History and Application of the Nunchaku

Like many traditional Okinawan weapons, the origin of the nunchaku is surrounded by a thick layer of myth. Conventional wisdom has the nunchaku being derived from an agricultural tool used to beat rice or beans, separating the edible part from the bran or husk. I've heard attempts to refute this by suggesting that the nunchaku, in the form used as a weapon, would be useless for this sort of task. The farmer would be forced to work hunched over or on his knees and the tool would have a tendency to bounce back, striking the user. This is all probably true but it's a shallow analysis of the situation. Farmers throughout the world use a tool called a "threshing flail" which bears a strong resemblance to the nunchaku. It's made of two pieces of wood, one approximately four feet long, the other one or two feet, attached with a short rope or chain. This design allows the user to stand upright and keeps the short, pounding section a safe distance away. A case could be made that the modern nunchaku wasn't used for threshing but was influenced by the actual farm implement's design.

While many Okinawan weapons may have had multiple uses and may have been influenced by the design of farming tools, in most cases the belief that Okinawan kobudo was developed by farmers who turned their work tools into weapons has no historical basis. In the case of the nunchaku we can say with certainty that the earliest versions were reported in China centuries before they appeared in Okinawa. These proto-nunchaku were derived from an early horse's bridle made of two pieces of wood connected with straw or horse hair.

In shape the nunchaku is made of two shafts approximately the length of the user's forearm. Traditional versions were made from hardwoods such as oak, loquat or pasania. The wood would have been submerged in mud for several years to harden. The wood would then have been sanded and rubbed with oil for staining and preservation before being joined with a horsehair rope.¹. Modern nunchaku can be made from any suitable material including wood, plastic, fiberglass or, for training weapons, rubber around a solid core. The horsehair rope is replaced with a nylon cord or metal chain on ball bearing joints. The World Nunchaku Association, a sporting group based in the Netherlands, uses a version made from black and yellow Styrofoam. The Association's version differs from most "training chucks" by being properly balanced.

The name of the weapon is problematic. The original Chinese was shuang jie gun or "double part stick". The name of the martial arts weapon as its known in modern karate is the translation of "double part stick" into hogun²: nun cha kun. In Japanese, the word doesn't even exist. It's spelling is usually done in katakana, the phonetic characters used for words borrowed from other languages. When written in kanji, it's done based on the translation of the original Chinese name into Japanese, so setsu kon. (For completeness, I've also included the spelling in hiragana, the phonetic alphabet used for native words.)

"double part stick" (kanji)	nu - n - cha - ku (katakana)	nu - n - cha - ku (hiragana)

In modern martial arts practice, the nunchaku is considered a difficult weapon. It lacks the length advantage of a bo or eku, the metallic hardness of the sai or the blade of the kama. In use, it's behavior can be unpredictable as it bounces off struck objects even to the point of injuring the user. (This can be minimized by striking with the end of the shafts rather than the center parts.) Much of its modern popularity can be attributed to the Bruce Lee movies of the 1970's and the Ninja Turtles craze of the 1980's.

That doesn't, however, mean that the nunchaku isn't an practical weapon, properly used. In practical use by an experienced user, it's application is very conservative. Most techniques are kept short and controlled; whipping techniques, were one end is released and the weapon is swung by the other, are used sparingly. Despite their unpredictability, whipping techniques have the advantage of coming from unpredictable angles. The most common applications involve using the hard wood to grip and lock an opponents arms or throat. The spinning and flipping techniques seen in martial arts movies are purely for show. No rational person would flip the weapon between their legs or behind their neck while an opponent was trying to kill them. (Practioners of styles that emphasize these flashier movements claim that they act as a distraction to an opponent who can find it difficult to follow the rapid motions.)

In many ways the nunchaku is an afterthought in Okinawan kobudo. No traditional kata survived to the present³ and most practice methods were transmitted by word of mouth suggesting that the weapon's use never reached the same level of sophistication as the bo or the sai.