Tactical black. Extra-scary.
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Well, if you meet up with a ninja nun wielding nun-chucks, there is a pretty good chance that you will be hit by someā¦
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Whereās the sport in that?
There you go:
Not dying sounds fun to me!
The use of a threshing flail as a weapon is as old as civilization itself: the mechanical advantage of the flail in smacking grain was immediately recognized as a mechanical advantage for smacking people. Its antiquity is clear in that it is one of the symbols of office of the Pharaoh.
On nunchaku, however, the story is a little less clear. Most authorities Iāve spoken to do not believe that it is a threshing flail: for one, itās too small. A good threshing flail would have a long handle with a smaller head for maximum efficiency. This also reduces the chance of āblowbackā, which as demonstrated by a disappointingly small number of videos in this thread, is a major concern when using nunchucks.
In truth, beyond the bo, jo and sai, thereās considerably debate about the authenticity of any of the other weapons associated with Okinawan karate: few kata exist that are more than a hundred or so years old, and no written documentation. My senseiās theory is that bored Samurai, sidelined by the Meiji Restoration, took to fiddling with peasant tools to find ways to āweaponizeā them, and also to expand the curricula of the classes they taught to replace their previous government income.
Unmentioned above, but suggested to me by a number of sources, is the idea that the nunchaku were a hand-bridle. The cable, roughly a hands-width, would be placed in the horses mouth, then the handles pulled together below the jaw in one hand. The holder then directs the horse around, and if resisted, and apply pressure by squeezing the handles together. The weapon nunchaku are used in a similar fashion (around a hand or wrist) to also force compliance.
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It would still be dumb if you made it at home.
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Thanks for the commentary :-] my knowledge of Japanese history is pretty much soley informed by anime with the occasional Wikipedia article (Iāve done a lot of reading on the three imperial regalia, and very specific objects like magatama and torii)
My education (US, Western WA) never focused on Japan at all. Even during WWII units all they taught was the phenomenon of emperor worship (Which Iām pretty sure is a construction of Protestant biases), and the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII.
Other than that my formal education regarding Asia in any way shape or form is restricted to Chinaās boxer revolution, and my high school comparative religion unit on hinduism and Buddhism
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That ties up pretty neatly with what my teachers told me.
Still wouldnāt rule out the threshing flail theory, though. In my experience (if that is the right word here) there is a ādesignā process of several phases. First you try using the old thing for something else. That only works sort-of, so you start modifying and adapting the thing. After a while this gives you a working model. Eventually you use this working model as a design template to build a new thing.
That being said, the hand-bridle theory makes perfect sense, but there is no telling whether they might have come from threshing flails or whether this is yet another case of the same idea cropping up in several places independently.
Bottom line: you can turn anything into a weapon. You work with what youāve got, i.e. the materials and technology you can get your hands on. The designs that work best will prevail until they are superseded by newer, better designs.
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Okay then: General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Boom!
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Now weāre talkin!
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