This device is based from a Samurai police tool called Metsubushi. Samurai carried small boxes and filled them with ground up peppers or dust. The box had an opening for blowing into and a tube on the other end for aiming the spray. It was specifically used to blind an enemy either to subdue or kill. This device still exists today and is carried by a lot of women, known as pepper spray.
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| The Black Egg Art by TL Jeffcoat |
The Ninja adopted this and then took it to a further extreme. Ninja were not wealthy, so designing a box to do this specific task was beyond what most could afford to buy or had time to carve. The ever improvising Ninja turned to what was readily available, the bird egg. After emptying the egg carefully, they would then fill the egg with whatever they had at their disposal. In many cases this was a ground pepper sauce, like the Samurai used, but it also wasn’t uncommon for many Ninja to grind glass. The key to keeping the fragile eggs from shattering in their pockets was to use a flame to cook the outer edge of the egg to harden some of the interior and then empty the yolk and any uncooked white through a hole on one end. This made the egg more flexible, so that even if the thin shell cracked, it wouldn’t leak as long as the interior wasn’t broken.
