Kunai

For "kunai grass", see Imperata cylindrica.

A kunai (苦無, kunai) is a Japanese tool possibly derived from the masonry trowel. Two variations are the short kunai (少苦無, shō-kunai) and the big kunai (大苦無, dai-kunai). It is a good example of a very basic tool which, in the hands of a martial arts expert, could be used as a multi-functional weapon. It is commonly associated with the ninja, who used it to gouge holes in walls.

Design

The shuriken was conventionally wrought in ranges from 20 cm to 60 cm, with the average at 40 cm. The kunai was used by common folk as multi-purpose gardening tools and by workers of stone and masonry. The kunai is not a knife, but something more akin to a crowbar. The blade was soft iron and unsharpened because the edges were used to smash plaster and wood, to dig holes and to pry. Normally only the tip would have been sharpened. The uses to which a kunai was put would have destroyed any heat-treated and sharpened tool like a knife.

Kunai normally had a leaf-shaped blade and a handle with a ring on the pommel for attaching a rope. This would allow the kunai's handle to be wrapped to act as a grip, or when used as a weapon; to be strapped to a stick as an expedient spear, to be tied to the body for concealment, or to use as an anchor or piton. Contrary to popular belief, they were not designed to be used primarily as throwing weapons, though they can be thrown and cause damage. Instead, they are a thrusting and stabbing implement.

Usage as a weapon

Many ninja developed weapons that were merely adapted farming tools, not unlike those used by Shaolin monks in China. Since kunai were cheaply produced farming tools of a decent size and weight, and could be easily sharpened, they were readily available to be converted into simple weapons.

As with the shuriken and ninjutsu, the exaggeration persistent in ninja myths played a large role in creating the current pop culture image of kunai. In the mythology of ninja, the kunai is commonly portrayed to be a Japanese knife that is used for throwing as well as stabbing.

As a weapon it is larger and heavier than a shuriken, and with the grip could also be used in hand to hand combat more readily than a shuriken.

In addition, it could be used for climbing, as either a kind of grappling hook, or a piton.

There are several varieties of kunai, including of short kunai, long kunai, narrow bladed types, saw-toothed types, and wide bladed types. In some cases, the kunai and the shikoro, a wide bladed saw with a dagger-type handle, are hard if not impossible to distinguish. The Kunai blade can be used to gouge holes in a wall to take out doorknobs.

In popular culture

A highly stylized kunai, as often portrayed in fiction

The kunai is often portrayed in manga/anime and video games as a common weapon (either primary or backup).

• Sometimes, characters fight with eight kunai at once, four in each hand (like Kasuga in Sengoku Basara 2 or Larxene in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories).
• The character Scorpion from Mortal Kombat and the player characters in most of the Tenchu video game series use kunai attached to a rope, respectively for attack and movement (climbing).
• In the Naruto franchise, kunai are often used as close and long range weapons by ninja and are sometimes thrown with a tag "火" or "爆発", symbolizing fire or explosion. Called an "Exploding Tag" in the series ("Paper Bomb" in the English dub), the kunai explodes some time after impact with the tag attached to the ring of the kunai via thread, or wrapped around the handle. Exploding kunai are also used by Ayane in the video game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
• In the anime/manga series Fullmetal Alchemist, the Xingese princess May Chang uses kunai to set up transmutation circles using Alkahestry, a foreign variant of the show's interpretation of Alchemy, specifically in remote transmutations.
• In the video game Street Fighter III Ibuki, a teenage ninja, is the only kunai user in the series until Super Street Fighter IV, with the inclusion of Guy from Final Fight. In 2009 her inclusion in Super Street Fighter IV was teased with screenshot of another fighter blocking a kunai thrown by an unknown attacker and followed the Fei Long's ending scene where Seth, the final boss, is killed from behind by a kunai.
• The Spy, a class from Team Fortress 2 has a stylized kunai weapon called the Conniver's Kunai, which replaces the Spy's butterfly knife. He also uses it more like a traditional kunai, using it for close range combat instead of throwing.
• In Monday Night Combat, a kunai is the weapon of choice for the Assassin class.
• In the video game Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, the mechanical ninja Sasuke uses kunai as throwing weapons.
• The video game Persona 4 features a character called Yosuke Hanamura, whose main choice of weapons are kunai.
• In the 1987 Taito game, The Ninja Warriors. The male and female protagonists (Ninja and Kunoichi) use Kunai daggers as primary melee weapons. In the 1994 re-make for the Super Nintendo known as The Ninja Warriors Again Kunoichi uses Kunai daggers.

See also

• Shuriken

Sources

• Hatsumi, Masaaki. (1988). Grandmaster of the Togakure Ryū school of Ninjutsu. New York: McGraw-Hill. 10-ISBN 0-809-24629-5
• Mol, Serge. (2003). Classical Weaponry of Japan: Special Weapons and Tactics of the Martial Arts. Tokyo: Kodansha. 10-ISBN 4-770-02941-1
• Turnbull, Stephen (2003), Ninja AD 1460-1650, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1841765259