The number of weapon styles available to martial artists is staggering, from close-range, short melee weapons such as the Chinese sai or Japanese tanto to the enormous polearms, spears and naginata trained in traditional schools. A variety of martial arts schools teach some of the same weapons, such as the popular bo, but the philosophy and method of each weapon style differs from school to school.
Katana
Easily one of the most considerable swords ever designed, the nihonto, or Japanese katana, has a significant lineage in ancient Japanese culture. Modern martial arts that use katana styles are aikido, iaido, kenjutsu and bujinkan budo taijutsu, each of which offers a different interpretation of the function and use of the Japanese sword. Emerging around the 12th century and gathering prominence during the Tokugawa Shogunate, the katana was the weapon of choice for the samurai, and the individual styles and methods differed from dojo to dojo as skilled swordsmen attempted to make a living with martial art pupils during peacetime. Students of kenjutsu and iaido who first begin to learn the katana start with the primary sword cuts and blocks using a bokken, or wooden sword, traditionally carved of Japanese white oak.
Bo Staff
One of the five weapons systemized by the early Okinawan martial artists, the bo staff is a 6-foot staff often made of rattan or bamboo. Easily the most popular and transmigratory of weapons, the bo staff and its variations exist in martial arts schools and traditions as diverse as aikido, tae kwon do and shaolin kung fu. An extremely versatile weapon, the bo staff can be both an offensive and a defensive weapon, offering its wielder a longer attack distance than a traditional sword or dagger. Along with a list of other weapons in the traditional Japanese bugei, or warrior arts, bojutsu was equally available to samurai, priests and peasants.
Monk Spade
One of the advanced pole weapons taught to students of kung fu, the monk spade, or fangbian chan, is an effective long-range slashing weapon. Designed by the poet-priest Laozi and originally carried by daoist priests in ancient China, the monk spade is a staff with the head of a bladed shovel roughly 2 feet in length. The bladed edge of the monk spade is sharp at the tip and curved along the edges, so it is safe for parrying or deflecting incoming steel weapons. While the original fangbian chan form, or weapon sequence, contained 81 movements, various northern and southern kung fu and wushu schools have styles of their own based on other interpretations of the weapon. The monk spade is effective at both thrust and cutting attacks and can quickly alternate from a stabbing attack to a bludgeoning attack, in which the wielder uses the dulled flat of the blade as a club.
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