Bokken
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A Bokken (木剣, bo, "wood", and ken, "sword") is a wooden Japanese sword (or sabre), usually the size and shape of a katana (though wakisashi and tanto-sized are available). They are also known as bokutō (木刀, "wooden sword").
Bokken is a training sword, used as a relatively safe and inexpensive substitute for a real blade in several martial arts. They are used in the early stages of iaido when a practitioner has not yet reached the level where use of a iaito would be safe. Kenjutsu makes heavy use of them in various drills, and aikido, while being primarily an empty-handed art, also features bokken training.
They are used for the practice of kendo; to learn to make proper strokes and get accustomed to the curvature of the blade, as well as to practise the kata (forms). More than a few kata take advantage of the curvature of the blade and the presence of the tsuba to block the opponent's sword. This is not possible with the straight "blade" of the shinai.
A suburito is a bokken designed for suburi. Suburi, literally "bare cutting," are solo cutting exercises. Suburito are thicker and heavier than normal bokken. One wielding a suburito has to develop both good technique and strong muscles to wield one. Their weight does, however, tend to make them poorly balanced; consequently, they are not used for paired practice.
Historically, bokken are as old as Japanese blades, and were used for the training of warriors. They are heavier than an actual blade, which emphasises the delicacy of the real blades. Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary kenjutsu master, was infamous for fighting fully armed foes with only one or two bokken. He defeated several master swordsman in this way, including Sasaki Kojiro. Sasaki was armed with a deadly Nodachi great sword, but Musashi slew him with a bokken made from an oar.
In fiction
The suburito has been popularised in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash as the "redneck katana". It is described as "a one-meter-long piece of heavy rebar with tape wrapped around one end to make a handle. The rebar approximates a katana, but it is very much heavier."
External links
- A discussion of different woods with regard to bokken design, focusing particularly on durability (http://www.aikiweb.com/weapons/goedkoop1.html)
- Information about making or selecting a Bokken (http://www.uoguelph.ca/~kataylor/bokuto.htm)ca:Bokken
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