As the story goes, during the Japanese occupation of Okinawa in 1609, the Japanese banned all weapons and martial arts training on Okinawa. Due to this, the Okinawan farmers and fisherman had to improvise by using their farming and fishing tools as weapons and train in secrecy in case the Samurai attacked! The nunchaku was a rice flail. The sai was originally used as a pitchfork or used for planting crops. The kamas were for chopping down crops. The tonfa was grain mill handle. The Bo was a tenbin, a pole that rested upon one’s shoulders and held buckets or bags on each end.

It makes for a great story. Poor farmers training in secrecy and being innovative with their tools to develop deadly weapons and hand to hand combat. I’ve retold that story on numerous occasions myself. Parroting what I was told in movies, I perceived as documentaries, and friends who I thought knew more than I. Unfortunately, it’s not really true, or at least a large stretch of the actual truth.

First and foremost, there is no conclusive evidence for or against the above myth. However, there is a lot more evidence suggesting it’s highly unlikely. But like with many myths, there are grains of truth here. There was most likely some form of a weapons ban, and much of the martial arts being trained wasn’t likely out in the open.

Let’s begin with the weapons ban. Was there a ban? Why would a ban be instituted? And for all weapons? The myth states that all weapons were confiscated from all Okinawans. Note that the island was actually called Ryukyu at that time, but for clarity I will call it Okinawa. The myth states that they confiscated these weapons so that Okinawans wouldn’t fight back or cause trouble with the occupying Japanese. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. While I’ve found random sources stating that there was no weapons ban, there does seem to be some sort of transferring of weapons from the Okinawan people to the Japanese. But which weapons and to what degree?

Cut and thrust weapons and potential firearms – military weapons essentially – were confiscated for use for the military to help protect Okinawa. It seems as though the Okinawan people could even obtain weapons through permits. Nunchakus, tonfas and other blunt weapons were not likely affected by this ban. It’s also important to note that it was rare to obtain metals in Okinawa to make unnecessary weapons. The metals would have been more likely used for farming tools. Essentially, this suggests that the Okinawan people did not have to suddenly retool their farming utensils as weapons and train in secret.

More on weapons in a moment. But what about secretly training to be able to fight off the invading Japanese? Aside from the initial conquering of Okinawa, which was not likely much of a fight. History suggests that the Okinawan people didn’t have many issues with the Japanese. The Japanese mostly left the Okinawan people alone to govern themselves. Even if the commoners were training to defend against the invading army, their training and efforts wouldn’t last long against the extremely well trained, armed and armored Samurai. Additionally, the Japanese protected the Okinawans from any invading forces. It’s therefore unlikely that the Okinawans were training in secret to fight off the Japanese.

When it comes to whether or not the Okinawan commoners developed and practiced secret martial arts and revamped their tools into weapons, there is one very important element to understand. The fact that they were far too busy farming and fishing to put food on the table for their families to practice and innovate martial arts and weapons. I don’t know if you’ve ever been a farmer, but it’s exhausting work that takes up much of the day.

If we eliminate the secret martial arts training from commoners, let go of the strict weapons ban that would lead to creative uses of farming tools into weapons, then where and why did Karate and Kabudo (martial arts weapons training) come from? Is Okinawa not the hotbed of Karate? Yes, it is. And it was heavily developed on the island. But by who?

Before the Japanese invaded and took control of the island, the noble and upper class already had some of these weapons and martial arts knowledge from their travels to China. When Japan invaded, these upper classes had the means to escape to China. Which is most likely where they learned further martial arts training and some of the weapons we now know as Okinawan.

They would eventually return to the island with these new weapons and training. Many of these former upper classes, once overthrown by Japan, became commoners. It was this group of people that continued to develop their martial arts systems. And why in secrecy? Because they didn’t want other families to learn their martial arts systems. They were quite protective of their versions of martial arts. Even on a small island there were multiple styles of Karate. Much like today, I’m sure they all felt that their version was the best version. Hence why they kept their training secret, and only training family and occasional trusted outsiders.

As mentioned above, there is a grain of truth behind some of the development of the weapons. Weapons such as the Kama were a common farming tool, a scythe. The long stick was definitely widely available as a tenbin, but also any long tool. A broom or a rake for instance can quickly be used as a long stick if needed. The Eku (an oar) is another weapon that gets used in Okinawan weapon systems. It was literally an oar from a boat. Beyond this, however, it’s highly unlikely weapons such as the nunchukus or sai were originally developed from a farming tool. There are too many references of similar weapons in China that were around well before the 1609 invasion.

To me, this begs one last question. Why did this myth of Okinawan farmers secretly develop their weapons from farming implements? Most myths develop from a lack of knowledge of how things happened. Maybe a nugget of information here or there and the gaps left up to us to fill with our imagination. Other times it’s to create a mysticism around a subject to make it seem far greater than it really is. Other times it’s simply a misunderstanding. Think of the telephone game we played as kids. Whisper a story into a friend’s ear once. Then they turn around and try and repeat the story they thought they heard to the next person. So on and so forth until a simple story of picking apples turns into a story about fighting dragons.

I’m not sure if we’ll ever know for sure where some of these myths come from. Intentional or accidental. One can only make guesses at this point in time. We have a tendency to love a good story and attach to it over a mundane origin story. I think this is why this myth continues to hold traction to this day. Telling a story of a poor farmer developing a brilliant martial arts system and making use of farming tools as weapons to fight off their oppressors is a great story. Rich upper class bringing martial arts and weapons to Okinawa for hobby, fun or military use is not as romantic of a story. As Mark Twain once said, “never let truth get in the way of a good story.”