Are you a new kendo practitioner who’s looking for your very first wooden sword? Or maybe you’re a seasoned aikido martial artist who needs a new bokken to replace your old one? No matter how long you’ve been practicing martial arts, and whether it’s kendo, aikido or kenjutsu, we have an attractive range of wooden Japanese swords to suit your needs, with a variety of styles and materials to choose from.
The bokken first emerged in the Muromachi period as a substitute for training with live blades. Today, it is still used for the same purpose as it was employed for centuries ago. These safe and budget friendly alternatives to live samurai swords are appropriate for beginners and experts alike.
You can also use these wooden swords as accurate and harmless props in reenactments and stage plays. These beautiful pieces make excellent collector’s items as well, especially for young enthusiasts.
The bokken is a Japanese wooden sword used for training in several martial arts such as kenjutsu, aikido, and kendo. Bok(u) means “wood” while ken means “sword”. The bokken has a simple appearance and is made up of the following parts: a “blade”, a kissaki (tip), a tsuka (handle), and a tsuba (guard) that is sometimes slipped on.
Bokken were not used in Japan until the Muromachi period (1336-1573), when the focus of sword warfare shifted from battlefield campaigns to more individualized fighting. This type of one-on-one combat was a specialty of the ryu, the organized teaching of martial arts that emerged during the era. It is possible that some form of wooden sword existed earlier in Japanese history, but it was the development of the ryu system that prompted the creation of the bokken.
These wooden swords had many advantages over shinken (real Japanese swords) in training at the ryu dojo. One is obviously the safety they offered students. They were also a more economical substitute for expensive samurai swords.
The blade of a katana has a somewhat malleable mune (back) that acts as a shock absorber and a hard, razor sharp ha (cutting edge). Though the katana was a deadly weapon, it was not indestructible. If the brittle ha came into rough contact with another hard object, the sword could be damaged easily. It was not uncommon for katana to get chipped or even break in combat. Practice swords are often subjected to a considerable amount of punishment; hence, in order to avoid the risk of ruining a pricey blade, bokken were used for training instead.
By the mid 16th century, there were more than 900 ryu that were dedicated to kenjutsu (“the art of the sword”), with the bokken as the primary training weapon in most. As kenjutsu evolved, so did the use of the wooden sword. It was not long before some master swordsmen started showing up at duels with nothing but a bokken in hand, facing opponents who wielded live blades. However, it should not be assumed that the wooden sword completely replaced the shinken.
Today, the most popular wooden swords come from Japan. These bokken are made of Japanese white or red oak, the compressed grain of which results in a more durable weapon with a smoother finish and less twisting. Some feel that white oak is better than red oak since it is sturdier and does not warp as much. Other materials used in making modern bokken are ash wood, hardwood, bamboo, foam, and polypropylene.
