Bokken

It is hard to determine precisely when the first bokken appeared due to secrecy in ancient martial arts training and loose record-keeping.

[1] If a steel katana is repeatedly used, it can easily become nicked and the edge flawed, potentially leading to a broken expensive sword.

A famous legend to this effect involves Miyamoto Musashi, a ronin known to fight fully armed foes with only one or two bokken.

According to the story, he agreed to a duel with Sasaki Kojiro, in the early morning on Ganryūjima, a tiny sandbar between Kyushu and Honshu.

[citation needed] At the beginning of the 20th century, bokken manufacture started more formally, mainly in Miyakonojō, a city on Kyushu Island.

The resulting bokken were frequently inscribed with the markings of the Byakkotai, a youth battalion that committed mass suicide nearby during the 1868 Battle of Aizu.

During the late Showa era in the 1970s and 1980s, these suicides were romanticized as a bold and heroic act, and bokken marked with their emblem sold well.

[5] The bokken is used as an inexpensive and relatively safe substitute for a real sword in several martial arts such as aikido, kendo, iaido, kenjutsu, and jodo.

[7][8] Bokken can be made to represent any style of weapon required such as nagamaki, nodachi, yari, naginata, kama, etc.