The Sai

[GojuBujin]

I read this in the Asian Journal of Martial Arts, i just wanted a little feed back on what everyone thought of the following...

I doubt that anyone really believes the old story of Okinawan weapons originating as peasant farm tools. Their real origins are more plausible and far more interesting, and the following story of the origin and development of the Okinnawan sai seems to best fit the published evidence so far available in English.
It is likely that the sai developed from a very old weapon, the trident spear, which may have originated in India or Indonesia, and which was distributed throughout East Asia in antiquity. The sai originated either when the three pronged head from a broken trident spear was grabbed and used defensively in combat, or when that spearhead was deliberately dismounted from its shaft and developed into a close-quarter defensive weapon. There is also enough circumstantial evidence to force us to seriously examine the possibility that the example of the European left hand dagger may have strongly influenced or inspired this latter development........

Michael C. Byrd
www.inigmasoft.com/goyukai

 

[ZenYuchia]

I have to agree with the author. I find it hard to imagine that the Sai was originaly a farming tool. I does not have a obvious agricultural utillity like the Tonfa, Nanchaku, or Kama. The explanation that the Sai came from the yari of spears seems much more plausable.

-Dave

 

[RyuShiKan]

Originally posted by ZenYuchia

I have to agree with the author. I find it hard to imagine that the Sai was originaly a farming tool. I does not have a obvious agricultural utillity like the Tonfa, Nanchaku, or Kama. The explanation that the Sai came from the yari of spears seems much more plausable.

-Dave

I agree. The only time I hear tales of the Sai as "farm tool" being used by farmers for planting rice or whatever is by either foreigners or people from mainland Japan..............I have never heard an Okinawa refer to it as a "farm tool".

Using a Sai as a rice planter:
If you actually look at they way rice is planted, and has been for centuries, you would quickly figure out how ridiculous it is to say the Sai was used for planting rice. First off rice paddies have about 6 inches of mud covered by about 6 inches of water in them. The ground is so soft you can push the rice seedling in with your finger..........which is the way it has been done for hundreds of years.

I think the best explanation is that the sai was some sort of spear tip since there nunte bo (bo with a manji sai on the tip of it) still being used in Okinawan Kobudo.

IF it was any kind of tool before it came to be a weapon I think it would have been part of a nunte bo and could have been used as some sort of harpoon like tool. But who knows.................

 

[Cthulhu]

I've heard of other 'descriptions' of the sai as a farming tool.

One is the use of the sai as a sort of pitchfork for rice or hay. Problem with that is I don't know of any Okinawan hay harvesting, and rice isn't harvested by pitchforks.

Another goofy description I've heard is the use of the sai as a sort of retaining pin for a wheel on a cart. Okinawans wouldn't waste a valued resource like metal on something as simple as a retaining pin when one of wood or bamboo would work just as well, and be more readily available.

I agree with everyone else who has posted so far...the sai is a weapon. It did not develop from some Okinawan farming implement, and I'll carry that further and claim that it was never used as a farm implement, wherever its origin. To me, the design indicates it was orginally designed as a weapon.

Cthulhu

 

[RyuShiKan]

A good place to visit if you ever get to Okinawa is Hokama Tetsuhiro's Okinawan Martial Arts Museum.

Chocker Block full of good information on weapons history as well as teachers and noted martial arts figures from Okinawa's past.

 

[RyuShiKan]

The end of a Nunte Bo (the bo portion is the normal length of a bo)