Tetsubo

Statue of an oni armed with a tetsubo.

The tetsubo (鉄棒, iron staff) is an iron staff used in feudal Japan as a weapon. It was constructed out of heavy oak and covered with iron in the middles and iron studs at the end. As one can see from the description, the Tetsubo is generally not a light weapon.

The weapon was very heavy and many soldiers could not carry them and very few did. It was more of a mythical weapon. Some have said it was used by the great Japanese demons "Oni" since the Oni were in possession of extremely great strength, enough to carry these mammoth weapons and so were feared by many superstitious people.

When used by those few soldiers strong enough to carry it, the purpose of the tetsubo was to smash enemies' armour and break their warhorses' legs. The art of using this cumbersome weapon, tetsubo-jutsu, is a mastery of balance and strength, as it requires great skill to recover from a miss with the almighty club, which could leave an untrained warrior well open to attack. It was a favorite of the sohei and the yamabushi, as it could be used to defeat an opponent without killing them, which their vows forbid them from doing.

Tetsubo

See also