chain weapon

Various chain weapons were used in feudal Japan. Recognised fighting arts with such weapons include gekigan-jutsu (using a ball and chain), chigiriki-jutsu (using a ball and chain on a short stick), and kusarigama-jutsu (employing a chain-ball-sickle weapon). Ninja were expert at handling kusarigama, the composite sickle and chain with a ball being small enough to be easily concealed, and which was used to haul an enemy close enough to be dispatched by a thrust or slash of the razor-sharp kama. The shoge was a ring with a sickle-like knife on a chain that could be used to pierce armor, grapple, and to entangle the legs of man and horse. The chigiriki was a staff with a weighted chain on the end. The manriki-gusari was a double weighted chain. The nunchaku was a short chain with two short wooden sticks on the ends, although it was principally a farming tool rather than a weapon, at least until much later.

• Illustration — Asian chain whip • Illustration — Japanese sickle weapon with a chain and iron weight attached "kusarigama" • Illustration — Russian flails, 18th century • Illustration — Antique Japanese chain weapon "manriki" • Illustration — Japanese tetsu chigiriki, a hollow iron cane that has an iron weight attached to a chain hidden inside • Illustration — Nunchaku (nunchuck) • Illustration — Meteor hammer

It is also recorded that chain weapon is classified as a cold weapon.