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| Tonfa Art by TL Jeffcoat |
I’ve
covered several weapons from Japan that were used by Samurai
and Ninja,
but the Tonfa was not very common among either. Never the less, it was a common
weapon among the common people of Japan during the Shogunate centuries when
civilians were not allowed to carry weapons. Sometime around the 1100’s, the
Tonfa came into existence in Okinawa. There is a lot of discussion on whether
this weapon was first invented in Japan or China, but until that is ever
decided, the Tonfa is often associated with Japanese style martial arts schools,
so I myself think of it as a Japanese weapon. The use of the Tonfa as a
millstone handle did originate in Southeast Asia to grind wheat, but was probably
not considered a weapon early on.
The
basics of the Tonfa is pretty easy to learn, and is so versatile and effective that many law
enforcement agencies in the United States trained their officers to take
assailants down with a Tonfa. I used to hear a lot of people call them nightsticks
because of their black aluminum materials.
