Cow and Boy Classics by Mark Leiknes for July 17, 2013
July 16, 2013
July 18, 2013
Transcript:
"Check out what my dad brought me back from his trip to Japan." flip "It's called a tessen. Dad says samurai used these war fans as weapons in combat. Cool, huh?" "But at closer look, this fan's kinda cheap and girly. Like he might have picked it up at the airport on the way home and then assigned some story to it so I would think it's cooler than it really is." "I hate my dad."
Tessen (鉄扇?) were folding fans with outer spokes made of heavy plates of iron which were designed to look like normal, harmless folding fans or solid clubs shaped to look like a closed fan. Samurai could take these to places where swords or other overt weapons were not allowed, and some swordsmanship schools included training in the use of the tessen as a weapon. The tessen was also used for fending off arrows and darts, as a throwing weapon, and as an aid in swimming.3