What type of weapons do Shotokan karate practitioners use ?

I am actually very curious cause i believe weapons can actually help to perfect ones own ability to fight. And or to strive to be at peace.|||A weapon will NOT help your ability to fight! ANY weapon in its truest form is an extension of the body rather than part of it. A weapon will however, during practice will give you more of an awareness of your body and its mechanics. If you want to learn weapons, ask your Sensei or a reputable teacher what may suit YOUR body style and abilities.|||KOBUDO way of weapon arts is a seperate and distinct martial art which many advanced martial artists get into and the grading and testing process is much the same.It will depend on the instructors knowledge whether you learn a weapon no matter what method you study and this should be seperate and apart from any grading reqirements of your style.


Learning weapons is an excellent way to project fighting spirit and overlaps into empty hand sparring in that sense.|||Traditional Shotokan doesn%26#039;t use weapons, only the body. It can be combined with other martial arts that utilize weapons though.|||For the most part shotokan uses the body and mind as the weapon. Some schools do teach a few of the weapon styles of Okinawa, such as bo, tonfa, and sai.|||The traditional weapons of Okinawan karate (and therefore Shotokan karate) were originally farm tools. All weapons were made illegal.


bo


nunchaku


tonfa


boat oar


kama (with wooden blades)|||i was in shotokan for a long while have a black belt in it. i used sais, bo staff thigns of that nature for weapons.|||They only use there fingertips.. the key to these weapons is the concentrated force at which they use at a stratigically placed point that can kill you.|||Bo (long staff)





Sai





Nunchaku





These are the traditional weaponry of Shotokan Karate.|||Traditional Shotokan used the Bo and Sai, as these were the weapons Funakoshi Taught! Here is a picture of master Funakoshi giving kobudo instruction. http://www.flickr.com/photos/71394790@N0...


He only taught his highest level students weapons, so few learned them. Those who did, either left Shotokan for Motobu, to develop their own style, or for mainland Japanese martial styles, (Kendo, etc) or (most likely) just dropped them from the Shotokan curriculum so it could focus on %26quot;empty hand%26quot; techniques.


Master Funakoshi though, who didn%26#039;t consider the ideas of styles of karate, but considered Karate (Okinawan and Japanese) to be one style, taught what karate he knew, like all the masters at the time. This may not have had weapons kata, but it certainly had bo and sai techniques and kumite.