| Uses: The staff is employed with
a two-handed gripping action and form is its main training method.
Techniques include striking, thrusting, blocking, parrying, deflecting,
sweeping, and holding. By quick changes in the grip, the length of the
weapon can be varied for long-range or close-quarter combat. The art of
using the staff was developed from Japanese spear and lance techniques.
The common weapon learned in most schools of martial arts in feudal
Japan, it became popular in Okinawa, where edged and metal weapons were
outlawed by the ruling Shimazu clan. |
