Shuriken

Origin

The shuriken is an auxiliary throwing weapon used by the warrior, the bushi, and the shinobi, the ninja, around the time of Japan's Warring States period (1467 to 1615). Its exact origin is unclear, but the rod- and needle-shaped bo-shuriken is thought to have appeared before the star-shaped shaken. The art of throwing, shurikenjutsu, was handed down in several martial schools, the ryuha, as an adjunct to swordsmanship, and in some cases, such as the Katori Shinto-ryu, instruction in the shuriken was included within an old sword school. It is thought to have begun with the throwing of everyday pieces of iron such as ordinary nails, hairpins, and small knives, and to have developed gradually into dedicated forms refined for throwing.

Features

• The shaken, the star form, a flat multi-pointed star about 10 to 15 cm across
• The bo-shuriken, the rod or needle form, about 15 to 25 cm long
• An auxiliary weapon for distraction and deterrence, not a main arm
• Carried hidden in the clothing or the sash, several at a time
• Sometimes coated with poison or filth to cause a wound to fester
• Made of iron or steel

Stories

The use of the shuriken lay less in killing outright than in shaking up the situation. It was thrown at undefended spots such as the enemy's eyes or hands to scatter his attention or make him flinch, and in that opening one drew the sword or closed the distance. In flight it was thrown at a pursuer to slow him and buy time. The bo-shuriken demanded a school-specific throwing method so that the point struck true according to the distance and the number of rotations, while several shaken could be thrown in quick succession. Coated with poison or filth, even a small wound could be made to fester, increasing the effect.

Weakness

The shuriken has very low lethality and cannot be a main weapon that subdues an enemy on its own. Small and light, it cannot pierce armor, and considerable training is needed for it to strike true, so accuracy is hard to guarantee. Its effective range is only about 5 to 10 m, so it is helpless against a distant enemy, and the number one can carry at once is limited, so it cannot sustain a long fight. In the end it was an auxiliary tool that, alone, could never be the decisive blow, only a means to create a moment's opening.

Cultural Significance

The shuriken is widely known as a weapon symbolic of the culture of Japan's shinobi, the ninja, and of the warrior. As the art of throwing was handed down in several schools as an offshoot of swordsmanship, it became deeply bound up with the image of the ninja, who prized stealth and quick wits. The star-shaped shaken in particular spread worldwide as the ninja's throwing star through 20th-century films and comics and became the emblem that the word ninja calls to mind. This popular image, however, greatly inflates its real role: as the name, a blade hidden in the hand, tells, it was originally a concealed auxiliary weapon used unseen in a single instant.

In Popular Culture

The shuriken is an emblematic weapon appearing in nearly every work about ninja. It is familiar as the thrown star in ninja comics and animation such as the shuriken and fuma shuriken of Naruto, and in countless ninja films and games, drawn as the ninja character's basic ranged weapon. In fiction, though, it tends to be exaggerated into a powerful weapon that kills an enemy outright with a single throw, far from the reality of low lethality and a true purpose of distraction. Because the star-shaped shaken is so emphasized, the rod-shaped bo-shuriken, which was likely more common in practice, is relatively little known.

Trivia

• The name shuriken means a blade hidden in the hand, capturing exactly its original nature as a concealed auxiliary weapon carried unseen and thrown in a single instant.
• The shuriken divides into the rod- and needle-shaped bo-shuriken and the flat star-shaped shaken, of which the rod form is thought to be older, and the art of throwing, shurikenjutsu, was handed down as an auxiliary skill within several sword schools.
• Contrary to the pop-culture image of the ninja's deadly throwing star, the real shuriken had low lethality and was used mainly to scatter an enemy's attention by aiming at the eyes and hands or to delay pursuit in flight, and was sometimes coated with poison or filth to make a wound fester.