History of Nunchaku

Chinese Characters which are pronounced in Okinawan as Nunchakun

The Chinese mainly settled in the city of Kumemura, where they practiced with a nunchaku-like weapon they called shuang jie gun, which means "two member stick" or "double part baton".

This theory is supported by the fact that the Okinawans pronounce the Chinese Characters for shuang jie gun, as nunchakun.

In the same time period, Okinawa was divided into three kingdoms: Hokuzan, Chuzan, and Nanzan. These kingdoms lived in constant rivalry. In the year 1429, the king Sho Hashi founded the Sho dynasty, by uniting these three kingdoms.

To gain control over the island, the Japanese lord dictated a decree to confiscate all fighting weapons from the Okinawa’s natives. Nevertheless, Okinawa was a violent place with bloody internal conflicts, crime, piracy and many foreign invasions.

Since the Okinawa natives could not bare arms like swords and bows, they started studying hand-to-hand combat. This eventually evolved into what we now know as Karate-do.

They also started to train with the tools they wére allowed to use. These tools can still be found in Kobudo today: the tonfa, sai, bo, tama and or course the nunchaku.

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