The Realm of the Dark Blade

Ohayou gozaimasu! Welcome to the next installment of my series on traditional Ninja weapon designs, featuring the work of Matthew Wright of Ninedirections.com.

I thought I’d finish off the week with a little bit about one of my favorite traditional ninja weapons, the Tekko-Kagi (aka the Tekagi or “hand claw”). Tekko-Kagi were multi purpose tools traditionally used by by Japanese ninjas for defense and offense against sword wielding opponents. The tekko-kagi design was very well suited for the purpose. The large heavy claws made it easier to deflect, block or trap swords, and in a pinch could quickly be used for offensive attacks as well.

Tekko-Kagi

Tekko-Kagi are one of my favorite ninja weapon designs because, as I mentioned in a previous post, it is one of the few hand claws I have come across that was designed to use both the hand and wrist muscles, in addition to the wearers fingers, (unlike many weapons from previous posts) to control the weapon. And as we can see from Matthews reproduction, you would certainly need all that strength to use it effectively.

I mentioned in my previous Ninja weapon series how traditional Japanese ninjas may not necessarily have had the resources to forge the high quality steels that the Samurai used, and would have been forced to use cheaper metals, like iron or cheap steels. In order to compensate for this, they would have made much bigger, thicker tools. Matthew has take great pains to remain as true to tradition as possible and his reproductions do capture this design philosophy very accurately.

Tekkokagi - Top

However, as you can see from the pic, the hand grip is really very long, and I personally think the design could  have done with some major trimming in the grip area. My personal experience has been that weapons like these are much easier to use when you can wrap your entire hand around the grip. However Matthew can be commissioned to custom design the weapon to any specification you might require, so for the most part, it is a non issue

In stock form however, the thick steel had grips, thick claws, a very solid wrist hoop all combine to make each claw a whopping 5lbs each. Heavy, as hand claws go, yes. But also very, very strong, and this would have been a requirement for blocking an incoming sword strike with one of these, back in the old days. I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly be willing to sacrifice a little lightness in order to be able to use my Tekagi as a shield against multiple sword strikes.

Tekkokagi - Front

Overall, a great design, one of my favorites. It isn’t pretty, or flashy or covered in mirror polished gleaming stainless steel, but it is exactly the kind of weapon design I love. Dark, strong, with a wicked set of fully functional claws that quite simply mean business. A definite must-have if you are into accurate reproductions of traditional Ninja gear…

Tekko-Kagi – Matthew Wright – [Nine Directions]

The Ultimate Weapon - The Spoon

Hey. Don’t laugh. A spoon can be lethal. No really. You could cut someones heart out with a spoon… No, seriously… you could… <cough>..

Ok… I admit it. That was weak. Truth be told It’s been a long day, and I’ve not got enough juice to put together a decent post. So I’m cheating. And hoping by replacing a real post with a humorous one, you all will forget that there are supposed to be lots of long, sharp and pointy bits on the weapons I’m supposed to be posting about.

Come see me on Friday. I’ll have something better, I promise… no, really… I’m sorry… What can is say? Oh wait…

SPOOOOOOOOONN!!!!!!!!

Ok. I ran across a rather unusual set of weapons a while back. Weapons designed by an enigmatic Italian designer by the name of Antonio Riello. Weapons specifically for “Ladies”. Or so the site claims. Weapons designed to look like… Ladies fashion accessories.

*shiver*

Now in all fairness, they do appear to be fully functioning weapons. It’s just that… Well… See for yourself:

Gea

Say Hello to “Gea”. Yep. That’s her name. This spiked,  leopard spotted mace with gold chain and spiked pommel, is called “Gea”. Yeeeaaaah… So… Ok. Now I will admit to being a little conflicted about Gea. On the one hand, I don’t entirely think she looks half bad. But on the other hand, it looks like she was made on a TV show that was some horrific hybrid of “Pimp My Ride” and “Lord of War”.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would be the first to admit that aesthetics are part of the charm of weapons. I constantly proclaim my love of black weapons, and specific shapes, etc.. But this, these weapons, they seem a tad… unnatural. And this is not the worst of it. As if Gea weren’t enough all by her lonesome, Gea has friends:

Ida

Yeah… Pink. A pink Morning star, and a pink chain mace, called Ida, and Zoe respectively. Ugh.

*shudder*

Zoe

Now I’d ask that any ladies among my readership forgive my possibly sexist opinion, but I think these two cross the line somewhere/somehow. They fill me with the same kind of horror that AK-74’s decorated with “Hello Kitty” motifs do. (And, as you’ll see on his site, the venerable AK, among many others, is not immune to desecration by this guy either. Oh! The humanity!!) They almost seem like abominations of some kind. I just can’t help it.

When I look at Ida and Zoe, I can’t help but think they might look better in black. Or, perhaps stained in a deep blood red. I’ll leave it to your imaginations to figure out where I’d get the blood… err… red dye from.

Gea, Ida and Zoe – [Ladies Weapons]