords were of no use to anyone. As I understand it, having taken away the sword, the samurai could be put in goldsmith, for example, to carry shit to the rice fields. All good.

[Klingon]

Another police force of the time, Metsuke, used the Jitte. A metal rod with a guard, such a thing could disarm an insolent samurai by knocking out or even breaking his katana. Jitte is the favorite weapon of actor Sho Kosugi.

[Mikhail3]

The sword is worth the money. Unlike the samurai) It's greedy to break it.

[Klingon]

Tonfa is an Okinawan weapon. Same Nunchaku and Sai. Has nothing to do with ninja

[Flooding]

Quote: Andrey Moskvin

I am more fascinated by the tonfa, the forerunner of the cross-handled police baton, originally the handle of a millstone.

In my opinion, in the "Book of Five Rings" I read about the fight between Musashi Miyamoto and the stick fencing master Muso Gonnosuke.
I do not remember exactly, but he highly appreciated his art.
so that in the hands of the master and the stick is deadly.

Tonfa is probably interesting for less demanding technique.

[Flooding]

stupid developers of climbing equipment have not been able to discover the ancient secrets of Japanese masters.

modern mountaineers and rock-climbers make do with whatever they have to.

the old VHS with gundos translation were much more convincing in presenting the secrets of ninjutsu.

[Babay Atasovich]

The archives of the Novocherkassk Museum contain a document from the era of the Russo-Japanese War - a simple report to the authorities: "We were sitting in the second line of defense, burning a fire (the front line was far enough), cooking food. Suddenly, a Japanese man in black jumped out of the bushes, began to hiss and wave strangely Esaul Krivoshlykov was hit in the ear, which is why he soon died."

[Klingon]

Quote: Flood

stupid developers of climbing equipment have not been able to discover the ancient secrets of Japanese masters.

modern mountaineers and rock-climbers make do with whatever they have to.

the old VHS with gundos translation were much more convincing in presenting the secrets of ninjutsu.

The best Ninja movies are not Hollywood films, but films by Japanese directors of the 60s. The Shinobi no Mono cycle (8 films) Ninjutsu as an art as a whole is shown very well, although the films are black and white, if you haven’t seen it, I advise you to watch it!

[abrakadabre]

How can this be used in agriculture? Like a tooth of a conditional ancient harrow or pick-up? The shape of this contraption does not imply its agricultural use. This is clearly a throwing tool. Genesis most likely from the tip of a spear. All these attempts to stretch the origin of the peasantry, to put it mildly, are strange. Which speak rather of a weak understanding of the specifics of peasant labor and life of the pre-mechanized era.

[Mikhail3]

Can anyone show how they "harvest"? Writers ... Who just doesn’t write these miserable articles))